"Iranian Theater in Exile, A Personal Odyssey" by Niloofar Beyzaie

Niloofar Beyzaie is the daughter of the theater and film director Bahram Beyzaie and Monir Azam Raminfar. Leaving Iran in 1985 for political reasons, she studied German literature, theater, film and television studies, and education at the Johann Wolfgang Goethe University in Frankfurt am Main. In 1994 she founded the theater group "Daritsche", serving as director, playwright, and lighting and costume designer. Central themes of Niloofar Beyzaie’s theatrical works are women, "the suffering of individuals among the crowd", and "being a stranger either one’s own, or a foreign, society". She has written extensively on Iran’s political and social situation, particularly the plight of contemporary women. In 2005, she was recognized for her work as an exemplary theatrical director, and awarded the Persian "World Academy of Art, Literature and Media" in Budapest. In the same year, her play "Daughters of the Sun (Come, Dance with me)" was performed in Zurich by Maralam Theater, under direction of Peter Braschler. The revival of her play "No Man's Land" was performed in German in March 2009 in Karlsruhe, as part of the Cultural Perspectives of Women festival. Her latest play, "Face to Face at the Threshold of the Cold Season", centered on the Iranian historical figures Tahirih Qurratu'l-ayn and Forough Farokhzad, premiered in October 2011.