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"“I was drawn to the characters. A Moment of Silence made me think about life, art, and freedom of expression.” – Mooney on Theatre; “Isfahan Blues is presented as a memory play…[and] this is a play that knows how to have fun with itself.” – Bay Area Reportero; “Manus, however, for all its pain, hums with vital life – not least the power, good and bad, of storytelling.” – The Guardian; The soggy wetness is a metaphor for the state of mind of detainees at Manus Island, whose real-life stories of oppression are told verbatim in this production by Iranian playwrights Leila Hekmatnia and Keyvan Sarreshteh. It also, however, has a more literal meaning: representing how these “boat people” tried to reach Australia and a new life: by floating on – and sometimes drowning in – water."" - The Guardian."

I was drawn to the characters. A Moment of Silence made me think about life, art, and freedom of expression. - Mooney on Theatre; Isfahan Blues is presented as a memory play...[and] this is a play that knows how to have fun with itself. - Bay Area Reportero; Manus, however, for all its pain, hums with vital life - not least the power, good and bad, of storytelling. - The Guardian; The soggy wetness is a metaphor for the state of mind of detainees at Manus Island, whose real-life stories of oppression are told verbatim in this production by Iranian playwrights Leila Hekmatnia and Keyvan Sarreshteh. It also, however, has a more literal meaning: representing how these boat people tried to reach Australia and a new life: by floating on - and sometimes drowning in - water. - The Guardian.

