The beginning of the 40th Fajr Theater Festival in a 400-year-old caravanserai

Theater News Base: The opening ceremony of the 40th Fajr International Theater Festival was held in the evening of the 14th of Bahman, in a 400-year-old caravanserai in Yazd.

The festival, which opened for the first time outside of Tehran, was held at the historic Zainuddin Caravanserai, which dates back to the Safavid period.

The ceremony was performed by Mohammad Selouki.

In the first part of the ceremony and after the ritual and local performance, a video message of “Hossein Mosafer Astaneh” and greeting to the guests was broadcast, in which a report on the 40th Fajr International Theater Festival was presented as a detailed description of the works performed during the festival. The main and side effects of the event, the number of participants, the capacity of Iranian theater television, honoring the veterans, the participation of the provinces, etc.

* The performing arts have a special place among the people of Yazd

“Mehran Fatemi”, the governor of Yazd, as the first speaker of the ceremony, said: Yazd is a land of art and slavery with work and life and even the customs of the people; From the great treasure of architecture registered in UNESCO to the thread and fabric of cashmere, property, zillow, kilim and jajim, from the mesh knots in the mourning palm of the martyrs to the glass of the sash windows, all and all are the field of art of the people of this land.

“Yazd is the birthplace of prominent artists and the growth of directors and actors is a familiar letter,” Fatemi said. He said: “This is a region where the performing arts have a special place among its people.” Narratives, skirmishes, taziyehs, pool beds, and shadow games have a special place in the life basket of the people of this land in order to intelligently compensate their deprivation of the freshness of nature and keep their spirits fresh in the face of the harsh nature.

The governor of Yazd called the Fajr Theater Festival a symbol of the most beautiful art scenes to reflect beautiful ideas and stated: “One of the daily concerns of us, talented teenagers and young people, is that such events can fulfill this important task, because pure art is the bedrock.” It provides the growth of the children of our society, and the performing arts are one of the best options for this due to its original artistic characteristics.

Then, the best of the playwriting section was praised and introduced in the presence of the governor of Yazd, his political and security deputy, Houshang Tavakoli and Nasrollah Ghaderi.

* Appreciation of the selected playwrights (without priority):

– Keyvan Fahimi for writing the play “Sputnik Alone”

– Mehrdad Baghaei for the play “Bone in the Throat”

Behnam Sarlak for the play “Ayaz Shash Abji”

– Saeed Reza Khoshshans for the play “Ghost Surfaces”

– Larian’s message for the play “Mediterranean”

– Soheil Maleki for the play “Nothing and Absurd”

Afterwards, Qader Ashna, Asghar Amirnia, Director General of Performance Evaluation and Complaints Response of the Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance, Seyed Mahmoud Eslami, Deputy Minister of Management Development and Resources of the Ministry of Culture and Guidance, thanked Sadegh Kouchakzadeh, Executive Secretary They appeared on stage.

After this part, live music was performed by the Yazd Chamber Orchestra.

* Celebrating your veterans

The next part of the opening ceremony, honoring the veterans and appreciating the years of work and artistic activity of “Ali Asghar Insafjoo” (Sistan and Baluchestan), “Mohammad Reza Shajarian” (Yazd), “Bahman (Mohammad Ali) Sadegh Hassani” (Gilan), “Mohammad Ali Lotfi Moghaddam” ( Khorasan) and was “Katem Hajirazad”.

These five veteran figures were honored in the presence of Mohammad Mehdi Ismaili, Minister of Culture and Islamic Guidance, Mahmoud Salari, Deputy Minister of Arts, Mehran Fatemi, Governor of Yazd, and Qader Ashna, Director General of Performing Arts.

Mohammad Ali Lotfi presented the book “The Art of Khorasan Theater”, which is his biography, to the festival organizers.

In the next part of the program, with the presence of the Minister of Guidance and Hossein Mosaferastaneh (Festival Secretary), Mehran Fatemi, Governor of Yazd, was honored on behalf of the people and artists of this province.

* The field of theater will definitely be strengthened in the next four years

The Minister of Culture and Islamic Guidance appeared on the stage following the ceremony and said: Yazd province has a very clear historical background and is a current in the cultural and artistic field of the country; There are both great thinkers and great artists in Yazd and they shine, and all these talents have placed a lot of potential in this province, which has led us to hold the opening of the 40th Fajr International Theater Festival here.

Mohammad Mehdi Esmaili continued: “We would have liked to have the opening ceremony of the 40th festival in better health and with a wider audience, but in the days leading up to the opening, we faced a peak of cases of the new corona strain and this issue caused the presence of We will not benefit from the warmth of the people and the theater audience in this ceremony.

He also thanked the artistic deputy, the festival secretariat, the secretary of the event, the governor of Yazd, the representatives of this province in the parliament, and said: “All our actions in the government are aimed at strengthening culture and art;” Accordingly, the field of theater will definitely be strengthened in the next four years, and we are trying to do well in everything related to infrastructure. In this regard, our goal in the Ministry of Guidance is to complete all the cultural facilities and complexes that have been under construction in recent years. In the whole country, the implementation process of the projects has started with the allocation of funds and is being seriously pursued in 14 provinces, including Yazd.

