Growth in Budget & Establishment of Theater Museum on Agenda

Mr Shafiei started his Tuesday visit from Mehr news agency, irantheater.ir reported.

On the reconstruction and renovation of the Dramatic Arts Center, the official said that the problem was that the document of the buildings was under the name of an institution rather than the Culture Ministry. "Fortunately, the document was issued for the Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance and the permission for construction is being chased in the Municipality's District 12 under the name."

He also said the new minister of culture and Islamic guidance, Seyyed Reza Salehi Amiri had a positive record of management in the academic and cultural fields, hoping that the minister would make plans to improve different fields under his management including theater.

Mr Shafiei noted that the budget envisaged by the government in the budget was improved significantly this year but "it is still on paper rather than real allocation".

He explained that renovation in Qashqaei and Sayeh auditoriums of the City Theater would continue as they did not enjoy a suitable electricity and underground corridor situations, stressing that renovation of the City Theater's and Charsou's mechanical facilities was of high priority.

The theater official said that he was concerned with establishing a theater museum, adding that the land or building would be purchased soon thanks to the financial assistance by the Culture Ministry and its deputy for art affairs.

Mr Shafiei was accompanied by Payman Shariati, Atabak Naderi, Kayvan Nakhaei, Armaghan Behdarvand, Javad Moshtakhdemi and Ali Akbar Abdolalizadeh. He paid a visit to the official news agency IRNA, honaronline, Tasnim news agency as well as newspapers such as Saba and Honarmand and specialized theater magazines Paragraph and Namayesh.