Iranian theater director Amir Reza Koohestani to lead 34th Ecole des Matres

Iranian theater director Amir Reza Koohestani to lead 34th Ecole des Maîtres

TEHRAN-Iranian theater director and playwright Amir Reza Koohestani has been invited to direct the 34th Ecole des Maîtres (School of Masters), which is an advanced theatre training project, set to be held in various European cities from August 26 to October 3.

Koohestani’s workshop is entitled “Daily Life as Performance: Crafting Narratives from Everyday Experiences,” Mehr reported.

In the workshop, Koohestani invites the artists to explore the performative potential of everyday life. By transforming ordinary events into compelling dramatic narratives, the workshop emphasizes the power of personal experience as raw material for theatrical creation. Participants will reflect on their daily routines, environments, and interactions to uncover their dramatic possibilities.

A key part of the workshop focuses on journal entries written by participants, capturing the details of a single day. These journals, written in the first person and simple past tense, will serve as the foundation for creating narratives. To enrich their storytelling, participants are encouraged to bring a physical object connected to the day described in their journal—anything from a household item to a meaningful artifact.

The workshop offers a unique approach to theater-making, encouraging participants to view their daily lives as an artistic canvas and to experiment with innovative forms of storytelling.

The 34th edition of the School of Masters will start in Liège, Belgium, on August 26 and will continue with work stages and public presentations in the different European venues.

It will be in Lisbon, Portugal, from August 31 to September 5, in Coimbra, Portugal, from September 6 to 11, in Milan, Italy, from September 12 to 16, in Udine, Italy, from September 17 to 26, and in Angers, France, from September 27 to October 3. 

This year, there will be 16 participants selected, four from each Ecole des Maîtres partner country, to which will be added some participants from the 2025 guest country, Slovenia. The group will be as diverse as possible in terms of gender, origin, and culture.

The École des Maîtres is an advanced theater training project conceived by Franco Quadri in 1990. The training objective of the project is to initiate a relationship between young actresses and actors, trained at drama academies and theater schools in Europe and already working as professionals, and renowned directors of the international scene, to give life to a work experience strongly aimed at comparing and exchanging skills on staging methods and practices, starting from different texts, languages and artistic languages, during itinerant ateliers.

Born in Shiraz, Fars Province, Amir Reza Koohestani, 46, is considered one of the most important Iranian theatre makers of his generation.

At the age of 16, he began publishing short stories in local newspapers. Attracted to cinema, he took courses in directing and cinematography. Koohestani studied Cinema at the University of Tehran. Later on, he continued his studies at the University of Manchester in the field of theater.

After creating two unfinished films and a brief experience as a performer, he devoted his time to writing his first plays, “And the Day Never Came” (1999) and “The Murmuring Tales” (2000).

He founded the Mehr Theater Group in Tehran in 2001 and with his third play, “Dance on Glasses” (2001), Koohestani gained international fame and found the support of several European theatrical artistic directors and festivals. This was followed by the plays “Recent Experiences” (from the original text by Canadian writers Nadia Ross and Jacob Wren, 2003); “Amid the Clouds” (2005); “Dry Blood & Fresh Vegetables” (2007); “Quartet: A Journey North” (2008); “Where Were You on January 8th?” (2009); “Ivanov” (2011); and “The Fourth Wall” (from the original play “England” by Tim Crouch, 2012)

In 2012, the movie “Modest Reception,” which was co-written by Koohestani and Mani Haghighi, actor and film director, won the Netpac Award at the Berlin International Film Festival. In 2013, the Festival Actoral in Marseille (France) commissioned Koohestani to write and stage a new play, “Timeloss” (based on his previous play “Dance on Glasses”). From October 2014 to March 2015, during a residency at the Akademie Schloss Solitude in Stuttgart, Germany, Koohestani wrote the play “Hearing”.

Since 2006, Koohestani has worked frequently in Germany, where he has created more than 15 productions.

In September 2018, he was invited, along with other directors, for the opening of La Comédie de Genève in Switzerland, where he created a short play in French based on “Miss Julie” by August Strindberg.

“Summerless,” which premiered in May 2018 at the Kunstenfestivaldesarts in Brussels, Belgium, and was presented at the Festival d’Avignon in 2018, is the third part of a trilogy about time and memory, following “Timeloss” and “Hearing”.

In May 2023, Koohestani created “Blind Runner,” which premiered in Brussels as part of the Kunstenfestivaldesarts. A new collaboration with Mani Haghighi resulted in the release of the film “Subtraction” in July 2023.

SS/SAB
 

source: tehrantimes.com