TEHRAN – Three winners of the Jalal Sattari Awards, a nongovernmental Iranian honor for ritual performance, were announced during the opening ceremony of the 16th International Traditional and Ritual Theater Festival in Tehran on Sunday.
Theater professor at the University of Bologna Marco De Marinis, head of the Scientific and Art Center of the Moscow Tchaikovsky Conservatory Margarita Karatygina from Russia, and scholar Sudabeh Fazaeli from Iran were selected as winners of the award, Persian news agencies reported on Monday.
The award-presentation ceremony took place at Tehran’s City Theater Complex, and was attended by General Office for Dramatic Arts Director Qader Ashena and secretary of the festival Davud Fat’hali Beigi.
The award was established in 2011 to honor scholars of different nationalities for their efforts in the promotion of ritual and folk artistic performances. It was named after the Iranian scholar and mythologist Jalal Sattari
Sattari, 82, is an Iranian scholar, mythologist, who has written over 90 books on mythology, dramatic literature and cultural criticism.
Moreover, Norwegian folk singer Sondre Bratland, Austrian composer Klaus Lang, and Japanese graphic designer Kohei Sugiura were presented with honorable mention.
Speaking at the ceremony, Ashena said that the gap between traditional arts and today’s contemporary arts needs to be shortened.
There should be more support for these types of arts since they can bring back joy to the society, he added.
The festival which opened on September 15 will be held simultaneously in Tehran, Kashan, Hamedan, Khorramabad and Fasa until September 21.
RM/YAW
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