He has just been honored at a theater awards ceremony in Tehran. The 14th edition of Actor’s Celebration, a special event to honor Iranian stage actors, awarded a special medallion to Ferdous Kaviani for his long and fruitful acting career on May 6. He has appeared in many TV series, including Boro Bia Neighborhood (1982), Hygiene Neighborhood (1984) and The Spouses (1994). He has also acted in films such as In the Storm’s Path (1988), Hamoun (1989), All My Daughters (1993), Killing Mad Dogs (2000), A Non-Profit Police Station (2008), and The Orange Suit (2011). More in the following:

Dramatics in Germany and Austria

After passing an entry exam (fellowship) I went to Germany to study theater. The problem was, they offered no courses in theater at all, so I took courses in chemistry instead! Then they forced me to study the German language. This didn’t go well with me. Things got worse when my German roommate stole all my savings. This and many other unfortunate legal/immigration incidents forced me to leave Germany and to study in Vienna, Austria. Strange enough, I got part-time job at the parliament there – washing dishes every Wednesday. Still, I couldn’t make enough money to make ends meet, let alone pay for tuition fees. Then I got another job – selling car tires. Because of that I couldn’t find enough time to attend college. After a while, a friend of mine said colleges were offering theater studies in Iran. That was it. I immediately packed up and headed toward Iran.  

Peter Brooke at Theater Forum

I first started working at the Theater Forum. My first stage act was a play called Summer or a Dramatic Tale at Six Nights and Six Days by Vann Carter. It was directed by the late Reza Karam Rezaei, which was a flop. There I came to know Arbi Avanessian, who had come to watch our play together with Peter Brooke. Brooke praised our performance and said it was far better than many others he had seen. This was the second show after the formation of the Theater Forum. They never advertised our play though. This and many other irregularities forced me to leave the forum and head to the Theater Workshop instead.

Theater Workshop

We used to get on the stage early mornings and leave late at nights. Rehearsals used to continue until 2pm, before the main show could begin at 5pm. We had to sell tickets and take care of patrons as well. Sometimes we had to sleep there. I myself never saw the sunset for several years.

The Avanessian Ensemble

At the Theater Workshop, I chose to be a member of Arbi Avanessian’s ensemble. He allowed us to rehearse each and every role. Sometimes we used to go on stage for a final act without any rehearsals. The point is, it is possible to work in a theater group whose members are on top of their league, understand each other, and encourage and support each other. Our group was just like that. In fact, any ensemble activities and exercises should be like that.

Stage Director Kaviani

I directed The Accidental Death of an Anarchist in 1981. The leading actor was the late Reza Zhian. Because of certain political developments and incidents at the time, the show never went on stage. I asked Fakhreddin Anvar, the former head of the City Theater and the IRIB at the time, to let us record the play for TV instead. This way, we could at least get paid. We recorded the play but it was never aired. It’s still sitting there somewhere in the archives of the IRIB.

The Steps Show and the Saving Grace

On the stage and while the lights were off, I had to change my clothes quickly and wear a different makeup to look old in a show called The Steps. Once when the lights came on, audiences started laughing at me uproariously. I couldn’t understand why. Other colleagues tried to warn me off the stage but I still couldn’t get it. Until one of them jumped onto the stage and pointed to the open fly! To my saving grace, I zipped it up right there in front of the audience as if there was a wall between us!

Traditional Theater vs. Modern Theater

What you see today is entirely different from what we used to have back in those years. We used to work either at the Theater Forum and the Theater Workshop, or at the IRIB. All theater groups used to work instantaneously. For instance, our cast members were always preforming on the stage, never out of work. Sometimes we had to act in ten plays and with different ensembles. Meaning, the theater community was always open for business. Surely, this is no longer the case. It is hard to form a solid theater group nowadays. The old ensembles have all but gone. Worse still, group members don’t trust each other. The moment they are offered a role for a film or a TV series, they leave their ensembles and the physical theater exercises. On balance, things are getting much more difficult for the theater community.

The Times They Are a Changing

I’m no longer working, for everything has changed. You need at least six months to shoot a TV series with 13 parts. But they want you to do it within two months. That puts immense pressures on actors and actresses. They never get the chance to memorize their dialogs, let alone show some creativity. I did work in such movies with tight schedules and I lost a lot of energy in the process. Perhaps, that says why I’m not working much these days.

The Actor-Audience Relationship

Actors should speak directly and connect with the audience. One of the key aspects in theater is to create that kind of connection with the audience. The most successful show ensures its space connects with the audience. More important than that, is to use the exercise as an opportunity to reinforce the importance of the group coming together. You need to connect with other members of the ensemble and know them in and out. You need to know and understand each other. We used to have that kind of connection and special bond. Even when in college, we used to form physical theater teaching groups to practice what we had learned in theory. Our theory classes lasted just about two hours, but our physical theater exercises used to last longer than that. In a sense, we were always together.

In conclusion, I would like to state that whatever I did in my life was for this country and its people. I’m extremely delighted to have dedicated my life and work to this country. More importantly, I’m pleased that my life-work efforts haven’t gone unnoticed.

Translation by Bobby Naderi