TEHRAN -- Twelve plays will go on stage on the first day of 13th Mobarak International Puppet Theater Festival Thursday.

Theater troupes from various cities including Tehran, Karaj, Anzali Port and Gorgan will stage their puppet shows in several different theaters in Tehran.
The Ferdowsi Hall will host “Rumi Puppet Theater” by Behruz Gharibpur and “Bijan and Manijeh” By Rasul Najafian will be performed at the Niavaran Cultural Center.
“Samak Ayyar” by Javad Zolfaqari will go on stage at the Chaharsu Hall of Tehran City Theater Complex. The Sayeh Hall of the complex will host Salma Mohseni and Sina Yelaqbeigi’s “The Boy with Blue Eyes”. Amin Kaffashzadeh’s “Defensive Characters” will go on stage at the Mehr Hall.
Fahimeh Mirza-Hosseini’s “Hanged by Life” will be performed at the Qashqai Hall of Tehran’s City Theater Complex and “The Man who Gave His Soul to Mountains” by Mohammad Hossein Nasserbakht will go on stage at the Workshop Hall of the complex.
“The Anecdote of Zarrinak and Mahak” by Fariba Chupanejad will go on stage at the House of Theater. “Shaal-Tars Maamad Fiction” by Alireza Shakurpur and “Tale of Mother Sea’s Daughters” by Maryam Shoqi will be performed at the halls of The Institute for the Intellectual Development of Children and Young Adults (IIDCYA).
Workshops are also arranged on the sidelines of the festival and several Iranian and foreign masters of puppetry have been invited to take part.
Fleur Marie Fuentes from France will work on the process of making giant puppets, while Italian Marie Crobin will teach how to make fantasy puppets, and French puppet master Alain Lecucq will work on paper puppets.
Iranian artists Tina Abashzadeh and Azar Mobaraki are expected to join the team for the workshop.
Several artists from Italy, Serbia, Poland, France, Turkey, India and Canada, have also been invited to give talks on puppets during the festival.
The 13th edition of the event centering on the motto “Iranian Identity Is Global Culture” will run until July 27.