Ali Nasr

Ali Nasr (1891–1961) was an Iranian dramatist and playwright and one of the founders of theatre in Iran.{{cite web |author=Ali Amini Najafi |title=تئاتر پیشرو ایران زیر پای کودتاگران |url=http://www.bbc.co.uk/persian/iran/2013/08/130819_l44_teater_coup.shtml |publisher=BBC Persian |access-date=Aug 20, 2013}} He was born in Kashan. When he was a young man, he went to Tehran and started to study the French language and literature. Then he went to Europe and studied theatre. After coming back to Iran, he founded an intellectual group named “Iran comedy” in 1925. Many prominent Iranian theatrical figures were part of this group and it became a very important factor in the development of modern Iranian drama. Nasr wrote many plays, and also founded an acting school in Tehran in 1939, where many important dramatists and actors studied.Khalaj, Mansoor. (1992). Iranian Playwrights. Tehran: Akhtaran. {{ISBN|964-7514-13-1}}. pp.113-117

Nasr has been described as one of the "fathers" of modern Iranian theater,

{{cite book

| last =Floor

| first =Willem M.

| title = The History of Theater in Iran

| publisher =Mage Publishers

| date =2005

| location =Waldorf, Maryland

| pages =261, 276, 290

| url =https://books.google.com/books?id=MqkbAQAAIAAJ&q=%22Ali+Nasr%22+playwright

| isbn =9780934211291

}}{{cite book

| last =Adle

| first =Chahryar

| author2=Madhavan K. |author3=Palat, Anara Tabyshalieva

| title =Towards the Contemporary Period: From the Mid-nineteenth to the End of the Twentieth Century

| publisher =UNESCO

| series =History of Civilizations of Central Asia

| location =Paris

| pages =777

| url =https://books.google.com/books?id=XPfcfF8LRWQC&dq=%22Ali+Nasr%22+playwright&pg=PA777

}} and its "leading personality".

{{cite book

| last =Gibb

| first =Hamilton Alexander Rosskeen

| title =The Encyclopaedia of Islam: MAHK-MID

| publisher =Brill Publishers

| date =1991

| location =Leiden

| pages =764

| url =https://books.google.com/books?id=PewpAQAAMAAJ&q=%22Ali+Nasr%22+playwright

| isbn =9789004081123

}}

Nasr became a prominent playwright during the reformist reign of Rezā Shāh. His plays expressed didactic, moralistic themes{{cite book

| last =Brisbane

| first =Katherine

| author2 =Ravi Chaturvedi |author3=Ramendu Majumdar |author3-link=Ramendu Majumdar |author4=Chua Soo Pong |author5=Minoru Tanokura

| title =The World Encyclopedia of Contemporary Theatre: Volume 5: Asia/Pacific

| publisher =Taylor & Francis

| date =2001

| location =Oxford

| pages =252

| url =https://books.google.com/books?id=-MUiXjMUl34C&dq=%22Ali+Nasr%22+playwright&pg=PA252

| isbn =9780203982471

}} promoting modernization, including literacy, the emancipation of women and opposition to social backwardness. His best known play, and an example of the type, is "Wedding of Hosseyn Āqā", written in 1939.{{cite book

| last =Gassner

| first =John

| title =The Reader's Encyclopedia of World Drama

| publisher =Courier Dover Publications

| date =2002

| location =Mineola, New York

| pages =[https://archive.org/details/readersencyclope0000gass/page/650 650]

| url =https://archive.org/details/readersencyclope0000gass

| url-access =registration

| quote =Ali Nasr playwright.

| isbn =9780486420646

}}