Tickets for the 26th Fajr Theater Festival will be sold in City Theater Complex on February 4 and 5.
Amir Hossein Hariri, executive director of the festival told ISNA that Tehran’s Vahdat Hall will also sell tickets for plays to be staged at the venue.
“The prices are reasonable and have not increased compared to the rates for the festival’s last edition,“ he said.
He added that special quota has been set aside for students, university lecturers and artists and the distribution has been handed over to specialized theater faculties and Theater House.
Theater enthusiasts can buy tickets from 10:00 a.m. to 3:30 p.m.
Meanwhile, a seminar themed ’Contemporary Theater, Contemporary Critique’ will be held at Artists’ House on February 4 with the participation of nine Iranian and foreign critics.
Cultural figures including deputy culture and Islamic guidance minister for artistic affairs, Mohammad Hossein Imani-Khoshkhou as well as Head of Iranian Theater Critics Association Nasrollah Qaderi will take part in the event.
Features of modern theater critics, comparison between academic, artistic and journalistic critique as well as practical critiques, are among the subjects of discussion at the event.
The festival’s poster will be also unveiled in a news conference on February 5.
Davoud Manteq, the poster designer, told the same source that it features ’Nastaliq’ style of calligraphy which is indicative of the spirit of Iranian theater.
The poster blends spiritual concepts with color, form and circular designs, he concluded.

Concerts held in 2007 to mark the eighth birth centenary of renowned Iranian poet and mystic Molana Jalaleddin Rumi, were among the outstanding music events of the year, observed a noted musician.
Speaking to MNA, Houshang Kamkar, head of Kamkars Band, said, “Numerous concerts, seminars and commemorations in honor of Molana were among the cultural activities last year. However, none of the works were of high standards in terms of quality and content.“
Describing 2007 as the ’Spring of Music’, he referred to a number of the works centered on Molana, namely ’Molana Symphony’ performed by Tehran Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Arsalan Kamkar.
“I was interested in the symphony, since it is based entirely on Iranian music inspired by Molana poems. I enjoyed the Orchestration as well,“ he said.
The artist further mentioned the activities of noted Iranian vocalist Shahram Nazeri who was awarded ’LŽgion d’Honneur’ medal by the French government for his achievements in Iranian traditional music on September 28, 2007.
Kamkar, however, regretted that despite numerous performances abroad, Nazeri did not hold any concerts for Molana fans in Iran.

Iranian play ’Where is the End of the Sky’, written by Naqmeh Samini and directed by Ali Razi, will be staged at the Saint Germaine Theater Festival in France from May 10-11.
Razi, who is residing in France, told theater.ir that he has picked the cast from among Iranian and foreign artists.
The director added that he will also hold a five-day workshop themed ’Poetical Theater’ on the sidelines of the event.
Meanwhile, he referred to the activities of Tehran University’s Faculty of Fine Arts and said that the entity has recently conducted a number of workshops in cooperation with foreign theater experts.
“The play ’Seagull’, written by Anton Chekhov, is among the projects undertaken at the workshop,“ he said.

Marco Grigorian

A number of Iranian artists in a letter to the Armenian Embassy in Tehran called for displaying works by noted artist Marco Grigorian, which were taken out of Iran 30 years ago in a museum in the country.
In response to this, Armenian Culture Ministry said that some 2,000 items by the artist, who died five months ago, were transferred to Armenia in 1993 in cooperation with Armenian authorities and his fans.
According to ISNA, in 1995, the Armenian government established a commission to make an assessment of his collection. An agreement was subsequently concluded between the Culture Ministry and Grigorian.
Currently, the collection of works donated by him is maintained in the state-administered Middle East Museum. No changes have been made in the way they were displayed since 1993.
They will be kept in Middle East Museum until another venue is selected, the ministry said, adding that none of Grigorian’s artwork has been sent from Iran for display in the museum.
Part of the Iranian artists’ letter said that Grigorian is not only an Iranian and Armenian artist but also he is the son of the world’s contemporary art. Safeguarding his heritage is the right of all those who have perceived his lofty status. Following his death in late August 2007, his own creations and the artwork he had collected during his lifetime, were transferred to Yerevan, Armenia, to be housed in a museum.
“Unfortunately, they have not yet been arranged and are in a state of uncertainty. We, the friends of Marco, seek clarification about the state of his works which should be put on display in a suitable manner,“ read the letter.
The letter was signed by 100 Iranian artists and authors including Habibollah Sadeqi, Reza Nami, Seyyed Mohammad Ehsaei, Aydin Aghdashlou, Javad Mojabi and Mohammad Ebrahim Jafarian.

