New president says Fajr Intl. Theater Festival 2021 likely to go online

TEHRAN.(Iranart) – The new president of the Fajr International Theater Festival has said that the 2021 edition of the event will likely be held online due to the coronavirus pandemic.

“This is one of the issues we need to take into consideration, and of course, we have no alternative but to make the best use of technology. Either the festival will be held online or in its usual form,” Hossein Mosafer-Astaneh said. “We also need to make the best use of the potentials in the virtual world, while the necessary and appropriate infrastructures should be provided,” he said. He said that there are no plans yet to postpone the festival, which is annually held during January, and added, “The festival is a strong motivation for many troupes in Tehran and other cities and that we should not be rendered by coronavirus.” Mosafer-Astaneh whose play “Return” was on stage at Tehran’s Sarv Theater Hall recently, also said that the play has been halted due to a significant rise in the number of the COVID19 infections in the country over the past week. “The heavy death toll made me and the director of the hall to be more concerned about the health of the actors and the audience. We stopped the play and we will resume performances only after the current situation gets better,” he added. “At the present time, the new virus is with us and we should continue our life and cannot shut down theaters completely, however, we need to adapt ourselves to the current situations” he concluded. Many international festivals and movie theaters around the world have been shut down amid the pandemic.