Performance of fairy-tales and contemporary children’s stories, arranged by Iranian children and by children’s theatre companies from Europe.

Goal: Additionally to reading children through acting are offered the opportunity to understanding deeper a strange culture.
Current trends in children’s theatre in Europe shall be presented to an Iranian audience.

1.1. Together with co-organizers and partners from the participating European countries and Iran European plays, tales and stories are selected, translated into Farsi and sent to Iran.
1.2. Each of them will be interpreted and rehearsed by a group of (school) children under guidance of their teachers and the Iranian project partners.
1.3. After intensive analysing of the translated European story (play) and its transformation the young actors in a workshop at the festival will come together with a professional children’s theatre group from the country the story comes from. Their members will work together with the children on the play in a final rehearsal.
1.4. Finally the play will be performed by the children at the festival.
1.5. Children’s theatre companies from Europe will perform a play at the festival. Apart from the final rehearsal (see 1.3.) they will guide and supervise workshops on literature and illustration.

Seminar “The meaning of children’s literature in intercultural dialogue, yesterday-today-tomorrow”. Seminar on the history of children’s literature; presentation of current trends and preview of future development in the field.
It will take place for a period of around 3 days at the time of the festival for children. The seminar-language will be English.

Goal: Scientific approach closely related to practical work with children.
Examination of (mutual) influence children’s literature from another country has in representing a different culture.

2.1. Before the seminar takes place the papers (in English) of the European participants are going to be collected and translated into Farsi.
2.2. Apart from experts the lectures in English will be open to the interested public (students), who will be supplied with the text in their mother tongue.
2.3. European and Iranian scientists and historians in the field of children’s literature together with translators of children’s books will also discuss chances and difficulties of translation and transformation of stories for children into different languages and cultures. Authors and illustrators are welcome to participate.

Workshop on literature for teenagers:
Guided by authors young people are invited to invent new stories, and develop them with the help of music, mimic art etc.

Goal: Through intensive cooperation between children and grown ups cultural barriers shall be crossed while learning from each other. Young people catch a glimpse of the art of writing, when developing their own stories. Although the emphasis is put on the process and on working together in intercultural exchange, some of the best results will be published in a book.

 >> more

3.1. Participating illustrators are asked to place drawings at the children’s disposal, which are being used as impulse or starting point for the young authors.
3.2. In Iran children develop stories inspired by the illustrations from European illustrators within the framework of the festival. Persons looking after the children during the workshops will be both from Europe and Iran. Different media at the supply of the children ranges from pencil and paper to material for fabricating puppets and masks, from musical instruments to tape recorder and video camera, all of which shall help the children to develop their stories, and serve as means of documentation.
3.3. Apart from the festival in Tehran children and teen-agers in Europe develop stories inspired by illustrations from Iranian illustrators. For example schoolchildren may write stories during summer term. Selected stories are being collected by the organizer.
3.4. The best results fit for publication will be selected from European and Iranian children’s stories by a jury. After the festival they will be published in a multilingual children’s book together with the respective illustrations (from participating illustrators). The book will be subsidised and sold in Iran for the equivalent of about 0,30 Euro (to enable Iranian children to buy a copy).

Drawing workshop: Iranian children and teen-agers illustrate stories from Europe; European children and teenagers illustrate stories from Iran.

Goal: Through intensive cooperation between children and grown ups cultural barriers shall be crossed while learning from each other. Young people catch a glimpse of the art of illustrating, while trying to tell a story with means different from words. Although the emphasis is put on the process and on working together of different generations in intercultural exchange, the most promising results will be published in a book.

 >> more

4.1. Participating authors are asked to place stories at the children’s disposal, which are being translated into the native language of the children, who are going to illustrate them (stories from Iran are being translated into English; stories from Europe into Farsi).
4.2. In Iran children illustrate stories from Europe within the framework of the festival. In the case of schoolchildren their teachers will be given the stories beforehand, in order to read them together in class before they come to the festival. In the case of children visiting workshops individually we will take care that the stories are very short (maybe poems), in order to assure that not much time is lost with reading and understanding, before they can start illustrating. Material like pencils, paper, etc. will be provided by the festival at the children’s disposal. European illustrators together with colleagues from Iran will lead the workshops.
4.3. Apart from the festival in Tehran children and teen-agers in Europe illustrate stories from Iran. For example schoolchildren may read and illustrate the translated stories during summer term. Selected pictures are being collected by the organizer.
4.4. The best illustrations fit for publication will be selected from European and Iranian children’s drawings by a jury. After the festival they will be published in a multilingual children’s book together with the respective stories (from participating authors). The book will be subsidised and sold in Iran for the equivalent of about 0,30 Euro (to enable Iranian children to buy a copy).

Nights of the storyteller: Inspired by existing traditions European and Iranian fairy-tales and children’s stories are passed on to the young generation while exploring new ways of storytelling.

Goal: Telling stories to an audience, which does not speak the language, asks from the author the highest skills in transmitting, since besides the language barrier other cultural barriers have to be crossed. The audience is confronted with different speech melodies, while it gets the opportunity to learn of various trends in European children’s literature.

5.1. Participating authors beforehand are asked to put together and supply the material they are planning to present during their reading. This will be translated into Farsi, to be ready for the festival.
5.2. The author is going to lecture in his/her mother tongue. Alternately the translated text will be read to the audience by a native Iranian. Besides it is thought of simultaneously performing the story (or parts of the story) in a puppet show through Iranian artists.
5.3. Documentation of the event with video cameras will also serve the purpose of enabling participating scientists in the field of children’s literature to analyse and work with the material afterwards.

Window to the world: Multilingual presentation of the festival in the worldwide-web for the interested public.
Goal: Getting to know the internet as the contemporary medium already at an early age; Learning about its technical facilities for communication and information.

click here to see the presentation of the activities during the festival

6.1. During preparation of the festival a homepage is installed to inform about the development of the project. Participating organisations are being introduced and links installed.
6.2. During the festival itself activities are going to be presented on the homepage.
6.3. A separate production room equipped with computers, access to the internet, scanners etc. will serve as basis during the festival.
6.4. Young children-journalists are going to be supplied with the necessary equipment to report on what’s going on. Experts on location are going to assist them in making short video clips, taking pictures, or interviewing participants. In this way for example those children back in Europe, who have contributed their drawings illustrating Iranian stories, get a chance to follow the event in the internet.

Showing of film versions of European children’s stories and fairytales, respectively children’s films in general.

Goal: Presenting examples of the rich tradition of European children’s films.

7.1. Selecting appropriate European films it will be taken care of the fact that they have to be understood (basically) without knowing the language. The “mystery” of the strange vernacular shall be preserved by showing the films not synchronised in original version.
7.2. In a separate room equipped with screen, speakers and projector during the whole festival films are being shown all day long.

Exhibition of European and Iranian children’s books for Iranian children, teenagers and grown ups.
Goal: Presenting the whole variety of children’s books from the different European countries and Iran.

8.1. Books from participating European countries are going to be collected and sent to Iran.
8.2. European publishers are asked to donate books for the exhibition, which will be given to libraries in Iran afterwards.
8.3. During selection emphasis will be laid on picture-books and comic-strips, since translations of text-books into Farsi still are rare.
8.4. From morning until evening during the whole festival the exhibition shall invite children and parents to discover books from other countries on their own. It will also function as buffer for the other activities. Groups of children waiting for the beginning of a workshop may spend some time there.