A Report About Increasing of Nongovernmental Theatre Halls/Does Tehran Be Paris?
Now, there are around 10 active nongovernmental theatre halls beside governmental and half-governmental ones in Tehran which are welcomed by artists. And audiences especially among youth that is the reason for more intention to build such halls.
Iran Theater- theatre halls like Aav, Mashayekhi, Senoghteh, Baran, Dib, Maan, … are some of these nongovernmental theatre halls that have been activated during last five years in Tehran.
Ali Asghar Dashti, playwright and director has an interesting definition about these small theatre halls and said:” I believe that with increasing these theatre halls we will have a little Paris, but in the condition that they will be supported by Iranian famous theatre artists and audiences welcoming.”
Several years ago, the first step of building nongovernmental theatre halls was walked by Aav Dramatic Group under the management of Babak Mehri; when –as he said-they decided to build a exclusive hall for the group due to the unusual performances of them. He said:”we didn’t want to be compared with other groups and stand in the lines because of this comparison while I believe that the nature of theatre is not comparing and each work must have a stage to be performed. So, we rented a hall for the performances of our group and now after a year and half we are thinking of having income, therefore we lease the hall to the other groups and even we published a call for perform. “
With basing Aav theatre hall, some other people thought about building nongovernmental small theatre halls, but each of them with different goal. For instant, Shahin Chegini, the manager of Mashayekhi nongovernmental theatre halls said that he based the hall for having income from the first step opposite of Babak Mehri. He talked about advantages of management of these nongovernmental theatre halls:”in nongovernmental section you do not see that policies change easily and it brings a sense of stability for theatre groups, and because the nongovernmental section intends to have income, tries to choose works with extra delicacy.”
Effect of increasing nongovernmental theatre halls on general atmosphere of Iranian theatre is one of those things that must be considered seriously. Mohammad Yaghoubi, the famous director talked about this issue and said:”one of the advantages of building nongovernmental theatre halls is defocusing from big and governmental theatre halls in city center. In fact, one of the positive specialties of nongovernmental theatre halls is attracting audiences from different regions of Tehran which has positive effects on economy of theatre.”
“Another big advantage of these theatre halls is that students and youth do not tell that we do not work because we do not have hall. This problem is eliminated” He continued.
Increasing of nongovernmental theatre halls has been welcomed by artists, students, and audiences but it must be wait and see if they can have influence on the general trend of Iranian theatre or not?