MohammadHossein Maaref's Portfolio of Theatrical Works

MohammadHossein Maaref Art University of Tehran Faculty of Cinema & Theater MA in Theater Directing

MohammadHossein Maaref was born in Tehran in 1990. By 2008 he was an undergraduate Architecture student in University of Tehran, where he found himself getting emotionally and intellectually involved in writing. Since he was studying in the Faculty of Fine Arts, he was drawn to Theater and Painting. He spent the bulk of these years writing plays for his Theatrical friends. His first play “Omoumi" (Public) -directed by Fariborz Karimi- was chosen as the best playwright in The 13th “Tajrobeh" Theatre Festival; that caused him to take Theater more seriously. Since then MohammadHossein has written more than ten and directed four plays, which have been performed in various Festivals, for instance, “MonoLeev” and “Tajrobeh”. Now, he is a MA student of Theatre Directing at Art University of Tehran. For his future studies, he is going to focus on Analysis of Narrative Literature.

MA: Theater Directing - Art University of Tehran, Faculty of Cinema & TheaterBachelor: Architectural Engineering - Tehran University, Faculty of Arts

Education

Theater Directing - Story writing - Playwriting - Copyrighting - Architectural softwares such as Auto-Cad & Sketch Up - Microsoft Office - Adobe Photoshop - iMovie

Skills

2013 / Won best playwriting for «Public» - 14th Tajrobeh Theater Festival ,Tehran University2014/ Best playwriting candidate for «The good soldier, Schweik» - 15th Tajrobeh Theater Festival ,Tehran University2014/ Candidate for best Directing for the play «The good soldier, Schweik» - 15th Tajrobeh Theater Festival , Tehran University2018/ Candidate for best playwriting for «The Eschers painting» - 37th Fadjr International Theater Festival

Candidates & Awards

Contact

3rd Floor, Asatid-e-Sarv complex No.10, Farahzadi St, San’at Sq,Tehran, Iranh.maaref90@gmail.com

98+ 939 539 16 74

Playwright and Director

Good Billie kincaid, Bad Billie KincaidApr.2017 — Rooberoo Mansion

Playwright & DirectorMohammadHossein Maaref

Comic Artist & Graphic DesignerAli GhaffariPerformersNavid FayyazAva DarvishiNeda JebrailieSet & Lightening DesignNima TabriziArdalan Tayefe Hosseinloo

Video ArtistArman Moghadam

Director Assistant Azadeh Mardani

MusicAsimPhotographerSaid Jannati

The main Character, Billy Kincaid, originally belongs to Todd McFarlane's comic series “ Spawn”. Billie Kincaid is a huge donator, meanwhile a child serial killer. During this show, the whole story takes place after his death, when his life must be judged. His body & mind separates into two pieces, each one of them represents one side of his personality: one for the good and one for the bad. The main struggle is between these two characters. During the show, the audience sits in the position of the jury.

Abstract:

The play has an open adaptation, so the main objectives are, first to turn a huge square into a smaller circle and then to keep the square as the main base beneath the storyline. In order to achieve these goal settings, some of the fundamentals about the original story -such as Billy Kincaid's job or his escape from the hell- had remained inside the play and the other parts added to it.

Adaptation Method:

Billy Kincaid is originally a male fictional character, however as the gender can consider performative, in order to remove the stress from the gender and put it back to his behaviors, I decided to change the original name to “Billie”, so starting with the question “why did the original He became She?” the audience can have time to rethink the behaviors of the character, instead of his/her gender.

Gender Conflicts:

The main story consists of a straight story-line (Billie Kincaid’s Lifetime.) which has been gathered the smaller stories of her life. In each part of the play, we witness a story which has its own affections on Billie’s final situation. Regardless of the whole story which has a reference out of the play’s universe, most of the referrals are in its inner world, so the audiences can follow how a thing in her early life affected her last.

