Torange Yeghiazarian

Torange Yeghiazarian is a playwright, director, and community-builder. In 1996, she founded Golden Thread Productions, the first American theatre company devoted to the Middle East and its global diaspora and served as its Executive Artistic Director for the next twenty-five years. Torange’s plays have been published in “New Iranian Plays,” “Middle Eastern American Theatre,” “Performing Iran,” “Salaam. Peace: An Anthology of Middle Eastern-American Drama,” among others. Torange has translated works by leading contemporary Iranian playwrights including, Naghmeh Samini, Mohammad Yaghoubee, and Reza Soroor; and adapted to the stage a short story by Iran’s modernist master, Sadegh Hedayat, poems by leading feminist poet, Simin Behbehani, and classical romance poetry (Layla & Majnun) by Nizami...

Torange Yeghiazarian is a playwright, director, and community-builder. In 1996, she founded Golden Thread Productions, the first American theatre company devoted to the Middle East and its global diaspora and served as its Executive Artistic Director for the next twenty-five years. Torange’s plays have been published in “New Iranian Plays,” “Middle Eastern American Theatre,” “Performing Iran,” “Salaam. Peace: An Anthology of Middle Eastern-American Drama,” among others. Torange has translated works by leading contemporary Iranian playwrights including, Naghmeh Samini, Mohammad Yaghoubee, and Reza Soroor; and adapted to the stage a short story by Iran’s modernist master, Sadegh Hedayat, poems by leading feminist poet, Simin Behbehani, and classical romance poetry (Layla & Majnun) by Nizami. Torange has directed, devised, and collaborated on numerous plays including original short plays for young audiences. Born in Iran and of Armenian heritage, Torange is a Fulbright Specialist and currently works as a freelance artist and consultant. TorangeYeghiazarian.com

Scripts

The Tutor

by Torange Yeghiazarian

Synopsis

Things are looking up for Kayvon. He’s just married Baran, a beautiful young Iranian woman, and brought her back to his Bay Area home. But when he asks his lifelong friend Azar to tutor Baran, all three lives begin to unravel as the two women fall into a passionate love affair. A study of preconceived notions and the hypocrisies that drive them, The Tutor is a provocative look at the cost of owning one’s truth.

Things are looking up for Kayvon. He’s just married Baran, a beautiful young Iranian woman, and brought her back to his Bay Area home. But when he asks his lifelong friend Azar to tutor Baran, all three lives begin to unravel as the two women fall into a passionate love affair. A study of preconceived notions and the hypocrisies that drive them, The Tutor is a provocative look at the cost of owning one’s truth.

Isfahan Blues

by Torange Yeghiazarian

Synopsis

Inspired by Duke Ellington Orchestra’s 1963 tour to Iran, Isfahan Blues imagines an unlikely friendship between an American jazz musician and an Iranian actress. As they travel together to Isfahan, “the most beautiful city in the world,” Jazz inspires them to test the limits of freedom, creativity, and experimentation.
Written in collaboration with Vida Ghahremani, L. Peter Callender, Nakissa Etemad, Laura Hope...

Inspired by Duke Ellington Orchestra’s 1963 tour to Iran, Isfahan Blues imagines an unlikely friendship between an American jazz musician and an Iranian actress. As they travel together to Isfahan, “the most beautiful city in the world,” Jazz inspires them to test the limits of freedom, creativity, and experimentation.
Written in collaboration with Vida Ghahremani, L. Peter Callender, Nakissa Etemad, Laura Hope, and Marcus Shelby

444 Days

by Torange Yeghiazarian

Synopsis

Laleh, an Iranian revolutionary, and Harry, a diplomatic attaché, meet for the first time in 25 years as Laleh’s daughter lies in a coma. The last time they spoke was when she held him hostage for 444 days at the U.S. Embassy in Tehran along with 52 other Americans. International espionage and family secrets mesh in unexpected ways when old feelings resurface.

Laleh, an Iranian revolutionary, and Harry, a diplomatic attaché, meet for the first time in 25 years as Laleh’s daughter lies in a coma. The last time they spoke was when she held him hostage for 444 days at the U.S. Embassy in Tehran along with 52 other Americans. International espionage and family secrets mesh in unexpected ways when old feelings resurface.

Call Me Mehdi

by Torange Yeghiazarian

Synopsis

A cultural divide erupts in this bedroom comedy between an Iranian woman and her American husband who insists on understanding the meaning of a Persian joke!

A cultural divide erupts in this bedroom comedy between an Iranian woman and her American husband who insists on understanding the meaning of a Persian joke!

Dawn At Midnight

by Torange Yeghiazarian

Synopsis

On the night of her big engagement announcement, Sahar, a popular personality on Iranian Satellite TV in Los Angeles of early 1990s, finds out that she is HIV-positive. Going public with the news will require facing up to her past surviving in the streets of Istanbul as a refugee. It may jeopardize her future happiness including a starring role in a feature film. Will Sahar stay and go public with the truth...

On the night of her big engagement announcement, Sahar, a popular personality on Iranian Satellite TV in Los Angeles of early 1990s, finds out that she is HIV-positive. Going public with the news will require facing up to her past surviving in the streets of Istanbul as a refugee. It may jeopardize her future happiness including a starring role in a feature film. Will Sahar stay and go public with the truth about her past and present, or will she run away and take refuge from a society that presumes to know everything about her?

Abaga (the Future)

by Torange Yeghiazarian

Synopsis

A lyrical tale of forbidden love between an Armenian man and a Turkish woman in Istanbul of 1915 repeats itself in Jerusalem of 1935 when their offspring falls for a Jewish immigrant.

A lyrical tale of forbidden love between an Armenian man and a Turkish woman in Istanbul of 1915 repeats itself in Jerusalem of 1935 when their offspring falls for a Jewish immigrant.