Qualitative and Quantitative Evaluation of Productions of Sacred Defense Theatre in Iran (Concerning Activities of “the Revolution and Sacred Defense Theatre Association”)

Theatrical works of art related to Iraq & Iran war are refered to as the genre of “The Sacred Defense Theatre”. Although various organizations were established to support these works but this genre have not been produced continuously. Indeed, the Sacred Defense Theatre is a kind of war theatre that not only deals with themes, situations, events and characters of war but also reflects moral and religious values, and heroic actions and sacrifice of Iranian militants and people. This definition is rooted in the belief that sacred defense because of its religious base values (Ashoora) is different with common wars. Even though, application of the term “theatre of war” for this kind of theatre could mention on some part of dramas and performances in the area but it doesn’t involve doctrinal content and series of symbols, characters and special language which just could be studied in the Sacred Defense area. Sacred defense theatre has been prominent in two periods of time since beginning the war: 1) from beginning to the end of war (1359-1367). In this time. sacred defense theatre appeared in different forms: A) in rears and cities B) in fronts ; 2) from end of war till today. In first years of war, sacred defense theatre mostly were performed in form of propaganda. In this time, dealing with themes about the war was more important than artistic and technical aspects of dramatic works. Characterization and creations of new characters in dramatic works of sacred defense theatre gradually have been developed from last years of war till mid-1370. New Characters were in different forms such as: injured in war, released prisoners of war, families of martyrs, lost and ... in the second part, from mid-1370 till today, linguistic matters, dialogue writing, new themes specially social and political criticism have been emphasized. Foundation for Preservation and Publication of Values from 1369 and The Revolution and Sacred Defense Theatre Association from 1375 started their activities to improve qualitative and quantitative level of sacred defense theatre works by holding festivals and planning for producing the plays. The article analyzes functions and activities of The Revolution and Sacred Defense Theatre Association and tries to answer following questions: “Despite the presence of some organizations to support, produce and perform sacred defense theatre why these theatres have not continued in performance?” and “What problems and barriers have been raised about producing and public performance of sacred defense theatre?” Finally, we focus on activities of The Revolution and Sacred Defense Theatre Association from 1378 to 1387 in three different domains of planning, producing and anniversary report to make certain norms for evaluating these activities. This article concludes that main problems in producing sacred defense theatre are lack of certain strategies; weak management and planning; unrealized projects and stoppage of investment. We propose some solutions such as semi-governmental process of producing and supporting the active groups. The authors use relative statistics, charts and graphs to analyze quantitative data in order to prove their hypothesis.