Structure:

For being the jury, the main characters of the play are the witnesses. The play involves with morality, therefore the text has been designed in a way that hit the audiences directly. In this position, a thin curtain has been embedded to keep the distance between the audiences and the performers, meanwhile keep both them in a same curt.

the Forth Wall’s Matter:

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All BlueAgoust -2015 Moj-e-No Hall

"Almost three decades on, Iran has laid 175 military divers to rest. They were captured during the 1980 to 1988 war with Iraq. Dug up from the Iraqi side of the river border, Tehran’s military claims the divers were buried alive. Pictures in Iranian media last month showed the bodies dressed in diving gear and hands crudely tied with wire.Those locked in today’s battle against the self proclaimed Islamic State are praised for protecting Shi’ite sites in Iran. The divers laid to rest were taken prisoner in 1986, during an Iranian attempt to seize Basra. Iraq repelled the attack and thousands were killed on both sides." Euronews, 00:11 06/17 CET.

Report:

Abstract:

Playwright & DirectorMohammadHossein MaarefPerformersSina BallahangNazanin MehraienSet & Lightening DesignNima TabriziCostume DesignNegin Sa’edVideo ArtistPantea ArmanfarVideo TechnicianAmin BanitabaDirector-AssistantBaharan Eghbalzadeh

MusicMohammad Saeidi

Graphic DesignAli Ghaffari

PhotographerAslan Mohammadpour

All Blue is the story of the 175th martyr that died during the war. His last breath and his last thoughts, as he remembers the first person he ever known: his mother.The 175th martyr that died during the war, talking about his last thoughts, and his dream about a certain sea called All Blue, which gathers all kinds of fishes in itself. On the other side, his mother starts to talk about her feelings. She talking about she’s not missing his son because she can feel everything happened to him all he has been through all this time.

The whole show stands as a solid painting, which starts to narrate a story during the half an hour of the performance. In order to achieve this solid image, several paintings have been studied so the final compositions can be been fixed.

A Story Teller Painting:

The main plot is based on a true story. However, as long as we witness a theater production, we are in front of an abstract happening which supposes to represent an event that happened before. Rather than presenting a documentary theater to report the occurrence, I decided to translate the feelings behind the case to the language of images and poetic words so it can perch where it suppose to.

Real occurrence, Abstract Narrative:

As long as the Whole show only consists of two main images, it seems necessary to have alternative thoughts to make the rhythm alive. Measures as looped music, lighting changes, and nesting narrative of two characters help to stabilize the atmosphere of the show.

To Keep the Rhythm Alive:

Despite being in the same picture, these two characters narrate two different stories from two different timelines. In order to make this picture united, I decided to combine their narrative storylines inside each other so it has been seeming that they complete each other’s narrations. When the man starts to talk about his moments at the bottom of the sea, the mother starts to sing a song which she raised his son with. And when the mother talks about lack of his son, the man starts to count the other fellow soldiers of him, which drowns inside the sea before him.

Two Timelines, One Dimension:

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Thee Behind Me, Satan! - Ilya Repin

Western Motel- Edward Hopper

This isn’t happiness- Guim Tio

Unnamed Poster- Hieronymus Bosch

Yamona River Dec. 5 -2014th Monoleev Festival- Iran’s Artists’s House- Master Entezami Hall

A pregnant woman decides to go to India because she has cancer and she believes that a miracle might happen over there. The woman loses her life, but the kid survives. The kid stays in India until the age of 8, but after that, she turned back to her country because she had been raped in India. 20 years later, her Trappist orders her to go back to India, so she can face her fears once again. In her next transmogrification, she becomes a woman who is madly in love with Indian culture, Bollywood Cinema, and Shahrukh Khan. She is so excited about meeting India. During the plane trip, she sits next to a person who is a cell-phone stealer and somehow steals her phone as well. Finally, we figure out that he is the next transmogrification of the raper as well: this plain is where they meet again inside this life. The only person who knows about all this is the unborn baby of the plain. She calls shiva-the stewardess- and wants her to dance. As she starts to dance the plane crashes. The unborn baby decides on cutting the rope once and for an all.This storyline came out of 9 different monologues which Naghmeh Samini’s students wrote separately during their playwright workshop inside India.