Turkmen media have given extensive news coverage to the Iranian Film Festival which began in Ashkhabad on Wednesday.
According to Fars news agency, the event was sponsored by Iran’s Cultural Office in Turkmenistan and the national radio and TV of that country.
Turkmen TV broadcast reports of the event, announcing that the festival was organized in the country to mark the anniversary of Iran’s Islamic Revolution in 1979.
The country’s news agency also wrote that film is like a mirror reflecting various aspects of life in a society.
Screening Iranian films in fact serves as a spiritual link between the two countries and is key to building up confidence and understanding between the two nations, it said.
The Russian language daily ’Neytralniy Turkmenistan’ also wrote that at the event four Iranian films will be screened for four days.
A Turkmen language newspaper also said that the festival would be sponsored by Iran’s Cultural Office in Turkmenistan and the country’s radio and TV.

Despite its significance, Dahaneh Gholaman, an Achaemenid city in Sistan-Baluchestan province, has been neglected.
The existence of hundreds of historical sites including Shahr-e Sukhtah (Burnt City), Khajeh Mountain and Gholaman City, reveals an ancient civilization in this corner of Iran, reported CHN.
An Italian group was the first to begin archeological studies in the city in 1965. They proved that the city dates back to the Achaemenid era (648-330 BC).
Artifacts and ruins from different historical periods have been discovered in the abandoned city, which indicate that the settlement was once boasted of a thriving culture and civilization.
The Achaemenid city consisted of various sections including industrial, residential, public and religious sites which are of great archeological importance. Experts believe that Dahaneh Gholaman is the sole ancient city to have been constructed in a planned manner. The city is one of the rare sites which provide valuable information about different faiths.
Although there are doubts about the original name of the city, researches reveal that Dahaneh Gholaman was considered the political and social capital of the region for a short period. Archeologists have so far undertaken seven rounds of excavations in the city which have produced valuable findings. Discovery of the biggest mural from the Achaemenid era, which is a unique work, reveals the importance of the city. The mural depicts a man on a cart hunting a boar.

Japanese play ’Atsumori’, written by famous dramatist Zeami Motokiyo, will be staged by Mohammad Rezapour Moqaddam at the 26th Fajr Theater Festival, slated for February 6-16.
Rezapour told MNA that the play is a Noh drama--a highly stylized, abstract, and philosophical type of 15th century Japanese play influenced by Zen Buddhism and Shinto religious rituals.
“The play is based on traditional narratives about the war between the Genji/Minamoto and Heike/Taira clans (1180-1185),“ he said.
Rezapour, who is familiar with the Japanese language, said that he has tried his best to remain faithful to the style of the playwright.
He added that the original play makes use of opera singers, while the Persian version will be performed by a chorus.
’Atsumori’ is centered on a priest Rensei (formerly the warrior Kumagai of the Genji/Minamoto clan), who returns to the site of a battle where he killed Atsumori (a warrior of the Heike/Taira clan).
Regretting the killing, Rensei prays for the soul of Atsumori. Though angry at Rensei and about to strike him with a sword, the ghost of Atsumori is appeased by Rensei’s prayers and the two are reconciled.
Noted stage director Bahram Beizaei as well as Dariush Ashouri have translated the play into Persian.

Jerome David Salinger

Persian translation of ’Personal Notes of an Infantryman’, a collection of stories the American author Jerome David Salinger, has been reprinted.
According to Fars news agency, the collection, translated by Ali Shieh-Ali, includes ten stories.
In a preface to the book, the translator said that Salinger published 32 short stories in different US literary magazines during 1940-1953.
Later, he published nine of them in a book titled ’Nine Stories’.
The collection was translated in Iran and published under the title ’Nostalgias of Painter of 48th Street’. These stories were written during World War II form 1940 to 1944.
The 143-page Persian translation of ’Personal Notes of an Infantryman’ was published by Sabzan Publishing House in 2,000 copies with a cover price of 20,000 rials.