Persian theatre
The aging of master performers, (who are called morsheds) and the decreasing popularity among younger generations have caused a steep drop in the number of skilled Naqqāls, threatening the survival of this dramatic art.
Naqqāli was included in 2011 to the UNESCO's Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity in need of urgent safeguarding.
[2] Other similar Iranian story-telling and performance traditions include Naghali, Pardeh-dari, Pardeh-khaani, Ghavali (minstrelsy), Shahnameh-khaani, Ta'zieh.
[3] Ta'zieh, also known as Tazieh, is a form of traditional, religious Persian theatre in which the drama is conveyed through music, narration, prose and singing.
[4] In Persian tradition, Ta'zieh and Parde-Khani are inspired by historical and religious events, and symbolize epic spirit and resistance.
Siah-bazi, also known as siyah-bazi is a type of Iranian folk performing art that features a blackface, mischievous and forthright harlequin that does improvisations to stir laughter.
[14] Ru Howzi has no written texts and is practiced through rehearsals and oral traditions and as a result each troupe may have unique features to the performance.
[12] Pardeh dari was introduced around the Qajar-era, and is a screen-based storytelling act with painted images held by the performer as a narrative tool.
Persian translations of plays by Shakespeare, Ibsen, and Chekhov, etc were the first taste of a Western theatrical aesthetic for much of the Iranian public, and this style of playwriting was very influential on Iran's earliest native playwrights.
[20] Some of the prominent translators of theaterical works in Iran are Mirza Fatali Akhundzade, Dariush Mo'addabian, Ahmad Kamyabi Mask, Reza Shirmarz, Hamid Samandarian, Sadreddin Zahed, Parwiz Sayyād, etc.
[21] A modern form of Iranian playwriting grew out of this movement, led by the luminaries Bahram Beyzai, Akbar Radi, Ali Nassirian, and Bijan Mofid.
In 1964, the Faculty of Dramatic Arts was established, which became the first institution of higher education in Iran to offer a diploma equivalent to a Bachelor's degree.
The university setting provided increased opportunities for theatrical experimentation, and out of this emerged a strong tradition of Iranian theatre direction.
Hamid Samandarian, Ali Rafii, and Pari Saberi are among the most active and influential of this first generation of modern Iranian directors, and their theatre backgrounds all derive from a mixture of both experience and pedagogy within Iran and Europe.
The government-controlled agency has been criticized for its censorship of artists and ideas that are believed to be "Anti-Islamic" or in opposition to the political loyalties of the Iranian government.