Abstract:

Head of WritersDr. Naghmeh Samini *

DirectorMohammadHossein MaarefWriting TeamMona AhmadiKeihan ArdebiliDiba KhatamiKlima KhatibzadehAsma KhoshmehrFatemeh RahimiMahsa TalebiMaryam Farahani ParsaMohammadHossein MaarefPerformersAinaz AzanrnoushSina BalahangDiba KhatamiMina ZamanShohreh Saeidi BaghaJavid Ghaem MaghamiNooshin Masoudian

Set & Lightening DesignNima TabriziMohammadHossein Maaref

Costume DesignNazanin Ramezani

Graphic DesignAli GhaffariPhotographerPuya Sedighi

Video ArtistPantea Armanfar

“ Me and the young writers of this play had an unusual experience. Now, After one year from those days, it seems more like a dream than the reality. It supposed to be a Playwriting workshop in India and one of the main experiments was to write as an unreal tripper: Imagine an unreal passenger and write from his/ her mouth.

Everybody was supposed to write inside Iran and complete it inside the plain, however as we moved forward, it became more serious.

By forward I mean India itself. A place where you encounter various smells, colors, and shapes. Cold nights, monkeys, temples, morning fogs and suddenly, one day the Taj Mahal. With all its tempting beauty. right behind the Taj Mahal there was/is a river: maybe the place which Krishna and his lover met up. A river that the Indians call Yamuna. And we all gazed to Yamuna and its breathtaking beauty.

After seven nights and days, we came back to Iran. Texts had been rewritten for several times and then they were handed over to Mr.Maaref who was in charge of the last and the most important action. Our little exercises were finally at the edge of reality.

Most of the writers of this project have the pleasure of watching the performance of their words for the first time. It might be the first steps for them, but if we’ll hear with precision, its hard to not hear Krishna and his lover on the shore of the river. They already started the cosmic dance together. “

- Dr. Naghmeh Samini

The good soldier, SchweikNov. -2014 Av Theater HallFeb. -2014 Tajrobeh Theater festival- Tehran University

Video ArtistPantea Armanfar

PhotographerAmin Banitaba

Playwright MohammadHossein Maaref (Based on a novel by Jaroslav Hašek)

PerformersNavid FayyazMona Ahmadi

DirectorPantea Armanfar

Set DesignNima TabriziArezoo Khazanbeik

Costume DesignNazanin Ramezani

ComposerMohammad Saeidi

Graphic DesignAli GhaffariPhotographerSaid Jannati

The play contains two parallel storylines which have been combined with each other: The first one is the road which leads Schweik into the jail that he is inside of now, and the second -and the main storyline- is about the moment which he is experiencing: Last night of the jail, before he got executed. He is at the end of a long road, Through Hospitals, madhouses, and war.

On his last night of jail, Amy- a subsidiary character of the book- comes to his sell, speaks with him and tries to tell him how his job as a soldier actually leads him to death. Schweik realizes he is about to die, but he just accepts his faith with a grim. He still believes what he has done during his time was the only good job he was able to do for his country.“They say when you’re dying – just when the soul is exiting your body – your whole life flashes before your eyes. But my experience has been quite different. I’m not a smart guy, but I don’t think any person with a healthy intellect would want this. I don’t think that we – in the last moment of our lives – sit through watching our whole life, from the beginning to the end. We just watch one scene for the second time. Only one scene, but with great details. We can even modify one or two details. The good news is we choose this scene ourselves; almost the only thing that can be chosen in our lives completely by ourselves.”

Abstract:

As long as in some parts of the show, the main character -Schweik- speaks to the audience directly, The play takes place in the distance between theater and performance. Therefore in opposite to other classic theatricals, here, we keep the characters conscious and take the movements off.

