TEHRAN- The 3rd edition of the Baghcheban National Children and Youth Theater Festival commenced in Marand, East Azarbaijan province, on Monday with the participation of theatrical groups from across the country. 

This event is a tangible manifestation of Jabbar Baghcheban’s lifelong effort to plant and nurture the seedlings of imagination in the hearts of Iran's young generation over the past century, IRNA reported. 

In his inaugural speech, the festival secretary emphasized that the festival aims to expand content production in the field of theater dedicated to children and adolescents. 

"The third Baghcheban National Children and Youth Theater Festival is held biennially, featuring performances by groups from all over the country," Ali Soltanpour stated. 

He also highlighted the enthusiastic response from artists, noting that over 150 theatrical works from various regions were submitted to the festival secretariat. After review and judgment, 16 productions from 11 provinces qualified for the competition section.

Furthermore, Soltanpour noted that, in addition to stage performances, a competitive scriptwriting segment is also part of this edition, with more than 70 scripts submitted to the festival secretariat.

The 3rd Baghcheban National Children and Youth Theater Festival, with the participation of prominent artists and active figures in children and youth theater from across Iran, provides an opportunity to showcase creative works and elevate the quality of theater among the new generations.

The closing ceremony will be held in Marand on December 19, where the best performances and selected works will be honored.

Jabbar Asgarzadeh, famously known as Jabbar Baghcheban, is known as the founder of the first Iranian kindergarten in Marand and the country’s first deaf school in Tabriz. He was also the inventor of Persian cued speech, Mehr reported.

He was born in Urmia, West Azarbaijan province. He left school as a child due to financial problems and worked in architecture and confectionery with his father, but because he loved writing, at the same time, he wrote for satirical magazines and gradually became the editor of a magazine.

The first kindergarten he established was called “Baghche-ye Atfal” in Persian, meaning “Children's Garden”. He used to say that if a primary and secondary school teacher is called a "teacher", the kindergarten teacher is a kind of guardian of flowers, so he is a gardener, and he named himself Baghcheban.

Baghcheban was critical of the education system in Iran and believed that new methods should be used. He considered one of the reasons for the low quality of literacy to be the lack of preparation for pre-school and said that for proper education, one should use different methods of playing, role play, poetry, song, and storytelling.

He founded a school for the deaf in 1924. In 1928 he wrote the first Iranian children's book in Persian tilted “Snowman Daddy”.

Besides writing for children, he has works for adults as well. The translation of Khayyam's quatrains into the local Azeri language is unique among his works The Azeri translation is also poetic as the original quatrain, which was unprecedented at his time.

After a lifetime of efforts to promote Iranian culture and language, Baghcheban passed away in 1966, at the age of 81.

SAB/