Dariush Mo'addabian: Our play reading Performance is different from Europeans

Dariush Mo’addabian is a stage actor, director and translator who directed  nearly 25 play reading performances before pandemic and from 2014 to 2019. He is busy reading his translated plays from Anton Chekhov's plays during Chekhov reading sessions nowadays.

He said about the history of play reading in the world: "The history of this art goes back to the 18th century. At that time, some theater groups wanted to attract audiences in France, England, etc. and they did play reading which they were going to stage a few months later. It was not just rehearsal for the cast and they should have performed it for the audience.

He continued: "In the 19th century, play reading was proposed as a performance theory in Europe. So writers who had just written a play also stepped forward and they did play readings to introduce their work to other artists and audiences. "

Modebian explained about his method of reading plays: "For reading the plays that I have translated, I first read the play to the cast in order to offer the intended tone, analysis and rhythm to them, and in this way I interpret my own interpretation. In fact, reading a play means reading and interpreting, and this is beyond ordinary reading, and that's why I call it the performance reading. "

 

This veteran theater director and actor added: "In other countries, the play should be read in such a way that it is also a stage reading. So, for this reason, attention is paid to the minimal stage accessories. The cast have papers, Even if the play has been memorized by continuous rehearsals. The cast move around the stage rather than sitting at a table, there's even a minimal set. In fact, it is read in such a way that the audience wants to see and hear at the same time. In play reading, the cast change their tone after getting to know the character and the situation and read the roles based on their thoughts. Reading the play in a machine-like manner does not form a conceptual and emotional connection with the audience. In reading, attention should be paid to the aesthetics of the play, propositions, expression of content and theme, the connection between the mind and thoughts of the cast and the audience."