I Want to Make People Look Differently in Theater

Laurent Chétouane, who taught choreography in a workshop on Sunday, Monday and Tuesday (April 30 to May 2) and directed "Jeu" in the festival, said that people were used to look into images but they did not know how to look into the body movements.

"I want to make people look differently into theater. Watching body is very difficult and my play is a performance which synchronizes body and movements. It also mixes performance and image," Mr Chétouane said, adding that the style of his performance was a dance but a dance which raises questions.

He said that his objective in the play was to divert attention toward unnoticed body movements.

Laurent Chétouane who has a German-French dual nationality has directed numerous plays since 2000. He studied engineering but later obtained a degree in theater studies from the Sorbonne and in theater directing from the Frankfurt University of Music and Performing Arts.

He has directed shows in Hamburg, Munich, Weimar, Cologne, Athens, Oslo, Zurich, and others. Since 2006 he has presented numerous dance projects with international guest performances. This was followed by Hommage an das Zaudern, horizon(s) which was invited to the Tanzplattform 2012, and the solo O with Mikael Marklund, which had its premiere at the Festival d’Avignon in July.

He has received many awards, including the Wild Card of the RUHR.2010 and in 2008 the Award for Young Artists in Nordrhein-Westfalen. He is the artistic director of the master’s program in dramaturgy at the Institute for Theater, Film, and Media Studies at the Goethe University in Frankfurt am Main, guest professor in Gießen and Berlin, and guest lecturer in Oslo, Frankfurt/M, Hamburg, Leipzig, Bochum.

The 20th Iran International University Theater Festival opened in Tehran on May 5. Festival secretary is Mehdi Gomar. The event will close on May.