Director of “Unveiling” Play: My Disable Actors Are Real Stars

Actors of the play are “Sheno Ghaderi” who is brain paralyzed that the left  moiety of her body is disable and another one “Mehran Ghandehari” who has Down syndrome that his attempt to be in harmony with Sheno is so important.

Hossein Rahimi, the director of “Unveiling” said: I directed my first play with disabled children 13 years ago, the play named “Here, Just Wish” which was performed in Kermanshah. Then after, I have been away of them for years until in 2008 I found Sheno Ghaderi and started to work on “Unveiling”. “Unveiling” was invited to “Highfest” festival of Armenia and it was performed there. Everybody was surprised there that how a girl whose left moiety is paralyzed can have such an act on the stage. After returning from Armenia, we started to work on the play “Chairs” by Eugene Ionesco that Mehran, Sheno and Amin Jahangiri who was deaf played in it. We were invited to the professional festivals of nine countries but my group is not financially able to have such these travels. Each of my actors needs the companionship of their mothers as their nurse, these children need special cares, and they take medicines. We have long and hard rehearsed.  For example for “Chairs” we had practiced daily 9 hours in 18 months. Sometimes for memorizing one line of a dialogue we spent five days. Sheno’s mother and Mehran’s mother act like my assistants; they memorized the acts to help their children in saying them. But my actors behave like the most professional actors. They had diet, determined sleep schedule, and take psychology classes. Now all of us are working on Bald Singer and Dear Doctor. There are 11 actors in Dear Doctor and in Waiting for Godot I am working with Gorgan disabled children.

He talked about choosing this hard way of practicing theatre: I was afraid of these children before I worked with them. Several years ago somebody suggested to base acting class in an art institute. When I went there I understood that there was a disables’ Center. At there I saw that these children have so many abilities that they do not be updated. So, I decided to work theatre with them, people told me to forget about it, they don’t have long term memory and will mistake on the stage, and I told them let them to play and mistake.

In first months I had high pressure I rehears while I was taking pills to bear such great pressure. Throughout or practices these children talked something and happened something that were like miracles which lead me to enter a new world. I even went to theatre-therapy too and prepare some new ideas about founding special schools for these children which were not supported by my country at all and now I prepare them for Canada. The target of this idea is to teach the techniques of living and social skills that when they lose their parents can stay alive.