Azar Mortazavi, born in 1984 in Wittlich/Rhineland-Palatinate. She studied creative writing and cultural journalism in Hildesheim.
In 2008, she took part in the international theatre meeting “Festival of Young European Playwrights” in Utrecht. For her play “Todesnachricht” (premiere 2011 at the Pfalztheater Kaiserslautern) she was awarded the Else-Laske-Schüler-Dramatikerpreis in 2010. In 2011, her short drama “Himmel und Hölle” (Heaven and Hell) was invited to the first Karlsruhe Playwrights’ Festival at the Badisches Staatstheater Karlsruhe.
In 2011, Azar Mortazavi was awarded the exile-drama award of the WIENER WORTSTAETTEN for her second play, “Ich wünsch mir eins”, which premiered in 2012 at the Osnabrück Theatre under the direction of Annette Pullen. With this play, she received an invitation to the Mülheim Theatre Festival and the Autorentheatertage Berlin 2013.
In 2014, “Urteile”, a documentary theatre project about the victims of the NSU in Munich, which was created in collaboration with director Christine Umpfenbach, premiered at the Residenztheater in Munich. He also created the youth theatre project “Am Ende ist man immer nur wer anderes” for the Theater Strahl in Berlin. In 2015, “Sammy and the Night” premiered at the Osnabrück Theatre.
In her theatre plays, the German-Iranian author deals with themes such as migration, loss of homeland and the search for identity. In addition to dramatic texts, she is currently working on a longer story in which she deals with her second home, Iran.
In 2011 she won the exile-drama Award with her play “Ich wünsch mir eins”.
As part of the WIENER WORTSTAETTEN she wrote the play “Zwischenzeit”, which had its world premiere in November 2014 at the Theater Nestroyhof under the direction of Hans Escher.
Reading sample
Azar Mortazavi took part in the EU Project Fabulamundi – Playwriting Europe. Beyond Borders? teil.
In the course of the project Entgegnungen she wrote the play “Dialog mit dem Kind in dir”.
Photo credit: Waldemar Salesski