Author Information

"Torange Yeghiazarian founded Golden Thread in 1996 where she launched such visionary programs as ReOrient Festival & Forum, Middle East America (in partnership with the Lark and Silkroad Rising), Islam 101 (with Hafiz Karmali), New Threads, and the Fairytale Players. Torange's plays include ISFAHAN BLUES, 444 DAYS, THE FIFTH STRING: ZIRYAB'S PASSAGE TO CORDOBA, and CALL ME MEHDI. Awards include the Gerbode-Hewlett Playwright Commission Award (ISFAHAN BLUES) and a commission by the Islamic Cultural Center of Northern California (THE FIFTH STRING). Her short play CALL ME MEHDI is published in the anthology ""Salaam. Peace: An Anthology of Middle Eastern-American Drama,"" TCG 2009. She adapted the poem, I SELL SOULS by Simin Behbehani to the stage, and directed the premieres of OUR ENEMIES: LIVELY SCENES OF LOVE AND COMBAT and SCENIC ROUTES by Yussef El Guindi, THE MYTH OF CREATION by Sadegh Hedayat, TAMAM by Betty Shamieh, STUCK by Amir Al-Azraki and VOICE ROOM by Reza Soroor, amongst others. Her articles on contemporary theatre in Iran have been published in The Drama Review (2012), American Theatre Magazine (2010), and Theatre Bay Area Magazine (2010), and HowlRound. Torange has contributed to the Encyclopedia of Women and Islamic Cultures and Cambridge World Encyclopedia of Stage Actors. Born in Iran and of Armenian heritage, Torange holds a Master's degree in Theatre Arts from San Francisco State University. Torange has been recognized by Theatre Bay Area and is one of Theatre Communication Group's Legacy Leaders of Color. She was honored by the Cairo International Theatre Festival (2016) and the Symposium on Equity in the Entertainment Industry (2017). Sholeh Wolpe is an Iranian-born poet, playwright and literary translator. Her performances, solo or in collaboration with musicians and artists, have been hailed by audiences as mesmerizing. Named a ""2020-2021 Cultural Trailblazer"" by the City of Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs, Sholeh is the recipient of a 2014 PEN Heim, 2013 Midwest Book Award and 2010 Lois Roth Persian Translation prize, as well as artist fellowship and residencies in the U.S., Mexico, Spain, Australia and Switzerland. Her plays have been finalists and semifinalists at at Bay Area Playwrights Festival, Eugene O'Neill National Playwrights Conference, Centenary Stage Women Playwrights, Ojai Playwrights Festival, and Ashland New Plays Festival. Sholeh 's literary work includes five collections of poetry, several plays, three books of translations, and three anthologies. Her most recent publications include The Conference of the Birds (W.W. Norton & Co), Como escribir una cancion de amor (Olifante Ediciones de Poesia, Spain), and Keeping Time with Blue Hyacinths (University of Arkansas Press.) Sholeh has performed her literary work with world-renowned musicians at Quincy Jones Presents series on The Broad Stage, Skirball Cultural Center Series, Los Angeles Aloud, The Broad Museum, LA County Museum of Art Ahmanson stage, Singapore Literature Festival, UNSW School of Arts and Media theater, and other venues. Her libretto for a new oratorio, The Conference of the Birds, composed by Fahad Siadat and choreographed by Andre Megerdichian will premiere in Los Angeles in 2022. Sholeh Wolpe travels internationally as a performing poet, writer and public speaker. She has also taught at UCLA-- where she was the inaugural Writer-in-Residence in 2018-- as well as University of Maine's Stonecoast MFA program in the United States. She has lived in Iran, Trinidad and the UK, and presently lives in Los Angeles with her husband, sociologist Edward Telles. Sholeh is presently a Writer-in-Residence at University of California, Irvine. Naghmeh Samini (PhD), playwright, scriptwriter and lecturer in Dramatic Arts, was born in Iran and received her BA in Drama and MA in Cinema from the University of Tehran. She did her PhD in Art Studies at the University of Tarbiat Modarres in Tehran with a thesis focused on Drama and Mythology. More than twenty of her plays have been staged in Iran, France, India, Canada, the United States and other countries. These include Sleeping in an Empty Cup, Sky Horses Rain Ashes, Making Faces and The Home. Her screenplays, including Main Line and Heiran and 3 women won awards. In 2007 critics selected her as one of the five top playwrights in Iran. Her plays are experimental in structure and handle a variety of topical subjects at personal and sociopolitical levels. Inspired by One Thousand and One Night, she uses magic realism and non-linear narratives in her plays. One of her recent plays entitled The King and the Mathematician: A Legend(2012) was selected by UNESCO as one of the cultural achievements of the year. Naghmeh has been Assistant Professor/Lecturer in Dramatic Literature at the Faculty of Music and Performing Arts, University of Tehran, since 2005. She was also affiliated with the School of Drama, University of Washington between 2012 and 2017. She has run several creative writing and drama workshops in Iran and abroad. As a researcher, she has several publications among which the most important ones are two books: one about One Thousand and One night entitled The Book of Love and Magic (Tehran: Markaz, 2000) and the other which is focused on reflections of Iranian Mythology in Iranian drama is entitled The Theatre of Myths (Tehran: Ney, 2008). The latter book won the awards of 'the best book of the year' in Iran in 2010. She has recently submitted her manuscript for a monograph entitled Battles and Bodies (Tehran: Ney, forthcoming 2019) on the semiotics of human body in post-war Japanese cinema. Nagmeh has published numerous articles and delivered lectures on cinema, theatre and cultural studies in Persian and English. Her most recent lecture delivered in Stanford University was entitled 'Feminine body and Feminine Mind in Iranian Cinema. Naghmeh has won several scholarships and bursaries for her creative writing and research projects from Japan Foundation, Aschberg UNESCO and other cultural organisations. Mohammad Yaghoubi was born in 1967 in Langaroud, a town on the Caspian Sea. While pursuing studies in judicial law, he joined a university theater company in 1988. The following year, he wrote his first play and took his first steps on stage. Less captivated by the limelight than passionate about writing, he nevertheless decided to take training as an actor in the school run by Hamid Samandarian, a veteran of drama in Iran. Convinced that theatrical writing cannot be taught, Mohammad Yaghoubi hopes to expand his writing as a dramatic author by learning the art of the actor. This same desire for training in writing through scenic practice also pushes him to try his hand at directing. After several theatrical experiences in the basements of private houses, his first production was officially presented in 1997 to the public at the City Theater in Tehran. He then began to publish and mount his first plays. The shows are linked, the collections of pieces follow one another and the prizes obtained in the framework of the most prestigious Iranian festivals accumulate. Despite the setbacks encountered with the censorship of the Ministry of Culture, which Mohammad Yaghoubi readily criticizes publicly, his name is today one of the most influential author-directors of his generation. He then began to publish and mount his first plays. The shows are linked, the collections of pieces follow one another and the prizes obtained in the framework of the most prestigious Iranian festivals accumulate. Despite the setbacks encountered with the censorship of the Ministry of Culture, which Mohammad Yaghoubi readily criticizes publicly, his name is today one of the most influential author-directors of his generation. He then began to publish and mount his first plays. The shows are linked, the collections of pieces follow one another and the prizes obtained in the framework of the most prestigious Iranian festivals accumulate. Despite the setbacks encountered with the censorship of the Ministry of Culture, which Mohammad Yaghoubi readily criticizes publicly, his name is today one of the most influential author-directors of his generation. OTHER WORKS Where were you winter 1988 ?, The dance of the pieces of paper, Goodbye, Heart of a dog, From the darkness, Red and the others, The geraniums, The only possible way, Berlin, Write in the dark, Drought and lies, Crows and men. Keyvan Sarreshteh is a multi-disciplinary artist based in Tehran. He graduated from B.A of Puppet Theater from the University of Tehran and since then he has worked as a writer, performer, director, researcher, translator, and lecturer. His focus is on Memory, Space and Location and correlation between these three as well as interpersonal relations and political powers. As a playwright, Keyvan Sarreshteh has been involved in various projects that highlighted his focus on concepts of political and personal histories. His works have been featured in many local and international festivals, including Adelaide Festival, Vienna Festwochen, Fadjr International Theater Festival, and so on. He was the artistic director of the Microleev Theater Festival between 2015-2019. Leila Hekmatnia is a poet and playwright who has a Masters degree in theatre from the University of Tehran. She co-wrote the verbatim play 'Manus' based on the testimonies of asylum seekers held in Australia's off-shore processing centre on Manus Island. The play was performed at the Adelaide festival in South Australia and internationally."

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