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Memoirs of the Actor in a Supporting Role:A Play

Translated with an Introduction and Bibliography by M. R. Ghanoonparvar

Series: Bibliotheca Iranica: Performing Arts Series 10
Availability: In stock
Published: 2010
Page #: xiii + 122
Size: 5.5 x 8.5
ISBN: ISBN 13: 978-1568592763, 1-56859-276-0
bibliography

 
$15.00

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Quick Overview

Memoirs of the Actor in a Supporting Role is the first post-revolutionary play in English translation by Bahram Beyza'i, Iran's most prominent and most prolific playwright, an internationally-known filmmaker, screen writer, director, producer, and editor, and major scholar of Persian performing arts. Beyza'i's reputation outside Iran, especially in Europe, in recent decades has been partly due to his acclaimed films, including Bashu, Gharibeh-ye Kuchak [Bashu, the Little Stranger], Shayad Vaqti Digar [Maybe Some Other Time], Mosaferan [Travelers], and Sagkoshi [Killing Mad Dogs]. His plays including The Puppets and Four Boxes have also been staged recently in Europe, the United States, and Canada. The manipulation and repression of ordinary people by power mongers is a main theme in Memoirs of the Actor in a Supporting Role, and so is the theme of the search for identity. The society presented in this play signifies any autocratic dictatorship. Beyza'i's outlook, as is true of much of his work, does not provide us with a positive outcome or hopeful future. In the end, nothing has changed and nothing is going to change. To Beyza'i, the entire game of politics is a show in which people are merely actors following a prescribed script, puppets whose strings are controlled by a puppeteer hidden from the audience.

author

Bahram Beyzai

Bahram Beyzai was born in 1938 in Tehran, where he also received his education and developed his interest in performing arts. His earliest attempts at playwriting began in high school, with two historical plays. After high school, he began studying and researching on his own on traditional Iranian performing arts, such as puppet shows and Shi'ite religious passion plays (ta'zieh), as well as epic poetry, ancient history, and Iranian painting. The result of these studies was the publication of a number of articles which became the basis for his book, Performing Arts in Iran. He also taught at and was for several years the chairman of the Department of Dramatic Arts of the School of Fine Arts at the University of Tehran. He is the author of numerous plays and over fifty screenplays as well as books about performing arts in Iran, Japan, and China.

Introduction
The Play
Bibliography

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