Niloofar Beyzaie is an Iranian Dramaturge, Playwright and Stage Director.
Life
Niloofar Beyzaie is the daughter of the famous Iranian theater and film director Bahram Beyzaie and Monir Azam Raminfar who comes from a family of artists. Her uncle Iraj Raminfar ist one of the best known Costume Designers and Scenic designers in Iran. Her mother's uncle Abbas Javanmard is one the most influential Stage Directors of the 40s to 70s in Iran. In 1985, Niloofar Beyzaie had to leave Iran for political reasons and studied German Literature, Theater, Film and Media Studies and Education at the Johann Wolfgang Goethe University in Frankfurt am Main. After finishing her academic studies she founded 1994 the theater group "Daritsche" in Frankfurt am Main. Since then she is leading this group as Stage Director, Playwright, and light and costume designer. She ist married and has a daughter.
Work
Central themes of her theater work are "woman", "the suffering of individuals among the crowd" and "being a stranger either in the own or in the foreign society". She also puts emphasis on the sociopolitical context of the theater in its contemporary issues. In addition to her theatrical work she writes articles about the political and social situation, particularly the situation of women in Iran. She advocates for women's rights and for the rights of gays and lesbians in Iran and is involved in the Iranian art and cultural scene in exile for the rights of religious minorities in Iran, in particular the Bahais. 2005, she was awarded the Persian "World Academy of Art, Literature and Media" in Budapest as the best theatre director in exile in category "the Performing Arts". In the same year her play Daughters of the Sun 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 within the framework of the "Cultural Perspectives of Women festival 09". Her play "Face to Face at the Threshold of the Cold Season" is about two very important women of the Iranian history "Táhirih Qurratu'l- ayn" and "Forough Farrokhzad" had its premiere in October 2011 and was also performed in Toronto, Otawa and Los Angeles Her Play " In the presence of the Wind" was written by her father in the sixties and was played in several cities of Europe and Germany from 2015 until oct. 2016. Her Play "In this Place and at this Time" was played in Frankfurt,Collogne,Berlin, Heidelberg and Zürich from oct. 2017 to May 2018. ّShe became for this Play the audience award for best Play from the Iranian Theater Festival in Heildelberg at 3 February 2018. Niloofar Beyzaie was honored for her lifelong theater work on march 2. and 3. 2018 by "the cultural society of iranian women" in Vancouver. In this context, the play "Lady in Mirror", which consists of parts of her plays, was performed by the Theatre group Shahrzad. She also received the Prize as the best Personality of the year 2018 from the "Foundation of Pasargad Heritage" for the fields of Art and Culture in March 2018. 2018 she also directed the Play "The lost ones" which based on documents, letters, and memoirs of the victims of the 1988 mass executions of dissidents by the Islamic government of Iran in the 80s. 2019 she directed the Play "When love is a sin". In this Play female Poets from different eras who dated back to Iran, Afghanistan and Tajikistan, meet each other and narrate the stories of their lives and suffering as women through their poems which they recite singing.