The Minister of Culture and Islamic Guidance noted: “Support and art education will also be serious topics of our work.” We try to look everywhere in the country with an equal eye and see all the talents of dear Iran and provide the ground for the growth of all the children of Iran. We try not to have any child in Iran who is interested in theater and art work and there is no ground for his work. In the next four years, we will see a quantitative and qualitative improvement in the theater.

In the end, Ismaili thanked all the artists “who are our eyes and lights and are present here” and wished them health and well-being. .

Performance to commemorate the memory of deceased artists such as Siamak Atlasi, Fath Ali Oveisi, Reza Malek Sabet, Bijan Afshar, Ezatullah Mehravaran, Ali Haj Ali Asgari and Ali Soleimani was the next part of the opening ceremony of the festival. .

Afterwards, by playing a video clip, the winners of the photo and poster section of the 40th Fajr International Theater Festival with the presence of Qutbuddin Sadeghi, Sohrab Salimi, Maedeh Tahmasebi, Majid Javadianzadeh, Director General of Islamic Culture and Guidance of Yazd Province, Maedeh Tahmasebi, Mohammad Reza Sabbaghian MP , Was appreciated.

* Poster selection:

Appreciation: Mehdi Davaei for designing the poster for the play “Monster”

Third place (joint): Meysam Namdar for designing the poster for the play “Banquet” and Rasoul Haghjoo for designing the poster for the 33rd Khuzestan Provincial Theater Festival

– Second place: Mohammad Afshar for designing the poster of the play “Sehtiz”

– The jury in this section did not consider a work worthy of receiving a statue and first place.

Davood Fath Ali Beigi, Mahmoud Farhang, Ali Osivand, Homeira Riazi, Mehdi Ramezani, head of the country’s libraries, and Mohammad Reza Dashtiardakani, Yazd MP, came of age to pay tribute to the winners of the photo section.

* Selected Photo Section:

Appreciation: Shahriyar Dabiri for the play “Soheil” and Salaleh Rovidashti for the play “When it rains your bones” and Shiva Siraj for the play “She is beautiful”

Third place: Mohammad Taghavi for the play “Antigone, the Last Samurai”

Second place: Maryam Rahmani in the play “Caretaker”

First place: Ardalan Ashnagar for the play “Lady Macbeth’s Private Auschwitz”

After the appreciation of the winners of this section, pieces of music were performed.

* The importance of the theater group from the point of view of Ali Nasirian

In the next part, a clip of “Ali Nasirian”‘s speeches and his message to young theater artists was broadcast, in which he said: Theater is a place to practice democracy because different opinions and opinions are exchanged and all its elements from writer and director to actor And the stage designers each have their work independence and creativity.

The veteran theater, film and television artist noted: Two things are useful for your work: theatrical flow and theatrical group. It is the group that keeps the art of theater alive, not the individual. Because theater is a collective work. Try to have a group and maintain its continuity to create a theatrical flow.

Nasirian reminded: You are the ones who entered the field of theater with a new look, literacy and energy, and some of you shone and worked very well. Creativity is not a simple category. In order for a work of art to be lasting, it has to go through many stages.

* The 40th Fajr Theater Festival is the mirror of the whole of the performing arts

Then, in a video message, Mahmoud Salari, Deputy Minister of Arts and Culture and Islamic Guidance, expressed his hope that the 40th Fajr International Theater Festival would be a mirror of the performing arts and a platform for the emergence of many talents and the discovery of good plays by reputable playmakers. In this message, he also thanked all the actors, judges, members of the selection committee, directors, sympathizers and theater enthusiasts of the country, present at the 40th festival, and added that he hopes that the next festivals will be the arena for each of these artists to shine.

Qader Ashna, Director General of Performing Arts, added in a video message that in the 40th Fajr International Theater Festival, over 95% of the texts that we will see performed were taken from the identity of Iran-Zamin, adding that 54% of the works are produced by provincial artists. He also attended three generations; The first generation of the revolution, the middle generation and the new generation, both in the guise of playwrights and as directors, mentioned this point as a source of pride for this event.

At the end of the ceremony, with the presence of several Tawaf wheels full of local and traditional sweets of Yazd, the cake of the fortieth anniversary of the Fajr Theater Festival was cut in the presence of Dariush Arjmand, Siavash Tahmours, Farhad Ghaemian and Hossein Mosafer Astana.

It should be noted that the Minister of Culture and Islamic Guidance, the Deputy Minister of Arts, the Director General of Performing Arts, Sabbaghian and Dashti Ardakani, Yazd MPs, artists such as Qutbuddin Sadeghi, Kazem Hajirazad, Zoya Emami, Davood Fath Ali Beigi, Dariush Arjomand, Maedeh Tahmasebi, , Houshang Tavakoli, Farhad Ghaemian, Nasrollah Ghaderi, Siavash Tahmours, Sohrab Salimi, Amir Mashhadi Abbas, Mohammad Hossein Naserbakht, Ali Osivand, Lily Aj, Parisa Moqtada, Mahmoud Farhang, Saeed Razmi Director General of Administrative Affairs and Human Resources, Majid Jafari, Reza Iranian Performing Arts Association, Hojjatoleslam and Muslims Mohammad Mehdi Behdarvand, Advisor to the Director General of Performing Arts, Ismail Esfandiar, Deputy Director General of Parliamentary Affairs of the Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance, etc. were among those present at the opening ceremony of the festival.