Death of Yazdgerd Workshop Series                 

(Completed April 2005)

Overview:

In 2005, OneLight Theatre translated, adapted, workshopped and performed an original production of Bahram Beyzaei's Death of Yazdgerd. The development of the play followed a guided and disciplined process led by Artistic Director Shahin Sayadi. It was OneLight Theatre's intent to develop a simultaneous academic and artistic project, which would be open to the public from the earliest steps, thereby allowing the wider community to observe and participate in the development of our version of Death of Yazdgerd.

OneLight Theatre's mandate and working style reflect a philosophy that theatre is more than the final product- that the work that goes into developing the text, music and staging of the production can also be properly called theatre. This aspect of theatre is largely hidden from the public, but would be of considerable interest to many people. The purpose of opening up the translating and workshop phases of the project development was to bring to our audience the process of developing an original production. Further, in seeking the feedback and opinions of the public, both at the presentations and through OneLight's theatre forum on our website, we successfully expanded the circle of voices included our open-dialogue production development.

The Translation:

Mr. Sayadi translated the text from Persian to English. Although other translations of the play exist, we were interested in developing our own so as to better convey the use of ancient Persian language and idiom in the original. During the process, Shahin consulted with Dr. Colin Mitchell, professor of history at Dalhousie University with a specialization in Persian history. A public reading of the new translation was held at the Crib on March 30th, 2005. Pictured at the left are the readers, from left to right: Hugo Dann, Kevin Curran, Martha Irving, Clyde A. Wray and Kiersten Tough

The Workshops:

The DOY Workshops took place in three steps, each phase culminating in a public performance and discussion held on a Sunday evening. There were two main goals of the workshop: first, to finalize the script and staging elements necessary for a full-scale production and second, to explore various artistic themes in the play, in particular, implications of role playing within the production.