Meet the Company

Vahdat Yeganeh – Founder, Artistic Director

Iranian-born Vahdat is the founder of Boston Experimental Theatre Company (B.E.T.C), a laboratory to study and practice ‘Towards a Theatre of Unknown’ and “Dialogue Of Civilizations” AT B.E.T.C. Vahdat has created an environment for international artists to develop a cultural and psychoanalytic dialogue among each other and spectators. 

Mr. Yeganeh is a Learning Lead and the facilitator of the Dialogue of Civilizations program at the American Repertory Theater at Harvard University and a founding faculty and the assistant artistic director at PersPsy Analytic. 

Some of Mr. Yeganeh’s experiences in theatre include producing and directing the first American-Iranian co-productions (Creatures-2013, and Fish Tress-2017), three new plays from SHAHNAMEH: the Persian Book of Kings (2014, 2015, 2021), and an adaptation of Sadegh Hedayat’s masterpiece ‘Blind Owl’ (2015).

Mr. Yeganeh has also produced and directed Boston’s first Apartment productions (Apartment 2015 & 2017), where the spectators were invited to the apartment to observe the performances in the living room, basement, bathroom, shower, and bedrooms. 

In the summer of 2020 and during the Covid-19 pandemic, Vahdat Yeganeh produced and directed M(O)ther, the first collaboration among artists from Iran, Iraq, the U.S., Turkey, and South Africa. 

Vahdat produced The Last Dream project (2018) in support of more than 400,000 immigrant families that were in danger of deportation and family separation. The Last Dream play was toured along the East Coast and performed before U.S. Congress, Boston City Hall, Boston University, Harvard University, and at Imagination Stage in Maryland. The Last Dream documentary was made based on the play in 2019, which was nominated for the 43rd Boston/New England Emmy Award.  

Mr. Yeganeh has taught workshops and seminars on Experimental Theatre, Theatre and Psychoanalysis, the Theatre of Jerzy Grotowski, the Theatre of Antonin Artaud, and Theatre and Dialogue of Civilizations.  Vahdat also worked at The University of Massachusetts, Boston (UMASS Boston), Boston Graduate School of Psychoanalysis (BGSP), Boston University (BU), New England Conservatory (NEC), Hamava Institute of Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy (Iran), Nora Theatre, and Underground Railway Theatre (CST), Yale Repertory and SpeakEasy Stage Company. 

 In 2007, Vahdat won the best directing award from KCACTF for directing Friedrick Durrenmatt’s “Play Strindberg: Dance of death”

Additionally, Vahdat has worked on several films as an actor and producer. In 2008 he co-produced “Over There” which won the best prize, Golden Alexander, at the Thessaloniki International film festival for the best future movie. 

Other credits include directing and producing: Antonin Artaud’s “Spurt of Blood” and “To Have Done with the Judgment of God”(2012), Albert Camus’ “The Misunderstanding” (2011), Walter Davis’ “There Is Another Court” (2011), “The Other Woman” with Ruby Rose Fox (2009), “Crying Deer” (2008).  Working as the production Manager and associate director for the Children Theatre Company in Boston (CTC, 2005-2006), and directing Afshin Hashemi’s “The Most Honest Murderer of the World” (Iran, 2000). 


Donya Pooli Yeganeh – Actor

Very happy and excited to be working with B.E.T.C. Iranian-born and raised Donya Pooli Yeganeh is a playwright, actor, director, and stage designer since 2003. Her productions with Boston Experimental Company include M(O)ther (2020), Zahhak (2021), IsNotThatAnymore (2019), The Last Dream (2018), A Play on the Notion of Others (2018), The Golden House (Apartment 2017), Fish Tress (2017). 

Donya also was one of the writers, directors, and actors in ‘Poor Connection‘ (2020). Poor Connection was an online collaboration among three Iranian-American women living in the U.S. and reflected on their experiences during the Covid-19 pandemic. 

Donya has studied Psychodrama and Persian Classical Dance and is strongly influenced by Jerzy Grotowski’s physical theatre and Antonin Artaud’s psychological theatre. Donya has won the best stage design and the best production for her adaptation of “King Lear” (2011, Tehran). Additionally, she has worked for children’s theatre companies for the past 15 years, using theater for early childhood development. Donya has worked with A.R.T. Kids Company at Harvard University since the Fall of 2018.


Engin Ozsahin-Musician 

Artist Statement

With an eternally curious mind, Engin Ozsahin’s music is in constant flux, questioning preconceived notions with body awareness and momentary experience. Triggered by live piano performances of his compositions and spontaneous improvisations, he seeks to awaken diverse thoughts and emotions that foster introspection. A futurist, researcher, and chronicler at the same time, Engin aims to use jazz language as a means to report on what he’s seen, felt, and lived while being a caregiver to mother-nature. He is currently working on new music that seeks to explore how we perceive and react towards longer-than-human-life events.

Bio

Engin born in 1986, was brought up in Istanbul, Turkey. His first musical influence was his grandmother, who played compositions by Schubert, Rachmaninoff and Chopin. At age 6, he started to learn piano and became very interested in the melodies and harmonies of romantic era composers.

Although music being a passion, his cultural environment consisting of engineers and architects inspired him to take a similar path in life. He received a BSc in Mechanical Engineering from Yeditepe University, a MBA from Bahcesehir University in Istanbul and spent multiple years working as a business developer in corporate environments.

In the meantime, he attended the summer jazz workshop program at New York University, followed by Bahçeşehir University’s Jazz Certificate Programme in Istanbul. Through these experiences and exposure to new music, he met with minds alike and started to carve out more time from his professional life to study music.

Thanks to his studies with Istanbul’s music luminaries Baki Duyarlar and Güç Başar Gülle, he decided to quit working for corporate companies and follow his instincts to become a full-time musician.

In 2020, Engin received a BFA in Jazz Composition with honors from New England Conservatory in Boston. Receiving musical wisdom from Frank Carlberg, Jason Moran, Ken Schaphorst, Ethan Iverson, Bob Nieske, Jerry Leake and Warren Senders, he released his debut album using a jazz sextet he formed in January 2020.

At the same time, through his two-years long collaboration with Boston Experimental Theatre Company, he co-produced and performed multiple shows next to actors, with Zahhak -a 45 minutes long duo performance- to be released by March 2021. Engin was awarded Beneficient Society Scholarship in 2017 and his jazz compositions have been performed by Turkey’s National Radio Jazz Orchestra.

Currently, he resides in his hometown Istanbul, where he maintains his studio practice.


Robert Lublin – Dramaturge

Robert Lublin holds a Ph.D. in Theatre and is an Associate Professor of Theatre at the University of Massachusetts Boston. He regularly offers classes in theatre history, dramatic literature, and acting, and he directs productions. Most recently, he directed Charles Mee’s Big Love. Dr. Lublin has been B.E.T.C’s dramaturge since its inception.