Traditional, Ritual Theater Festival in September

The 18th Traditional & Ritual Theater Festival is scheduled to open on September 10 in Tehran.

Organized under the auspices of the Center for Ritual and Traditional Theater, Iranian Association of Performing Arts and the Performing Arts Department at the Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance, the festival seeks to promote research works in reviewing and identifying traditional origins of performing arts in Iran and elsewhere, said the Center for Ritual and Traditional Theater on its website, iran-tt.ir.

The festival will have several sections: pond play (a satirical play originally performed on a wooden platform above a courtyard pond); lamentation ceremonies (in Persian: shabih-khani); traditional puppet play; review of ritual-traditional plays staged in 2015-2017; raconteur and folklore narratives, street performance, rituals and performing games; and Iranian traditional plays. 

The 5th International Seminar on Ritual and Traditional Plays and the 4th Jalal Sattari Special Award ceremony, commemorating the contribution of the Iranian author and mythologist to national culture, are also part of the event.

There is a section for budding children and young adults. It has been introduced to support and promote ritual-traditional plays created by the young generation. Secretary of the festival is author, researcher, actor and theater director Davoud Fat’h Ali Beygi, 66.

For more information enthusiasts can refer to the website where the application form to register is available.