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 director of the Dialogue of Civilizations program at American Repertory Theater at Harvard University, and a founding faculty member and the artistic director at PersPsy Analytic. He is also a recipient of the 2025 Arts & Cultural Organization Management (ACOM) cohort at Harvard University.
Vahdat has published two papers about his workshops on the Dialogue of Civilizations program at the American Repertory Theater at Harvard University (Read the papers)
Some of Mr. Yeganeh’s experiences in theatre include producing and directing Zahhak (2023 at the American Repertory Theater’s Ex), Medea (2025 at Boston University, and 2026 at Boston graduate School of Psychoanalysis) the first American-Iranian co-productions (Creatures-2013, and Fish Tress-2017 at UMass Boston and Harvard University), three new plays from SHAHNAMEH: the Persian Book of Kings (2014, 2015, 2021, 2023), and an adaptation of Sadegh Hedayat’s masterpiece ‘Blind Owl’ (2015 at Boston University).
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 summer 2020 and during the Covid-19 pandemic, Vahdat Yeganeh produced and directed M(O)ther, the first collaboration among artists from Iran, Iraq, U.S., Turkey, and South Africa.
Vahdat produced The Last Dream play (2018-2019) in support of more than 1 million 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. In 2019, he co-produced The Last Dream documentary based on the play, which was nominated for the 43rd Boston/New England Emmy Award, and won The National Award for Best Community Media Production for Activism (2020).
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. As a director, producer, dramaturge, educator, and assistant director, Vahdat has also worked at the American Repertory Theater at Harvard University, Yale Repertory, the Huntington Theatre Company, Speakeasy Stage Company, Gloucester Stage Company, 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).
In 2007, Vahdat won the best directing award from KCACTF for directing Friedrich Dürrenmatt’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. Vahdat is also a co-producer of the film “Dream Destroyed“, a documentary about more than 1.3 million families with Temporary Protected Status (TPS) who are in danger of deportation and family separation.
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 has been a playwright, actor, director, and stage designer since 2003. Her productions with Boston Experimental Company include Medea (2025-2026), Zahhak (2021, 2023), M(O)ther(2020), IsNotThatAnymore (2019), The Last Dream (2018-2019), A Play on the Notion of Others (2018), The Golden House (Apartment 2017), Fish Tress (2017). Donya was also 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 the physical theatre of Jerzy Grotowski and the psychological theatre of Antonin Artaud. Donya won Best Stage Design and Best Production for her adaptation of “King Lear” (2011, Tehran). Additionally, she has worked with children’s theatre companies for the past 20 years, using theatre for early childhood development. Donya worked with The Kids Company at the American Repertory Theater at Harvard University from 2018 to 2023)
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.’s dramaturge since its inception.
