Nader Borhani Marand on his experiences in theater
Iran Theater- If this book worm teenager had seen a poor show during his teenage years, he would not have chosen the theater in his life, but after seeing that show, he was so enchanted by the stage that he started performing the show from his school days. Nader Borhani Marand made his decision since he was a teenager, and naturally, he only thought about theater to study at the university. By studying dramatic literature, directing and acting, he paved his way to do theater work. During his student days, he did various experiences in the field of acting, but his goal was writing and directing.
Nader Borhani Marand is one of the well-known figures in Iranian theater whose brilliant performances are memorable for the theater-goers. Although he has not staged a new play for some time, all his attention is theater.
Iran Theater spoke with him about his first days in theater and his experiences .
When did you first think about theater?
- I was born in a cultural family. My mother was a teacher and my brother had a library in which there were all kinds of books, from works of Ali Shariati’s to Romain Rolland’s The Enchanted Soul and Shakespeare’s play, etc. I read Shakespeare's "Othello" for the first time in my brother's library; It was a pocket book with photos; It was the first play I read and I did not understand its strange written form. I lived in a small town and had never seen a show on stage. Of course, sometimes I listened to radio drama. When I was a teenager, one day I happened to see a show called "The Well" in the "Taj" cinema of our city. This was my first time that I’ve watched a show and absorbed me The magic of the theater worked and I got curiosity. Maybe if it wasn't for that initial spark, the path of my life would be different than it is today.
Did you perform theater in school?
- Yes, by the way, during the period when we were going to school, the Ministry of Education had an important department called educational affairs, which planned special programs for students, and it was a very brilliant idea for the cities. I don't know why it was closed later. School was not so attractive for us. We worked in theater in high school and we were officially members of student teams and worked in city, provincial, regional and national student theater festivals. In high school, we went to the national Ramsar festival, and by chance, I met Kourosh Narimani there. He came from Lorestan province.
Did you participate in student festivals during your university days?
Yes. In the first years of the college, I directed the play "Khaneh Ghazal-Khan" which I had written myself, and performed it at the Kashan Student Festival. It was a two characters play , I acted with an actress. At the same time, I was also the only actor in the show "Stone Blossom" written by Majid Sarsangi and directed by Reza Hamidikhah. In the 1990 student theater festival, Siamak Safari also wrote a play called "life", which I directed, and Siamak and Roya Falahi acted in the show.
You introduced yourself to the theater community with the show "See What Snow is Falling".
Before that, Rashid Alipour started working on his thesis called "In the War Zone", which was the first professional work for all of us. We staged it in Molavi Hall. Almost all of us played in it; Koresh Narimani, Mohsen Qasabian, Mohammad Alami, Siamak Safari and me... before "See what snow is Falling", I had written the play "Desert", which was my bachelor's thesis (dramatic literature) and the bachelor's thesis directed by Reza Hamidikhah. Later, there was a public performance. The title changed to "Border to Pass".
-It seems that "Forbidden Hunting" was your first collaboration with Mohammad Yarahamdi.
This play was my first almost professional directorial experience, which was performed in the Sayeh hall of City Theater together with Mohammad Yaghoubi's "Dance of Torn Papers". The late Poopak Goldare, Mahtaj Nojomi, Ali Milani, Kourosh Narimani, Narges Hashempour and Elaha Gol Pari played in it. Yarahamdi had previously written this as radio drama. "Forbidden Hunting" was one of my first efforts as a director and yarahmadi as playwright. Of course, the performance was not very successful, but we love it very much.
I don't know when the contemporary theater troupe was formed, but definitely "Autumn" was performed with the goals of group.
The seed of the group was sealed from the college days and we continued to see each other after that. Paying attention to the issues of the day was a kind of unwritten agreement of the group; That we are supposed to be the children of our time and deal with social issues, but each one in his own context.