Parvis Mamnun, renowned theater artist who lives in Vienna, Austria will be conferred the honorary title of professor by the Austria Federal Chancellery art section.
The title is granted to the artist after the proposition by Austria's culture ministry and approval of University of Vienna (Universitat Wien), ISNA reported.
On September 24, Palais Niederosterreich in Vienna will host the ceremony for presenting the title to Mamnun by the Austrian deputy culture minister of art as Austrian president's representative.
Prof. Greisinger, professor of theater and former president of Vienna University and head of Theater Federation, and Bettina Steiner, secretary of culture department, Die Presse newspaper will also deliver speeches.
Mamnun, author, theater director, and actor was the head of Theater Department at Tehran University and trained a large number of theater artists many of which are big names today in cinema, theater, and TV.
For decades in Europe he, as a Naqqal (raconteur), has been narrating Iranian ancient stories such as The Seven Beauties (Haft-Peykar) by Nizami of Ganja (Nizami Ganjavi) in a modern style.
Bilingual
In 2000, Dr. Mamnun performed a Naqqali of Layli and Majnun (Layli o Majnun) several times in Tehran City Theater in Farsi and German accompanied by 3-tar playing of Mohammad Ebrahim Jafari, famous Iranian painter.
Parvis who himself plays 3-tar very well has brought out different DVDs internationally, performing Modern Naqqali of Iranian memorable tales in most prominent theater halls around the world.
He has also staged Khosrow and Shirin (also known as Shirin and Farhad) in his hometown, Isfahan, and has held workshops on the field in Iran's southern provinces in cooperation with Dramatic Arts Center.
Mamnun is writing his autobiography as well as Iran's history of theater.
Tehran University Press has published many plays translated by him from German.
Naqqali is the oldest form of dramatic performance in Iran and has long played an important role in society, from the courts to the villages. The performer – the Naqqal – recounts stories in verse or prose accompanied by gestures and movements, and sometimes instrumental music and painted scrolls. Naqqals function both as entertainers and as bearers of Persian literature and culture, and need to be acquainted with local cultural expressions, languages and dialects, and traditional music. Naqq?li requires considerable talent, a retentive memory and the ability to improvise with skill to captivate the audience.
The Art of Naqqali was inscribed on UNESCO's Intangible Heritage List on November 27, 2011 as is in need of urgent safeguarding.
