Amin Azimi

Amin Azimi is an Iranian-Canadian scholar-practitioner, director, and critic, currently completing a PhD in Drama, Theatre, and Performance Studies at the University of Toronto. He holds an MA in Cinema Studies and a BA in Dramatic Literature. His dissertation, “Dissensus Dramaturgy: Rethinking the Politics of Dramaturgy in Contemporary Iranian Theatre,” traces the aesthetics and sociopolitical stakes of post-2009 Iranian performance across stage, screen, and digital platforms. More broadly, his research addresses post-dramatic and documentary theatre, transnational dramaturgy, and the politics of cultural production, with special attention to digital intermediality and diaspora publics.

Azimi’s articles have appeared in Asian Theatre Journal, Alternatives théâtrales, Theatre der Zeit, Cinema and Literature. A former board member—and multiple-time “Selected Theatre Critic of Iran”—of the Iranian Theatre Critics, Writers and Researchers Association, he has also curated the Iranian Diaspora Cinematheque project and served as a research assistant for the Cinema Iranica initiative. His creative portfolio includes directing works by Georges Perec, Peter Shaffer, Arthur Miller, and Alireza Naderi; dramaturging Oedipus on the Road (Théâtre de l’Auditorium Saint-Germain, Paris, 2007); and making the essay films Cookies & Black Hole (2021) and Inferno (2024). He is the recipient of a SSHRC Doctoral Fellowship, the Elahé Omidyar Mir-Djalali Dissertation Completion Fellowship, and the 2024-25 Ontario Graduate Scholarship. Azimi’s teaching and public talks span devised performance, digital storytelling, and contemporary Iranian art.

Contributions

“Primitive Apparatus”: The Dramaturgy of Hyperrealism in the Digital Cinema of ‛Abbas Kiarostami

Figure 1: Portrait of ‛Abbās Kiarostami using a digital camera The transformations brought about by the use of digital tools…