Directing Considerations:

Playwright

The Escher´s PaintingFebruary 2019 – Fadjr International Theater Festival – Tehran, IranOctober-November 2018 – City Theater of Tehran (Qashqai Hall) – Tehran, Iran (Premiere)

Costume DesignNasrin KhorramiMake Up ArtistMaria Hajiha

Light DesignReza Khazraei

ComposerKasra PashaeiGraphic DesignParnaz Karimi

Projects ManagerSamin MohajeraniDirector AssistanceJavad BagheriNiki AfsarzadehPhotographerAmirhossein Shojaei

Playwright MohammadHossein Maaref

DirectorFariborz KarimiPerformersMona AhmadiAva DarvishiAva SharifiMahsa TahmasbiNavid FayyazJavid Ghaem MaghamiFarzad Namvar

Set DesignNima Tabrizi

A colorblind painter, a morphine-addict matriarch, a nervous critic, a sleepwalking teacher, a scheming widow, a dead brother—these are the members of a dysfunctional family who also happen to own a priceless Escher painting. After the death of a beloved son, the household’s most prized possession becomes the highest collateral in a plot to avenge his death, reuniting them all under one roof while also tearing them apart. “The Escher Painting” takes a darkly comic look at the mazes people will trap themselves in, and the lengths they will go to, for revenge, for art, and for themselves.

Abstract:

Jean Pol Brechtuk the Fifth’s Lost Labor, making the world a place to live.July2018 City Theater of Tehran || Ejra Hall

Costume DesignMahrokh Soleymanipour

Make Up ArtistShima Shami

MusicMohammadReza Khoshghad

Graphic DesignArotin Davoodi

Playwright MohammadHossein Maaref

DirectorAnahita GharchehPerformersKhashayar GharchehHesam Afsari

Set DesignParmida Razavi

In order to make a better place out of the world, JeanPol Berechtuk -The most desperate person alive as they say- Decides to go at the edge of the world, which he believes has been placed at the beginnings of Siberia’s train station.Right before exploring the world, he tries to clean up the trails, so he can literally claim that he made the world a better place.A man comes to his cleaning process and notify him that he blocked his bank account. And he needs the name of his first childhood friend as the security question. JeanPol resists to give him the name, so the complication starts.

Abstract:

Responsibility for Breaking the Dead SilenceApr.2017 — Molavi Hall

Video ArtistSaeideh Ramezanzadeh

Playwright MohammadHossein Maaref Mona Ahmadi

PerformersNegin KashfiMatin GoodarziSara ShahroodianSaina SerajProducerReza Samadpour

DirectorDr.Shiva Masoudi

Set DesignMostafa Moradian

Costume DesignZohreh BehroozniaGraphic DesignArotin Davoodi

PhotographerMansoureh Ramezanzadeh

Puppet DesignMonir Molavizadeh

MusicMohammadReza Jadidi

“Responsibility for Breaking Dead Silence" is a three episode play, focusing on marriage. It is trying to deal with the concerns of girls who are going to marry before, during and after the wedding. It deals with side issues of the ceremony.As you know, we have very traditions about wedding and have respected them throughout history. The ceremony has been subjected to changes as the country is in transition to modernity. This has created challenges and the play tries to picture them.

Abstract:

No matter which layer of the society she belongs to, according to the effects that marriage has on an Iranian girl's life, we decided to divide the playwright into three parts: 1) Before the wedding 2) The ceremony 3) Real life next to the weddingEach part starts with a monologue that one of the brides announces, then the part’s episodes begins.

Before the WeddingAfter a monologue about what it means to be a successful woman, the first part starts with three episodes related to the context:1 ) An unborn child daydreaming her actual life outside of the box.2) The process of the make-up, as a work of installation on the bride, both mentally and physically.3) A lover man which stealing the bride from her family, while riding on a horse.The CeremonyWith a monologue expanding the moment that bride is about to break the absolute silence and say Yes to her man, this part has been following with three other episode. From photographs to the dinner, the most subject that criticizes during this part is all the extra money that wastes on the process of the ceremony in Iran, instead of investments on the bride and the groom's actual lives.After the WeddingNow the ceremony is over, the bride starts her monologue about to her, what it means to be somebody’s wife for the rest of her life.The part follow-ups with subjects that belong to real life such as growing old together or divorce, as an act of happiness. At the end of the show, we see how a man and a woman gathers again below their tree of life.

