Changes Are Targeted to Create New Opportunities in Theater

Mehdi Shafie, director of the Dramatic Art Center and Saeed Asadi, secretary of the festival attended the press conference, according to irantheater.ir.

Mr Shafie thanked members of the press and secretary of the festival, who was holding the job for the second successive year, hoping that the 35^th festival would be stronger and better than the previous year and no weaknesses could be seen on the sidelines of the event.

Stressing that new theater halls and “Plus Fadjr” sections were added to the festival this year, Shafie said that he was happy that the capacity for theater groups who were coming from cities other than Tehran was increased.

About distribution of ticket for media, he expressed hope that the situation would improve this year as the experience was positive for last year.

Also, Mr Asai said that the changes were targeted to improve the festival while the secretariat benefitted from the cooperation of colleagues to strengthen the strong and rectify the weak points of the previous editions.

The expansionist approach towards theater showed that the production must increase, he said and added, “Fadjr festival must have supportive and expertise approach toward the issue…A positive change is that more urban spaces are devoted to theater performances to interact with a larger section of the society.”

This, he said, would encourage the young talents to experience another form of theater.

Mr Asadi hoped that such manifestations of theater would be seen broadly in the cities to turn into an opportunity for attracting cultural tourists.

Asadi explained that “Plus Fajr” was added to the festival last year to have cooperation with private theater halls too.

“The move received a positive review last year as the number of the foreign audience who watched plays in this halls was high,” he said. “It was decided this year that in addition to private halls, state and semi-state spaces will host plays if they are not participating in the main section of the festival.”

Mr Asadi said that such initiative would help boost theater and encourage the theater artists to have performances in halls other than main theater venues.

He insisted that officials would not intervene in the choice of the plays to be performed in these halls and leave the decision to their managers.

“This festival will only have an international competition section and the competition among domestic plays will be only for young talents,” Mr Asadi said.