Vangelis Theodoropoulos, artistic director of Athens & Epidaurus Festival, and Mehdi Shafiei, director of Iran’s Centre for Dramatic Arts, signed a memorandum of understanding at a ceremony that took place at Tehran’s City Theatre Complex, where performances included in the 36th Fajr International Theatre Festival are currently being held.
The memorandum of understanding will provide guidelines for future cooperation between the two festivals. The possibility of presenting performances by Greek artists at Fajr Festival was also discussed during the meeting.
Mr. Theodoropoulos called the memorandum a “major agreement” and stressed the importance of expanding cultural relations with Iran. Mr. Theodoropoulos also singled out Iranian director Afsaneh Mahian, whose performance was presented at Athens & Epidaurus Festival 2017, as a case illustrating the important role women have to play in the contemporary arts scene of Iran.
The ceremony was attended by Georgina Kakoudaki, head of Epidaurus Lyceum and co-curator of Athens & Epidaurus Festival for Educational Programmes; Katerina Balamoti, representative of Hellenic Foundation for Culture in Iran; Dimitris Alexandrakis, ambassador of Greece to the Islamic Republic of Iran; Nikos Doukas, attaché for Economic & Commercial Affairs at Embassy of Greece in Tehran, Iran, as well as representatives of Fajr Festival.