Spring Break-downFeb. -2017 Darbast PlatformNov. 36 -2017th International Fadjr Festival- Aftab HallSep-Oct. -2019 Molavi Hall

“… I remind you that you do love me. I wish you were able to do the same to me, but actually you’re not that good at it. Which, well, is not surprising. I think about the reason which keeps me from ever being able to focus on anything but you, even now that you’re not around. The responsibility I didn’t exactly know what it is, but knew I can handle? The memories which will stay only in my head? Hormones released in my body due to feeling guilty when I came to my senses and realizing that, in fact, if I never come back to you, you'd never feel my absence? When you don't even remember what it means to sleep on the couch in the middle of the living room or on the bed in the bedroom. I can’t figure out what this game is I've started to make you not forget me. And I do figure out this game is not for you. It is for me.”says Bahar. she is trying to handle her memories inside the man’s head while he is drowning into the deep, dark layers of Alzheimer's. The story begins with a phone call, and ends with one; in between, the man looses his memory.The performance takes place in a foreign country, but the man cannot remember where it is. Meanwhile, he accidentally meets Bahar, a stranger who agrees to be with him so the man does not get lost in the dark. However, they both fully acknowledge what is between them is not a cure, but just a postponing plan.

Abstract:

Playwright MohammadHossein Maaref

PerformersNavid FayyazMona AhmadiEhsan BohlouliShakiba Fadaei

DirectorFariborz Karimi

Set DesignNima Tabrizi

MusicKasra Pashaei

PhotographerSaeid Jannati

Graphic DesignStudio Kargah

Hamlet, The witness of DenmarkSep. 2016— Shanghai— 9th Festival of William Shakespeare

This play is a parody adaptation of Hamlet's tragedy, based on the wedding after the death of his father and his struggle in deciding whether or not to involve in the ceremony. He starts to have visions of killing The Royal Family right after Claudius and Gertrude's wedding. Hamlet is about to decide whether to go to the ceremony in order to have a revenge or not. but he simply cannot make his decision. These all make him exhausted to the point he orders to Horatio to decide instead of him. In this play, Horatio is Hamlet’s imaginary friend. He warns Hamlet about what is going to happen in case he goes to the wedding, but Hamlet finally decides to go, and that's when all the chaos starts.The story begins half an hour before the ceremony. The events are occurring in several places at the same time, which resembles Hamlet's madness and his disordered mind. It reminds (one of) the concept of the instability and uncertainty influenced by a different time domain.

Abstract:

Playwright MohammadHossein Maaref

Costume DesignKhatere Isavand

Make Up ArtistBahador Kamran

Graphic Design Fatemeh Kazemi

MusicSaman Abdullahi

DirectorMaryam Farahani Parsa

PerformersBaharan EghbalzadehEsmaeil Kamali DehghanHojjat ZainaliHamidreza ZakianiSoha ArdamMatin Goodarzi

PublicFeb. -2013 Tajrobeh Theater festival- Tehran University

During an hour-which on the stage, is shown as 24 hours- we witness a daily life of a person who is in charge of a public toilet station. Through the day, he has several collisions with different people. He has influences on them and of course, they have on him. At the end of the play, we understand that this day is so important to him because it’s the day that this public toilet is going to be destroyed. He sleeps there for nights, so in fact, he is going to lose his home.

Abstract:

Playwright MohammadHossein Maaref Saeid Behbahaninia

PerformersAmin EsfandyarKeyvan SarreshtehMahsa TahmasebiReihan BokaeiIven BanitabaSadaf SadriDiba KhatamiDonya NasrNader KhoshbakhtArash taherkhaniNooshin MasoudianEhsan ErfaniSoha Ardam

DirectorMaryam Farahani Parsa

Costume DesignNazanin Ramezani

MusicSam,an Abdullahi

Make Up ArtistMona Ahmadi

Graphic DesignParnaz Karimi

Other Works

About the CompetitionIn 1955, the LG Group committed itself to take the global path towards globalization. In this regard, the LG group decided to start research trips for university students as part of their globalization program. Students can freely choose their travel destination and country of interest, and visit excellent and exciting locations. For this research trip, there are 6 topics in the field: Natural Sciences, Information Technology, Engineering, Economics, Humanities and Social Sciences and Culture and Arts. According to the research plan, members of the research team, for each team participating independently, will spend 2 weeks for research activities in government agencies, laboratories, universities, companies and other social institutions that have the highest level of knowledge in the world. They are considered to be in a selective country.

