بررسی روند تاریخی اقتصاد تئاتر در ایران

Extensive historical research has explored performance and theater in Iran, frequently referencing the economic mechanisms underlying their production, distribution, and presentation.Yet none of these studies has explicitly examined the historical trajectory of theater’s economic development.Such an inquiry is vital, as analyzing the economy of contemporary theater reveals the roots of its current ineffectual, sterilized, and non-critical state.

This article traces the economic evolution of performance and theater across three historical periods.The first concerns the era when the phenomenon was known as namāyesh (traditional performance).The second begins in the late Qajar era, when modern theater entered Iran and developed alongside traditional performance, gradually marginalizing and ultimately supplanting it.This trajectory, marked by fluctuations, persisted into the 2000s.The third period, beginning in the 2000s, reflects the aggressive implementation of privatization policies and the retrenchment of the state.Theater, too, became subject to full-scale privatization—an initiative embraced not only by the state but also by theater practitioners, many of whom produced articles and organized seminars in support of privatized theater.

This study argues that, contrary to the claims of its proponents, privatized theater is neither a solution to the passivity of Iranian theater nor a viable means of improving the economic conditions of its practitioners.