Stories from the Rains of Love and Death is a quintet of interrelated one-act plays written in 1977. Aurash is a Persian myth dating back over one thousand years. The Death of the King is a retelling of Persian history. Interrogation tells a timeless truth: nothing enduring can be built on violence.
Soheil Parsa is an award-winning director, actor, writer, dramaturge, choreographer, and teacher whose professional theatre career spans twenty-nine years and two continents. In his native Iran, Soheil completed studies in theatre performance at the University of Tehran and began a promising career as an actor and director. Arriving in Canada with his family in 1984, Soheil completed a second Bachelor of Arts in theatre studies at York University and then went on to establish Modern Times Stage Company as one of the most exciting culturally diverse theatre companies in Canada. As a director, set and stage designer, translator, adaptor, choreographer, and actor, Soheil's work is based on his experience in Iran and focuses on oppression and loss of freedom (especially loss of speech). His art is created to empower those who are often marginalized and under-represented.
Peter is a theatre actor, dramaturg, and producer working in Montreal. As a founding member and co-artistic director of the Modern Times Stage Company from 1989 to 2022, Peter appeared in many of the productions, including the title roles of Macbeth and Hamlet. He has earned several Toronto Dora nominations and awards for his work with Modern Times. Among that work, Peter has co-translated and adapted the plays of several Iranian playwrights with Soheil Parsa, and he has served as co-writer or co-deviser on several new theatrical productions. Peter has worked as an actor in film, TV, and theatre in Montreal both in English and in French. In 2017 he was nominated for a Meta Award for his acting work in Progress! for Infinitheatre. He currently directs the project Postmarginal: Inclusive Theatre Practice, which seeks to increase the representativity of marginalized artists.
Brian Quirt is a dramaturg, director and playwright. He is Artistic Director of Nightswimming, a Toronto dramaturgical company that has commissioned 30 works of dance and drama, and Director of the Banff Centre Playwrights Lab. With more than 25 years experience as a dramaturg, Brian has worked with many of Canada’s leading playwrights. As a director, his credits include premieres of these Nightswimming commissions: Anita Majumdar’s Fish Eyes Trilogy (2014/15 national tour) and Same Same But Different (Theatre Passe Muraille/Alberta Theatre Projects), Carmen Aguirre’s Blue Box (2012-2014 national tour), Anosh Irani’s Bombay Black (Cahoots Theatre and tour), Judith Thompson’s Such Creatures (Theatre Passe Muraille), Andy Massingham’s Rough House (national tour) and Richard Sanger’s Whispering Pines (GCTC). He has created seven of his own plays, most recently Why We Are Here! (with Martin Julien). His plays include the 2009 Summerworks hit Lake Nora Arms (adapted from Michael Redhill’s book with Jane Miller), Blue Note (with Martin Julien; Harbourfront Centre), The Death of General Wolfe (Theatre Passe Muraille), and adaptations of Jane Urquhart’s The Whirlpool (Tarragon Theatre), and the Iranian play Aurash (with Soheil Parsa; Modern Times Theatre in Toronto, Iran, Columbia, Cuba and Bosnia).
