SOLD OUT

FISH TREES

A Theatre Collaboration Between Tehran (Iran) and Boston (U.S.) 

  May 2017 at Umass Boston

October 2017 at Harvard

(A Laboratory of Dialogue of Civilizations in Performing Arts) 

Written by Deniz Khateri 

 Directed by Vahdat Yeganeh 

Production director in Iran: Donya Pooli-Yeganeh 

Performed by Jared Wright (U.S.) Donya Pooli-Yeganeh (Iran) 

Shadow Puppetry created and performed by Deniz Khateri 

Music Director: Bahar Royaee 

Music performed by Pouya Shabanpour-Brianna Tagliaferro-Bahar Royaee 

Dramaturgy by Dr. Robert Lublin-Richard Saul Chason  

 Design supervisor: Rafael Jaen 

Production advisors: Dr.Robert Lublin-Professor Rafael Jaen (University of Massachusetts Boston)

Produced by Vahdat Yeganeh-Jared Wright- 2017

Special thanks: Dr. Dave Plonka, Dorsa Yeganeh, Emily Wright, Dorrin Yeganeh

Boston Experimental Theatre Company is excited to present Fish Trees. After two sold-out shows this spring at UMass Boston, we’re returning for an evening in October at Harvard University. This poetic drama tells a story of intercontinental love stifled by physical separation in an age of global fear. With this work in progress, we aim to continue our mission to embody Iranian philosopher Dariush Shayegan’s “Dialogue of Civilizations”, a set of anti-Isolationist philosophical ideals rooted in cross-cultural communication and creative expression. This philosophy spurs on artistic and intellectual work that serves as an attempt to spark global understanding and empathy and to foster a future of symbiotic cultural development and exchange. A company of American and Iranian artists with backgrounds in Islam, Christianity, Judaism, and Baha’i Faith, we strive to coalesce our own experiences and perspectives on the state of the contemporary world in an attempt to create a piece of theater universal in scope yet defined by the conflicts of our present day. As always, artistic director Vahdat Yeganeh leads the company through a highly improvisational rehearsal process inspired by the antirealistic dramatic philosophy of Antonin Artaud and the organic, minimalist directorial techniques of Jerzy Grotowski.

Last year, we had hoped to practice Dialogue of Civilizations by inviting Iranian theater artist Donya Pooli-Yeganeh to join the company and develop a different play. Donya was planning to come to America in January. Sadly, it became unclear when or if she could join us, due to Trump’s immigrant policies. We considered recasting her role for our original spring production, but we realized that what we really felt the need to do was to create a play directly inspired by this experience. So we began developing Fish Trees, a theater piece that manages to feature Donya even as she remained separated from us halfway across the world. We hope that this production of 21st-century artistic technique with 21st-century technology will shed light and revelation on some of the struggles the world now faces.

Boston Experimental Theatre Company (BETC)