Awakening Performance
Pure Magic
A mystical realm of the past brought to life through performance, I call this project “Awakening”.
My intention was to immerse the audience in an atmosphere resembling ancient Persia. This production was a reminder of our history, and the possibility of a rebirth for our country.
This was a performance in honor of nature and the sacred elements of our planet. It was also a performance in which I payed homage to the ancient roots of Iranian culture and the ruler who founded the Persian empire, Cyrus the Great, and the last King of Iran, Mohammad Reza Shah.
I’m happy with the final product of my performance and my tutors called it the centerpiece of the performance festival. For my first solo show it was amazing to see a world I created come to life the way it did. I’m excited for what the future has in store, building upon this as the foundation of my practice.
Experimenting with the past…
I began by experimenting with how I could create a mystical and ancient feel to the stage. I implemented props like an oil lamp and ‘samovar’, an old tea maker found in Iranian’s homes as decor. I was inspired by a speech the Shah of Iran made in 1973 so added it as the soundtrack. This was the first presentation of my project in a scratch performance.
My ideas began to progress, I started to implement intentional lighting and changed the projection to footage of the ancient city of Persepolis in Shiraz, Iran. This brought out an immersion into this sort of realm or capsule of the past. I wanted to bring a spiritual dimension to the performance so I mixed the Shah’s speech with meditative music with a hint of Persian/Eastern influence. This changed of atmosphere, really brought goose bumps to the listener.
My rehearsals started to really bring my performance to life. I added in elements of nature- fire, water, and earth. Nature was seen as sacred in ancient Persia, and the elements were honored for what good they give us. Fire was especially sacred and centric to ritual ceremonies in Zoroastrianism (ancient Iranian religion/philosophy). The fire represents truth (as in Zoroastrianism), water for purity, and the soil I added as the land of Iran. I began to perform honoring the fire, cleaning my face with the water, and finally I planted a seed to resemble the seed of prosperity for Iran. Instead of a literally seed I used the Cyrus cylinder, which is the first record of human rights used in human civilizations, an important artifact for Iranians. This fit well with the performance audio as the Shah’s speech was addressing the ancient King Cyrus and celebrating his values in founding the Persian empire. Behind me I projected aerial footage of the Persepolis ancient city so that my background was more dynamic and immersive.
I uploaded video of the performance to my YouTube with English subtitles