Mohammad B. Ghaffari

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Mohammad B. Ghaffari
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Born
Mohammad Bagher Ghaffari

(1944-09-09)9 September 1944[citation needed]
Nishapur, Iran
NationalityIranian
CitizenshipIran
Occupation
  • Actor
  • Director
  • Author
Years active1966–
Known foracting, directing, production of traditional Iranian ta'ziyeh

Mohammad B. Ghaffari (born 9 September 1944) is an actor, director and theatre researcher. He is widely acknowledged as one of the most knowledgeable experts on Iranian traditional theatre.[1] Born in Nishapur, Iran in 1944, he received his theater training at the School for Dramatic Arts In Tehran, Iran, and was active as a professional actor on the Iranian National Stage.

Early career and Shiraz Arts Festival

Mohammad B. Ghaffari was engaged as an actor in Iran from his college days. In 1971 he joined internationally known theatre director Peter Brook and his International Centre for Theatre Research as an actor to perform the first play produced by the Centre at the Iranian Shiraz Arts Festival.[2] From 1974-1978 he became formally associated with the Festival of Arts in Shiraz at the request of Festival Director Farrokh Ghaffari, where he conducted research on, and produced for public performance, a wide range of traditional theater forms; these included the epic drama, ta'ziyeh and the improvisatory comic theater form ru-hozi.[3]. He also produced these traditional theater forms for the Festival of Popular Culture in Isfahan, Iran.[4][5]

United States career

Ghaffari moved to the United States to pursue graduate studies at Michigan State University in 1978. He later moved to New York City where he continued to work as a professional actor at Ellen Stewart's La Mama Experimental Theatre Club and where he also directed plays. He later became a United States citizen.[citation needed]

In New York he was assistant to director Jerzy Grotowski at Columbia University in 1983 where he taught acting from 1982-1992. He also taught Iranian literature and drama at New York University from 1998-1992. In 1987-1988 he was a visiting distinguished lecturer and theatre director at Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut where he directed the first known modern production of the historical Ta'ziyeh drama Moses and the Wandering Darvish<[6] using traditional ta’ziyeh stage conventions. He directed the first international performance of traditional ta’ziyeh at the Festival d’Avignon in 1992 [7] and later at the Festival d’Automne in Paris in 2000.[8]

Lincoln Center Festival

In 2002 Ghaffari directed three ta’ziyeh plays for the Lincoln Center Festival in New York featuring performers from Iran, to critical praise.[9][10] This production and its preparation was presented in a documentary film, The Troupe, directed by Rabeah Ghaffari.[11][12]

Film, television and directing career

As a performer, Ghaffari appeared on the New York stage and also in a number of Hollywood films, including Little Odessa , The Devil's Advocate (1997 film), Somewhere in the City, and several television series, including The Equalizer (1985) and The Americans. He appeared in collaborative productions with artist-director Shirin Neshat in a number of installations and films from 2000 to 2021, the latest being Land of Dreams directed by Ms. Nashhat and Shoja Azari.[13]

In 2003 he founded the performance organization, Elemental Ensemble,[14] under the aegis of which, he wrote and directed the dance drama Journey, based on the medieval epic Hayy ibn Yaqdhan by Ibn Tufail. This drama was produced to great critical acclaim in Minneapolis.[15][16]

In 2007 he was guest artist at The Center for World Performance Studies[17] at The University of Michigan where he worked with students on scenes from Shakespeare's Richard III in ta’ziyeh style. He repeated and extended this workshop at Brown University in 2009.

Ghaffari continues his research on traditional Iranian theater and is in wide demand as an expert on these traditional forms. He currently lives in New York City. He is an active member of the Screen Actors Guild.

Publications

  • 1988. The Director Speaks. In Milla Cozart Riggio, ed., Ta’ziyeh: Ritual and Popular Beliefs in Iran: Essays Prepared for a Drama Festival and Conference held at Trinity College and Hartford Seminary April 30-May 2, 1988. Harford: Trinity College
  • 2001. Shiraz Festival of Arts: A Point of View.” Asia Society, 2001, https://asiasociety.org/arts/creative-voices-muslim-asia/shiraz-festival-arts-point-view.
  • 2005a. Acting Styles and Actor Training in Ta’ziyeh. (with William O. Beeman). TDR (The Drama Review) T188 (Winter 2005) Special Issue: From Karbala to New York: Ta’ziyeh on the Move. Pp. 48-60.
  • 2005b. Mohammad B. Ghaffari: Ta’ziyeh Director. An Interview by Peter J. Chelkowski. TDR (The Drama Review) T188 (Winter 2005) Special Issue: From Karbala to New York: Ta’ziyeh on the Move. Pp. 113-123

References

  1. ↑ Chelkowski, Peter J. 2005. Mohammad B. Ghaffari: Ta’ziyeh Director. An Interview by Peter J. Chelkowski. TDR (The Drama Review) T188 (Winter 2005) Special Issue: From Karbala to New York: Ta’ziyeh on the Move. Pp. 113-123.
  2. ↑ https://asiasociety.org/arts/creative-voices-muslim-asia/shiraz-festival-arts-point-view
  3. ↑ https://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/ruhawzi
  4. ↑ Gaffary, Farrokh and Lāla Taqiān, “Taʿzia wa namāyeš-e ruḥawżi,” Faṣl-nāma-ye teʾātr 1, 1977, pp. 67-74.
  5. ↑ Gaffary, Farrokh, Arby Ovanessian and Laleh Taghian. "Iran." The World Encyclopedia of Contemporary Theatre: Asia/Pacific. Ed. Don Rubin, Chua Soo Pong and Ravi Chaturvedi. New York: Routledge, 1998. 191-221.
  6. ↑ Riggio, Milla Cozart. “‘Moses and the Wandering Dervish’: Taʿziyeh at Trinity College.” TDR (1988-), vol. 49, no. 4, 2005, pp. 100–112.
  7. ↑ Chelkowski, Peter J. “Time Out of Memory: Taʿziyeh, the Total Drama.” TDR (1988-), vol. 49, no. 4, 2005, pp. 15–27.
  8. ↑ Crombecque, Alain. (2005). Taziyeh in France: The Ritual of Renewal at the Festival d'Automne. TDR-the Drama Review-a Journal of Performance Studies. 49. 18-19. 10.1162/dram.2005.49.4.18.
  9. ↑ https://www.nytimes.com/2002/07/07/theater/theater-an-iranian-musical-spectacle-that-draws-audiences-in.html
  10. ↑ Beeman, William O.. (2003). The 'Taziyeh of Hor, The Taziyeh of the Children of Moslem, The Taziyeh of Imam Hussein'. Theatre Journal. 55. 359-362. 10.1353/tj.2003.0053.
  11. ↑ https://www.rabeahghaffari.com/bio
  12. ↑ https://www.films.com/ecTitleDetail.aspx?TitleID=149009&r=SR
  13. ↑ https://www.gladstonegallery.com/exhibition/8001/land-of-dreams/info
  14. ↑ http://elementalensemble.com/
  15. ↑ http://elementalensemble.com/news-and-events/2013/11/3/journey-was-performed-as-a-part-of-shared-cultural-spaces-conference-held-at-the-university-of-minnesota
  16. ↑ https://www.tcdailyplanet.net/iranian-playwright/
  17. ↑ https://lsa.umich.edu/world-performance

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