About Darvag
The Darvag Arts Foundation was founded in Berkeley in 1985 with the dual mission of exploring creative expression in theater arts and maintaining a vital living connection with the group's Iranian heritage. The company has grown from four founding members to a core group of 15 professional artists and has a wide base of support in the local Iranian community. (In the East Bay alone, the Iranian community is estimated at 100,000.)
Darvag is organized as an artists' collective governed by a volunteer Board Of Directors composed of participating artists. Until recently, the organization was funded entirely by ticket sales and members' contributions. In 1994, San Francisco's Intersection for the Arts provided fiscal sponsorship as well as guidance in development. The company incorporated in 1995 as the non-profit Darvag Arts Foundation.
Darvag presents an average of four theatrical productions in the Farsi language each year, as well as occasional programs of traditional Iranian music. Its repertoire consists of contemporary Iranian works, new plays by group members, and Farsi translations of classic and contemporary work from other languages.In 1994, in collaboration with Intersection for the Arts, Darvag receiveda grant from the Rockefeller Foundation for the presentation of its first bilingual production, What Is Fatima Going To Do With Her Hair? and Image is Everything! In 1997 Darvag continued its exploration in bilingual programming with Zara Houshmand's production of Bijan Mofid's children's play, The Butterfly, with performances at the Asian Art Museum and the Randall Museum. "Remembering Unforgetable" by Hossein K. Jah in 1998 was Darvag's first original English play exploring the lives of exiles and their emotional ties to political prisoners.
In 1999 Darvag translated into English and staged Bahram Beyzai's "The Eighth Voyage of Sinbad" with thecollaboration of the Shotgun Players an established East Bay theatre company. With these plays Darvag continues to reach beyond it's Farsi speaking audience to establish a bridge to a larger community while continuing to stage plays in the Farsi language.