The new generation thinks more intelligently about theater

Manouchehr Akbarlou is a playwright, theater director and researcher. This artist started his theater career in the 70s and acted in plays. After that, he continued to work as a playwright and director.

The play "Princess Shampia" written by Akbarlou is one of his works, which will be performed on stage with Ehsan Majidi as director from February 2 at the center for intellectual development of children and adolescents ( Kanoon).

In the play "Princess Champia" you deal with the various concerns of children and teenagers today. Is dealing with these issues one of the needs of producing plays for children and teenagers?

- I always believe that if we use ancient legends to write a play, we should still pay attention to the themes that children and teenagers need today. Because the production of dramas for this age group is very little with regard to moral content or health education. It takes months of hard work to produce a theater, and on the other hand, families take time to watch it, so a theme that is one of the concerns of today's generation should be narrated.  As a result, in the last few years, after my interactions with families and children, I write down their concerns and what they think about in a list form to use in my plays, and this is my advice to all playwrights.

And tell us about the concerns that the audience observes in " Princess Shampia".

First of all, I must emphasize that the play must be consistent. A show that is pre-dialogue and wants to present different messages to the audience in one hour will basically not be a successful show, but it can also have references to other issues in the main narrative. The desire for independence is one of the issues that the young generation is dealing with today. Today, the desire for independence is seen more in girls due to various social reasons, and I addressed it in some of my recent works, including the play "Magic Fishbone" and "Princess Shampia".

Another topic that I have been interested is the impact of the media on the lives of family members.

Has the play been published as a book?

Yes, this show was supposed to be performed by Ehsan Majidi 2 years ago, but it was delayed due to pandemic. But the play is published by Amareh Publishing House under the name "The Story of a Girl Who Maybe Was a Princess".

What research are you currently doing?

Educational theater festival is held in Hormozgan province, which has been held for 2 times nationally and nationwide on February. This festival is held with the aim of transferring textbooks to students in the form of theater. But we do not have a specific book about this topic. So, I have written the book "6 steps with Educational theater" as the first work on the necessity of education in this field.