Richard Schechner and Marvin Carlsen on the origins of ritual performances and artificial intelligence

One of the important events of the  festival was the holding of the seminar section with Narges Yazdi as manager  and the well-known figures of world theater participated in seminar such as Richard Schechner and Marvin Carlsen, prominent theorists and researchers of world theater.

Richard Schechner presented his views on the origin of theater, different cultures and rituals, as well as the impact of technology on ritual and tradition: I have participated in ritual and religious ceremonies of different cultures and countries and examining them has always been very attractive to me.

He also explained about the impact of digital technology on religion and tradition: Digital technology will inevitably affect ritual and tradition, just as many years ago with the advent of writing, oral traditions that were once everything only transmitted orally, became written and gained more power. But digital technology does not replace what existed before, but rather they are placed together. Our main challenge will be with artificial intelligence.

 

Marvin Carlsen presented a research on the study of Iranian Ta'ziyeh and English cycle dramas.

He explained: Almost every English historian who has studied ta'ziyeh performances in Iran has compared them with medieval English cycle dramas. Not only because of their close links with religious ceremonies, but also because of the similarity of their basic structure, a series of short plays with a variable number and theme that came together in a festival format.