Need for Children & Young Adults Festival

Mr Mashhadi-Abbas, however, said that it had been a long road ahead to reach an ideal situation, recommending that launch of a national play-writing festival targeting children and adolescents could play an important role in improving the field. 

The children and young adult plays had become better over the past five years while the progress had been enormous compared to the past ten years, Mr Mashhadi-Abbas told Iran Theater.

“Notwithstanding we have not reached the ideal situation,” he stressed.  “The taste of child theater goers has become better over the time as they refuse to see every kind of play anymore.”

He added that the problem was that the children and young adult plays had been form- rather than content-oriented.

If the writers, Mr Mashhadi-Abbas said, focus on limited age brackets, they could improve the field significantly.

Mr Mashahdi-Abbas, who has been writing for the children and young adults for more than two decades, said that a national annual festival could make the field much better.

The budget needed for such festival would be insignificant compared to the high achievements, he said and added that the best award for the writers could have been publishing the top works.

“My colleagues and I will cooperate enthusiastically with any institutions which decide to launch such festival,” Mr Mashhadi-Abbas said. “As said by a playwright, any quality play and competition among writers could make the field better for children and young adults.”

He would write about any subjects that he could feel the society should deal with it, said Mr Mashhadi-Abbas. For instance, “Mrs Ghamar’s Tent”, which had been played in Honar Hall now, was focusing on ignoring Iran’s puppet show Kheimeh Shab-Bazi, he added.

The world appreciates its ritual and traditional plays and try to pass them on to the next generations by organizing festivals and other events, he said, regretting that Iranian children and adolescent could not connect with Iran’s traditional plays such as Kheimeh (tent) Shab-Bazi.

“I wrote “Mrs Ghamar’s Tent” bearing this in mind,” the writer explained.  

Mr Mashhadi-Abbas said that another play, which had been penned by him, would be staged at the Honar Hall in the near future.

The idea of writing a play titled “The Eccentric Turtie the Turtle” popped into his head as he heard a true story in a workshop in Shiraz, he said and added that the 400-year-old creature was trapped in a qanat (tunnels that convey subterranean water in Iran’s irrigation system) in the city and had to live there for years because its shell had grown so big that it could not get out of there.

d ahead to reach an ideal situation, recommending launch of a national play writing festival targeting the children and adolescent which could play an important role in improving the field. 

The children and young adult plays had become better over the past five years while the progress had been enormous compared to the past ten years, Mr Mashhadi-Abbas told Iran Theater.

“Notwithstanding we have not reached the ideal situation in the field,” he stressed.  “The taste of child theater goers has become better as they refuse to see every kind of play anymore.”

He added that the problem was that the children and young adult plays had been form- rather than content-oriented.

If the writers, Mr Mashhadi-Abbas said, focus on limited age brackets, they could have improve the field significantly.

Mr Mashahdi-Abbas, who has been writing for the children and young adults for more than two decades, said that a national and annual festival could make the field much better.

The budget needed for such festival would be insignificant compared to the high achievements, he said and added that the best award for a writer could have been publishing the top works.

“My colleagues and I will cooperate enthusiastically any state body which decide to launch such festival,” Mr Mashahdi-Abbas said. “As said by a playwright, any quality play and competition among writers could make the field better for children and young adults.”

He would write about any subjects that he could feel the society should have deal with it, said Mr Mashhadi-Abbas. For instance, he added, “Mrs Ghamar’s Tent”, which had been played in Honar Hall now, was focusing on ignoring Iran’s puppet show Kheimeh Shab-Bazi.

The world appreciate its ritual and traditional plays and try to pass them on to the next generations by organizing festivals and other events, he said, regretting that Iranian children and adolescent could not connect with Iran’s traditional plays such as Kheimeh (tent) Shab-Bazi.

“I wrote “Mrs Ghamar’s Tent” bearing this in mind,” the writer explained.  

Mr Mashhadi-Abbas said that he would another play, which had been penned by him, would be staged at the Honar Hall in the near future.

The idea of writing a play titled “The Eccentric Turtie the Turtle” popped into his head as he heard a true story in a workshop in Shiraz, he said and added that the 400-year-old creature had been trapped in a qanat (tunnels that convey subterranean water in Iran’s irrigation system) in the city and had to live there for years because its shell had grown so big that it could not get out of there.