About the Program Paul Crewes Rachel Fine Artistic Director Managing Director IN COLLABORATION WITH MARK AMIN PRESENT A PRODUCTION OF FICTIONVILLE STUDIO AND BANU PRODUCTIONS CONCEIVED, DESIGNED IN COLLABORATION WITH ORIGINAL MUSIC BY AND DIRECTED BY Larry Reed and Loga Ramin Torkian Hamid Rahmanian ShadowLight Productions and Azam Ali WRITTEN AND ADAPTED BY CO-WRITTEN BY BASED ON THE BOOK CAST OF CHARACTERS (in order of appearance) Hamid Rahmanian Vikas Menon Shahnameh: The Epic of PERFORMANCE BY FRED C. RILEY III; VOICE BY CHARLIE VARON.......................................................................................NARRATOR the Persian Kings PERFORMANCE AND VOICE BY FRED C. RILEY III................................................................SAUM/KNIGHT IN THE PERSIAN COURT PERFORMANCE AND VOICE BY ROSE NISKER..............................................................................................SIMORGH/MAGICAL BIRD STORYBOARDS AND PUPPETS HANDCRAFTED BY ASSISTANT DIRECTOR PERFORMANCE BY LORNA VELASCO GABRIELA GARCIA; VOICE BY RYAN TASKER....ZAUL/SON OF SAUM, HERO OF THE STORY CONCEPT DEVELOPMENT BY Neda Kazemifar and Fred C. Riley III VOICE BY MARC THOMSON....................................................................................................KING MANUCHEHR/KING OF PERSIA Syd Fini Spica Wobbe PERFORMANCE BY AUREEN ALMARIO; VOICE BY MARC THOMPSON...........................................MEHRAB/GOVERNOR OF KABUL PERFORMANCE BY ROSE NISKER; VOICE BY JERI LYNN COHEN.........................................................SINDOKH/WIFE OF MEHRAB DIGITAL MEDIA DIRECTED COSTUMES MADE BY PERFORMANCE BY DINA ZARIF; VOICE BY LISA HORI-GARCIA..................RUDABEH/DAUGHTER OF MEHRAB & SINDOKHT AND ORCHESTRATED BY Dina Zarif LOGA RAMIN TORKIAN, AZAM ALI, SINAN CEM EROGLU, Mohammad Talani HABIB MEFTAH BOUSHEHRI, OMER AVCI, AND DINA ZARIF....................................................................................MUSICIANS PERFORMED BY Aureen Almario, Ya Wen Chien, Gabriela Garcia , Ariel Lauryn, Rose Nisker, Jon Riddleberger, Fred C. Riley III, Lorna Velasco, and Dina Zarif MAJOR FUNDING PROVIDED BY SPECIAL THANKS Feathers of Fire is represented by The Neda Nobari Foundation, Hamid Neda Nobari, Neda Amidi, Bita Shafipour, Lisa Booth Management, Inc., NYC Shafipour and Fereshteh Amin, Tahbazof Steven McIntosh, Sheila Canby, Ahmad Tel 212 921-2114 PRODUCED BY CO-PRODUCED BY Family Foundation, Nasiri Foundation, Sadri, Mahsa Hakimi, Parastou Mabodi, Email: [email protected] Hamid Rahmanian, Melissa Hibbard Ahmad Kiarostami Bijan and Soraya Amin Foundation, James Longley, Scott V. Burkhardt, www.kingorama.com and Nasim Yazdani Strypemonde Foundation, Maximum Gregory P. Scalco, Paul Dresher Difference Foundation, Saeed and Samira Ensemble, Ahmad Mortazavi, and A PROJECT OF Amidi, Susan Morshed, Kian Amidhozour, Shanna Nasiri. Two Chairs Inc. Farid Falsafi and Afsaneh Vali Najad, Lily Sarafan, Farzam and Azadeh Hariri and Farshid and Guila Zanjani, Maximum OCTOBER 20-29, 2017 Difference Foundation, Shahab Tehrani and Bram Goldsmith Theater Nazila Habibizad, Babak Agha and Meroeh Meraji, Shahin Jansepar, Majid & Maryam Rahimian, Maryam Ansari and Running time: 70 minute performance, followed by a 20 minute presentation Nader Ansari Projectors provided by: Canon USA Community Sponsor: Farhang Foundation Production Sponsor: Mercedes-Benz of Beverly Hills PERFORMANCES MAGAZINE P25 About the Program About the Artists HAMID RAHMANIAN AZAM ALI (Composer) is one ARIEL LAURYN (Ensemble) (Creator, Designer & Director,) a of the most prolific, versatile, is a puppeteer, physical 2014 Guggenheim Fellow, is an and gifted singers/ composers comedian, and theater maker award winning visual artist/ on the international music stage based in Brooklyn. She has filmmaker born and educated in today. Azam’s most notable performed with The Very Hungry Tehran, Iran. His work centers on work is with the cutting-edge Caterpillar Show (Off Broadway), film and graphic arts. His world music electro-acoustic Puppet Kitchen, Trusty Sidekick, narrative and documentary films have premiered at project NIYAZ. Her distinctive voice can be heard on Columbia Stages, Physical Comedy Lab, and LES Venice, Sundance, Toronto, Tribeca and IDFA Film myriad film and television scores including “Thor- Shakespeare. Her original works have been produced Festivals. He has won numerous international awards The Dark World”, "Matrix- Revolutions", “Prince of by CalArts, Fringe Festivals, Dixon Place, Triskelion and his works have been televised on international Persia- The Sands of Time”, “The Fight Club”, “True Arts, The Pit Loft, and The Tank. MFA Physical Theater networks including PBS, Sundance Channel, IFC, Blood”, "Alias", "The Agency, and "Prison Break". (Dell'Arte International). Channel 4, BBC, and Al Jazeera. Rahmanian Azam has also collaborated with numerous undertook the immense task of illustrating and musicians such as Serj Tankian of System of a Down, ROSE NISKER (Ensemble) is commissioning a new translation and adaptation of Peter Murphy of Bauhaus, Dredg, Chris Vrenna a dancer, theater performer, and Shahnameh by Ferdowsi, entitled, Shahnameh: The formerly of Nine Inch Nails, Kodo, Zakir Hussain, aerial rope/fabric artist. She’s Epic of the Persian Kings (2013, Quantuck Lane and Mickey Hart. performed at venues across the Press), which is now in its second edition and globe including 6 tours to available as an audiobook. Rahmanian has created a AUREEN B. ALMARIO Indonesia, EXPO ‘86 Vancouver, pop-up book based on his Shahnameh, which is due (Ensemble) is an actor, and the World Festival of Sacred out in 2018. performance artist and Music at the Hollywood Bowl. She holds a BA from educator. She is a resident artist UCLA in World Arts and Cultures, is a principal artist LARRY REED (Shadow at Bindlestiff Studio in San with renowned Balinese performing arts company A little over a thousand years and places, teaches them about the Master) is an internationally Francisco, CA and the Gamelan Sekar Jaya, and the Artistic Director of Les recognized theater director and co-founder of all female sketch Aerielles, an Oakland-based aerial youth arts troupe. history of civilization and reinforces ago a Persian poet named is one of the few American group Granny Cart Gangstas. She is currently the Ferdowsi of Tous collected the positive attributes of what it dalangs (“shadow masters”) of lead in Chasing Papeles, written by her sister Andrea JON RIDDLEBERGER means embrace all of one’s humanity. and put into heroic verse the traditional Balinese shadow Almario, a play which explores the undocumented (Ensemble) is a NYC based actor, It is our intention to highlight the theater known as Wayang Kulit. experiences of Filipina caregivers. puppeteer, and teacher. He has millennium old mythological strength of the culture and promote The founder and artistic director of ShadowLight performed around the world as a and epic traditions of Iran. a more complex and interesting view Productions, Reed has pioneered contemporary YA WEN (WINNIE) CHIEN puppeteer and is an artistic of Iran here in the United States. shadow theater by integrating traditional shadow (Ensemble) was born in Taiwan associate of Theater theater techniques with film, modern theater, and and currently lives and works in Reconstruction Ensemble in NYC. It took him thirty years to write the dance styles. A true multidisciplinary artist, Reed has San Francisco. She studied MA He has been a puppeteer with Dead Puppet Society, sixty thousand verses that comprise Our goal is to present a more also written, directed, and produced films in the US digital Media in University of Handspring Puppet Company, Mettawee River the Shahnameh (The Book of Kings). holistic view of Iran to wider and Mexico. Shadow Master (1979) has been shown the West of England, Bristol. Theatre Company, Our Voices, InkFish Productions This monumental tome is one of audiences by presenting stories and on the PBS and the Discovery Channel. Reed has Her practice and teaching and toured with the North American and Japanese the most important literary works aspects of Shahnameh in different garnered numerous awards and honors, and was experience spans painting, drawing, photography, tour of War Horse as well as various other projects of Iran and like other great epics, media, which we are collectively named one of Top 50 Artists in the SF Bay Area by printmaking and book art. She has been involved in around NYC. Metropolitan Magazine such as Gilgamesh, The Odyssey, calling “The Shahnameh Project.” in 1995 and 1996. theaters in Taiwan and also ShadowLight Productions company in San Francisco. FRED C RILEY III (Assistant Nibelungenlied and Ramayana, it is LOGA RAMIN TORKIAN Director/ Ensemble) has honed a record of the human imaginative The first of this project, Shahnameh: (Composer) is an Iranian-born GABRIELA GARCIA his skills writing, directing, consciousness. It is well known The Epic of the Persian Kings, a 600- multi-instrumentalist and (Ensemble) completed of her choreographing, building and and has been adapted throughout page illustrated new translation composer. He is recognized MFA Acting degree from the performing for such companies the Near East, Central Asia and and adaptation and published in internationally for his ground- USC where she trained in Le as Imago, Tear of Joy Theatre, India but is mostly unknown in the 2013, is now in its 2nd edition. We breaking work with World Music Coq and Grotowsky movement The Center