Marzieh Ashrafian

Marzi Ashrafian is an Iranian theatre artist and educator. She received a M.A in Puppet Theater from the University of Tehran. As an educator, researcher, director, dramaturg, and puppeteer, Marzi specializes in expanding the scholarship of puppet theatre and docutheatre for social change.

Her articles such as "Manifestation of Cyborg in Cinema" and "The Search for Identity of Puppet by a Philosophical Approach" have been published in the most prestigious artistic journal in Iran. Her dissertation centers on semantic aspects of cyborg on the stage, Middle Eastern theatre, and trauma and identity in theatre.

She worked as a freelance theatre educator in many schools and then established and served as Director of the Theatre Department in Sarzamin-Ghesehaye-Kohan (SGHK) Institute in Iran. Teenagers as audience and cast members have been often the center of her works. She directed theatre including “There was a Home,” “Dream of Shoe,” “Wolf and Sheep,” “Him,” and “The Wall,” most of which earned citations of merit at national and international festivals. She was the Chair of the research committee of The Third Children And Young Adult playwriting festival In Isfahan 2021.

The scholar/artist also has acting experience for stage. She is a member of the International Association of Theatre for Children and Young People (Assitej), the Iranian Branch of UNIMA, Literary Managers and Dramaturgs of the Americas (LMDA), and Association for Theatre in Higher Education (ATHE).