LG Company Annual Competition LG Global ChallengerNov. 2016 /June 2018

Project DescriptionWe started to do our research on the matter of education because we believed, with this too traditional system that Iran has, our children are not enjoying their school time as much as they potentially can. And it also has to be mentioned that with a non-principled educational system, at the best situation we are going to have a theoretical society with no practical visions and nothing as a specific target. Our research studied the most powerful and practical educational system of the planet, FINLAND’S. Which leads their students in depth of real life with care and between the years of school, they provide a beautiful space of study for children to be into.

Visiting PlacesOut of our research progress, we manage to make lots of practical informations about latest finish educational system, but the main achievement we had through this journey was happening to be in places which the system actually applies. And by that, it means observing how this process do work through ages and what actually is the outcomes of Finland’s new educational system. only then, we had the chance to have real conversations with both children and effective adults as like as teachers. In general, our trip’s visiting tour divides to three parts: Schools, universities, institutes. During our time, we managed to visit places such as: NAPSA, Tammerkoski Highschool, Tampere University, Learning Scoop institute, Sara hilden art museum and academy etc.

SouvenirWithout a doubt, thinking that we can use Finland's educational system in our country is completely wrong and illogical. However the solutions should not be only connected to title of lessons, because many parts of these changes must happen based on the ideas of people who are discussing them during an education.Also regarding the fast speed of scientific developments and the fact that educational system is much slower in reacting to these changes, having a plan to study the studying is one of the purposes of this campaign. Indeed, the social network can be a good start for most of these activities.

Thinker & Copyrighter www.koosha.irWorked as a Copywriter for several projects and several creditable brands.These works settles inside various final tasks such as:

* TV Commercials* Below The Line Marketing (BTL)* City Bilboards* Social Media Marketing* Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR)

Koosha Advertising AgencyNov.-2017 Apr.2018

Thinker at Brain storming workshopsSep.-2015 Aug. 2017

www.aftabnetgroup.com

When it comes hard on an order, Aftab Agency sets a workshop to settle the project. For two years I involved with Aftab Advertising Agency as an idea developer and brain-stormer in several projects for different clients.

Aftab Advertising AgencyNov. 2016 /June 2018

For Final Bachelor Thesis of Esmaeil Kamali-Dehghan, A rewritten version of Caryl Churchill’s “Top Girls” performing on black-box scale Tehran University - Faculty of Fine Arts

Top Girls Nov. 2016 /June 2018

A Final Project for Directing ClassProject Description: For Antoine Chekhov’s Play “ Proposal”, A Final Project for Directing Class - Art University of Tehran

The Proposal Nov. 2016 /June 2018

Project Description:Final Bachelor Thesis of Maral Mohammadi. Based on Euripides’ tragedy “Alcestis”, this play has been written from the moment that Alcestis passes away from the leaving life.Tehran University - Faculty of Fine Arts

Death ClubNov. 2016 /June 2018

Project Description: A Live Performance @Prague Cafe. As the audience comes inside the cafe. The performing group starts to claim that one of their staff has been killed last night and as long as the criminal always comes back to his/her sin scene, he/her must just be here. The performers start to communicate with audience in several different ways to find the murderer.

50-5-1Nov. 2016 /June 2018

Project description: A reading play @Prague Cafe Directed by Fariborz Karimi. “SH” is a one-act comedy about a waiter which want to interfere to his ex-girlfriend's wedding but he cannot because he must stay on his shift. His supervisor is already has been invited to the wedding so the waiter starts to have a clash with him.

SH Nov. 2016 /June 2018

A Final Project for Directing Class Project Description: A Final Project for Directing Class from Antoine Chekhov’s Play “ the bear”.Art University of Tehran

The BearNov. 2016 /June 2018

Project Description: A university-Classroom Etudefrom Makbeth and the moment that he meets up with three witches.|| Art university of Tehran

Macbeth: Act 1, Scene 1Nov. 2016 /June 2018

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