Hamedan to host int’l children’s theater festival

Hamedan has been scheduled to play host to the International Theater Festival for Children and Young Adults.

The festival will return with participants from five countries after a two-year hiatus due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Troupes from Italy, Greece, Turkey, Armenia and Iraq will attend the opening ceremony of the festival in Hamedan to perform their latest productions, the organizers announced.

Speaking in a press conference held last week, Amir Mashhadi-Abbas, the president of the festival, gave no details about the troupes.

The motto of this year’s festival is “Theater, the Flying of the Butterflies’ Imaginations”.

“By this motto, the festival intends to support creative artistic works and train the future generation based on Iranian-Islamic principles,” Mashhadi-Abbas noted.

Ten theaters in Hamedan will host more than 70 performances, which will be put on stage by Iranian troupes during the festival.

In addition, troupes will give dozens of open-air performances across the city, and several Iranian and Italian experts will hold workshops.

Mashhadi-Abbas said that the festival also intends to bring joy to millions of Iranian children, and added the presence of international personalities would give the thespians in the city an opportunity to raise their knowledge of theater.

The festival is scheduled to pay tribute to theater expert Mohammad-Reza Alvand and actor Karim Akbari, who died of COVID-19.

In addition, the stage directors Maryam Kazemi and Mehdi Farshidi-Sepehr will receive lifetime achievement awards. 

The 27th edition of the International Theater Festival for Children and Young Adults will start of June 22 and announce the winners on June 27.

MG/MG