Due to unforeseen circumstances this event has been canceled.  It will be rescheduled in the future.

Join us for a conversation with Professor Bahram Beyzaie and Ms. Mojdeh Shamsaie to discuss Dash Akol According to Marjan (Part 1 and Part 2), performed at Berkeley Repertory Theatre. Event is in Persian. Please note: venue has limited seating, a free ticket is required for entry on a first come, first serve basis. Please cancel your ticket if you can no longer join us.

Bahram Beyzaie is a well known Iranian critic, researcher, teacher, playwright, stage director (and producer), screenwriter and filmmaker (director, producer and editor).  He was first introduced to western audiences at the age of 25, when his play was staged at the Festival du Theater des Nations in Paris in 1963.  After years of uncompromising creative work, he became Professor and Chair of the Dramatic Arts Department at Tehran University until the Islamic Revolution.  He has been the Daryabari Visiting Lecturer at Stanford University’s Iranian Studies Program since 2010, lecturing on topics such as Iranian cinema, Iranian theater and cinema, and mythology.  Beyzaie’s literary heritage, from his parents, is reflected not only in his prose writings, his plays and films but also in his own personal style and critical outlook.  He has written monographs in volumes on Iranian, Japanese and Chinese theater, and a book on Hitchcock films. He has also undertaken extensive research on the roots of One Thousand and One Nights resulting in two monographs, Seeking the Roots of the Old Tree, followed by one about the missing ancient book of Hezar Afsan (One Thousand and One Night as it is called in its Arabic translation). In the past five decades, Beyzaie has published more than 35 plays, some of them translated and published in English, French, German and Portuguese and also more than 50 screenplays.  Despite many obstacles imposed on his life and career he has directed seven of his plays on the stage himself and in his own personal style in Tehran. Amongst these the film version of Death of Yazdgerd is available as an example of his artistic expression and historical and cultural view.   Furthermore, he has made ten feature and four short films: Mustachioed Uncle; The Journey; Talking with the Wing; The Speaking Carpet.  His feature films are: Downpour; The Stranger and the Fog; The Crow; The Ballad of Tara; Death of Yazdgerd; Bashu, The Little Stranger; Maybe Some Other Time; The Travelers; Killing Mad Dogs; While We Are All Asleep.  His theater works are, all except for one, directions of his own plays and include: The Puppets, The Heritage and The Feast, King Snake, Death of Yazdgerd, Lady Aoi (by Mishima Yukio), Testament of Bondar Bidakhsh, The One thousand and First Night, The Passion play of the Maestro Navid Makan and His Wife Archaeologist Rokhshid Farzin, and Afra or the Day Passes.  In the last 10 years, he directed a shadow play titled Jana and Baladoor, Arash, One Thousand and First Night, Ardaviraf’s Report, Tarabnameh parts 1 and 2, Crossroads, and Dash Akol According to Marjan (part 1)–all sponsored by the Iranian Studies Program at Stanford University and the Stanford Festival of Iranian Arts.

Mojdeh Shamsaie graduated with a degree in theater.  Her artistic activity began in 1987 with makeup work on the films Maybe Some Other Time.  Travelers (a film directed by Bahram Beyzaie in 1991) and the play Cherry Orchard (directed by Roknoddin Khosrowi) mark the start of her acting career.  She received the Best Actor award for her role in Killing Mad Dogs and Best Makeup artist award for The Last Curtain.  Her ongoing collaboration with Bahram Beyzaie over the past thirty years has resulted in four feature films, two short films, and twelve stage plays–the last six of which were produced with the support of the Iranian Studies Program at Stanford University.  Since 2015, alongside Beyzaie, she has been involved in training aspiring actors in acting workshops organized by the Iranian Studies Program at Stanford University, and has worked as an actress, assistant director, and production manager.  The book “Kyogen: The Joyful Theater of Japan” was published based on her research.

Part of the Stanford Festival of Iranian Arts

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