Actor and acting pedagogue Ivan Bekjarev dedicated a large part of his theatrical work to the Festival of Monodrama and Pantomime, first as an actor, and then as a long-term selector for monodrama and artistic director.

He performed for the first time as an actor in the festival project "Defense of Pero Todorović", where he was an adapter, director and actor, in 1980 at the VIII Festival of monodrama and pantomime. The play was based on the memoirs of journalist Pero Todorović and brought a picture of the political situation in Serbia in the 1980s, during the reign of King Milan Obrenović. The play was played many times, and was recorded for the Drama Program of Television Belgrade and shown the same year.

He appeared for the second time as an actor in the play "Forest Citizen" based on a story by Momo Dimić. The collaborator on the dramatization of the writer Dimić was Ivan Bekjarev, and the director was Aleksandar Đorđević. The role of the unadapted man Babi Pupuška brought Ivan Bekjarev the Golden Medal of the audience at the XI festival of monodrama and pantomime in 1983.

Finally, he appeared for the third time as a monodrama actor in the work of the writer Vidosav Stevanović "The Wolf for the Second Time Among the Wolves"; Associate-consultant to the actor and director Ivan Bekjarev was prof. Dr. Branivoj Đorđević. The play was performed at the XV Monodrama and Pantomime Festival in 1988.

As is well known, the Monodrama and Pantomime Festival was shut down between 1993 and 1996; The reasons for this interruption should be sought in the general political, social and economic situation in Serbia, as well as in the fact that the Stage in Zemun of the National Theater, where the Festival was held, got a new owner, which deprived not only space for programs, but also working space required for the smooth operation of the Festival services.
In 1996, a group of theater enthusiasts launched an initiative to renew the Festival. That group included Borislav Balac, Ivan Bekjarev, Ljiljana Blagojevic, Ivica Klemenc and Radomir Putnik. The then political leadership of the city of Zemun accepted the proposal for the renewal of the Festival and appointed Ivan Bekjarev as the selector.

Ivan Bekjarev served as a selector for monodrama as well as artistic director from 1996 to 2010. These are the years of the full rise of the Festival, its wide international affirmation, and on the artistic level by sharpening the criteria, on the one hand, and supporting young actors to try themselves in a difficult stage discipline, on the other hand. As the artistic director, Ivan Bekjarev made a great contribution to giving public recognition to prominent drama artists on the occasion of their anniversaries - Branka Veselinović, Rada Đuričin and Predrag Tasovac. The Festival of Monodrama and Pantomime was organized by Ivan Bekjarev himself to mark the 40th anniversary of his artistic work in 2004, not only with a special recognition, but also as an opportunity to open the XXIX Festival of Monodrama and Pantomime as a laureate.

Ivan Bekjarev's long-term selective work on selecting monodrama plays was not only a practical job of watching and evaluating plays, but also encouraged him to think theoretically about various questions and dilemmas that the play of a monodrama poses to the creator-actor. Hence, he had the need to reasonably and analytically examine all the factors that create, influence and enable the research work of the actor on the monodrama, so as a result of his theoretical reflection on acting, a small study "Essay on Monodrama" was awarded at the Cultural Center Pozarevac. marking the day of Milivoj Živanović in 2008 and published in a collection of special works dedicated to the art of acting.

Thanks to the great work energy, firmly built criteria and clearly defined physiognomy of the Festival, the Zemun review of monodrama achievements had a great and significant support in the activities of Ivan Bekjarev and achieved high artistic achievements. It can be concluded with certainty that Ivan Bekjarev gave a huge creative contribution to the Festival of Monodrama and Pantomime in a certain period of time and thus marked its artistic content.

Radomir Putnik