Iran to host int'l ritual plays festival

A number of ritual theatrical troupes plan to introduce their work at the International Festival of Ritual and Traditional Plays in the Iranian capital city of Tehran. Theatrical troupes from five countries including Turkey, Italy, Uzbekistan, Japan and South Korea are also scheduled to stage their traditional theater plays at the festival, Mehr News Agency reported. Patriotic Ladies by Faber Theater from Italy, The Magic Tree by Cengiz Ozek form Turkey, New Theater and Japanese Flute by Reijiro Tsumura from Japan and Raksu Samo by Ovliakuli Khodjakuli from Uzbekistan will take part in the festival. The event plans to pay tribute to ten Iranian artists active in the field of traditional and ritual plays along with naqqali -- an epic narration inspired by religious events as well as mythical narrations, such as Ferdowsi's, said the secretary of the festival, Hamidreza Ardalan. Morshed (mentor) Mohammad Ahadi, Rahmat Eskandari, Mohammad Bakhshnia, Majid Jafari, Zeinolabedin Khaleqi, Mostafa Rahimpour, Hassan Azimi, Abbas Gorgani, and Rajabali Salehi are the artists who will be honored, he added. The organizers also attempt to invite foreign scholars with particular concern for ritual theater who have innovative interpretation about this tradition. Ali Azizi, Amir Sohrabi, Jahanshir Yarahamadi, Ramtin Shahbazi, and Ashraf Soltani are the prominent Iranian lecturers who will discuss Persian ritual plays at the festival set to be held from July 14 to 23, 2011, Ardalan explained.