Photo by Reza Behjat
Written & Performed By Deniz Khateri
Directed By Yekta Khaghani
The Cellos’ Dialogue is an experiment on using musical instruments and sounds as puppets while telling the story of an immigrant Iranian woman in the US who contemplates keeping an unwanted child. Musical experimentation, animated objects, shadow images, video projection and poetic language paint an expression portrait of the struggles of a woman from the middle east trying to fit into the western society.
Playwright and Performer : Deniz Khateri
Director: Yekta Khaghani
Composer and Sound Designer: Bahar Royaee
Set Designer: Afsoon Pajoufar
Lighting Designer: Reza Behjat
Costume, Props and Shadow Puppet Designer: Neda Kazemifar
Video: Daniel Hess
Colorist: Sepand Saedi
Voice overs: Clifton Ingram, Catherine Hammer
Recorded Cello: Eden Rayz
Special Thanks: Samar Mirfendereski
ABOUT THE ARTISTS
Trained in her hometown Tehran, DENIZ KHATERI is an actor, director, playwright, shadow puppetry artist and animator based in New York. Her works attempt to experiment with form and exploring the unique characteristics of the mediums that she uses.Deniz has performed extensively in Tehran, Boston and New York. Her plays have also been performed in international festivals. She is a proud winner of the NYFA award for her animated web series "Diasporan Series" which is about daily struggles of immigrants .More at denizkhateri.com
YEKTA KHAGHANI is an Iranian actor and playwright based in New York City. She earned a B.A. in Dramatic Literature from Tehran University of Art in 2009 - an opportune moment in Iran’s thriving theatre scene - whereupon she directed and acted in a wide variety of plays, and also wrote for the stage and radio. Since Yekta moved to the US in 2016 she has created and acted in numerous theatrical performances for young audiences and has adapted the series Fairy Tales from Greater Iran for audiobook and the stage. Her recent credits include: playing the lead character in the short film American Quartet and writing a documentary play named T.B during a residency at the Downtown Art Theater. She was a semifinalist at the 2020 National Playwrights Conference at the Eugene O’Neill Theater Center.
Born and raised in Iran, BAHAR ROYAEE is a composer of concert and incidental music. A 2020 Fromm Foundation Composers Conference Fellows, Royaee, received 2019 Pnea Projects prize to produce an electroacoustic piece for Clair Chase’s Density 2036 part vi. Recognized as runner-up in National Sawdust's 2018-19 Hildegard Competition, in 2017 Bahar was awarded from the Krourian Electroacoustic Competition in Iran, and won the Roger Sessions Memorial Composition Award the top composition prize at Boston Conservatory. The Boston Arts Review praised Bahar’s “haunting” for her work. She is currently pursuing a Ph.D. in composition from Graduate Center CUNY.