TEHRAN -- The Manager of the Play Centers of Cultural and Artistic Organization of Tehran's Municipality Majid Giahchi said that holding Center's Festival will boost the public culture and knowledge of young theater lovers.

Pointing to the fact that performing plays will result in the growth of theater art in the country he added that the festival is sponsored by the Cultural and Artistic Organization of Tehran's Municipality in all of the cultural centers of Tehran.

Introducing the interested people to theater and providing them with educational facilities are among the duties of Tehran's Cultural Centers, he added.

The Secretariat of the festival, Hossein Atefi said that the fourth Festival of the Centers has been welcomed and 305 works have so far been presented to the secretariat office of the festival.

He added that from 305 received plays, 76 are related to children and puppet plays, 61 are street plays. A total of 277 plays participate in Iranian section while 28 plays take part in the foreign section.

He stated that 13 plays are to take part in the adult competition section, 10 plays in child competition section, 7 plays in puppet competition section, 8 plays in street competition section and 7 plays are to participate in the special section of the festival.

Holding lecture sessions with the masters of the country and broadcasting the famous tele-theaters of the world are among the other programs of the festival, he continued.

Mahdi Hashemi, Qotbeddin Sadeqi, Mohammadreza Safdari and Dariush Arjomand are the jury members of the adult section and Homa Rousta, Negar Ne'mati, Sahand Abidi and Azad Rouh-Bakhshan will judge the child section of the festival.

The festival is to be held from October 16 to 22 in the seven cultural centers and four public places.

The closing ceremony of the festival will be held in Bahman Cultural Center on October 22.