Ayoub Aghakhani: Let's not abandon talented playwrights

According to Mehr reporter, Ayub Aghakhani, director of the playwriting section of the 43rd Fajr International Theater Festival, said about the importance of this section in the festival: the importance of the playwriting section is not related to the festival, because this field is fundamentally in the way of producing and creating works in the field of theater and Achieving its ideals moves. I must say that as the main and most targeted point in the way of producing quality works, the issue of text and literature is a work that we call a play. For this reason, holding a competition in a festival of this size can be extremely important, decisive, constructive and strategic. It means to stimulate some people to pay attention to quality, aesthetics, fit with the society in which the content is born, as well as the essence of drama writing, and not only approach the personal world of the story, and be able to consider this phenomenon important and accurate in every way. and draw according to our needs.

The basis of the play in our theater is correct and only needs to be strengthened

He continued: This part is not only important, but if we look at the path to the ideal theater from a long-shot view, we will realize that the main problem is the text and the play, especially since many Iranian theater elders have also believed that the important weakness of our theater is It is a play. Although these elders are not among us today, their words are always worthy of reflection. I believe that the basis of the text and play in our theater is good and correct and it should only be strengthened and this strengthening is possible through holding this section with such seriousness and importance in the most important and prestigious international theater festival of Iran because the scattered talents in this There are many boundaries and we need to find and navigate them.

About the number and quality level of works submitted to the 43rd Fajr Theater Festival, Agha Khani said: I believe that this year we have changed the record of previous years, because without extending the deadline for submitting works, we received 350 works from different provinces of the country in less than three months. It was received and there was almost no province without suggested works, and even the number of submitted works was more than some provinces, such as Fars, Razavi Khorasan, East Azarbaijan, Isfahan, etc.

This writer and theater director added: The quality level of the works according to the testimony of the judges of this period was so remarkable that instead of discussing about 10 works, we were discussing about 40 works in the end, and this happened to announce the winners in There was a final competition for either candidates or finalists. Another thing I must say is that the important advantage of this period was the presence of various approaches in playwriting, because neither realism, nor form, nor storytelling, nor an anti-storytelling approach were dominant in the works, and in fact, modern spaces are more plural than traditional and classical spaces. had

Some plays surprised us

He continued: We had to discard some of the 350 works that did not make sense in terms of volume. Some of them were so short that they might have to participate in another race. Of course, the number of these works was not impressive, and among all the plays, we received at least 5 or 6 works, which surprised us. Please note that I am a playwright myself, and in this field, based on the works I have published so far, I may be able to make a practical and realistic statement. I must say that some of the works were really amazing, which really surprised not only me, but also the judges, and we are proud of this surprise. We hope that this level of our playwriting power can be presented with the company of directors at the international and cross-border level.

The director of the playwriting department of the 43rd Fajr Theater Festival said: When the call for the festival was announced in August, the first works reached us one month after the announcement of the call, and we did not hesitate to study them, because my empirical guess indicated that we were We will face a lot and I insisted that the works be evaluated with reflection. Therefore, practically one month after the call, i.e. from September, the reviews started and the final judging process of the works was completed by the middle of December. We were almost the first part to complete the judgment in the set stages to have the opportunity to print the works. I hope our conclusion will be reasonable and defensible in the judgment of those who will encounter these plays in written form.

Let's not leave talented and young playwrights

He said about the printing of the selected works: I imagine that if we do not abandon these selected and talented people and even the first 40 people, and also if in the printing of the selected works, in sending and publishing these works all over Iran, in shaping the meetings, Don't delay workshops and training workshops and take them seriously, we will reach our desired result faster. These people should not be left behind and a club of active playwrights across the country should be formed that is constantly producing texts, which of course requires policy, support, budget allocation, etc., but in the end there should be listening among the officials first. I believe that in this direction, public administration can help us more than anywhere else because the private sector is not concerned about this issue. I found this in the process of experiencing the national project “Four Seasons of Iranian Theater”.

At the end, Aghakhani stated: Therefore, I hope that before any institution or organization, the General Department of Performing Arts of the Ministry of Culture will set a serious agenda for itself, and this agenda is on the condition that there is real compassion in the middle. I am the front and I think that in my 16 years of working experience in education outside the capital in the form of my own project “Four Seasons of Iranian Theater” I have proven this and I have also drawn conclusions from it. Of course, there should be a stable support that does not rely on monsoon management in this sector, and I firmly believe that in this case, in less than 2 decades, we will be able to get practical access to the crystallization of these talents, and I hope that these talents will blossom and grow. Our theater should move one or two steps in terms of quality.

The 43rd Fajr International Theater Festival will be held from the 3rd to the 13th of Bahman under the direction of Khairullah Taghianipour.