A Cultural Celebration MENAT Style

Mehdi Darvish
Mehdi is a Vancouver based actor. He is very happy to be working with Medusa Theatre Society. His film and TV credits include Masters of Science fiction, Delete, and Window Horses. His recent theatre credits are a Canadian and U.K tour of Foreign Radical with Theatre Conspiracy, Facts with United Players, and Echoes from Far Away Cities with Blackout Art Society. He holds a BA in theatre from York University and has studied acting at Actor’s Foundry.

Lara Aysal
Lara is a climate justice and human rights activist, performance artist, facilitator of community-oriented projects. She has collaborated with a variety of communities in South Africa, South America, Turkey, Italy, Germany and so-called Canada. She has worked across borders with international theatre companies and facilitated research projects in development and conflict settings with refugees, prisoners, ethnic minorities and Indigenous communities. She is one of the co-founders of AA+A Contemporary Performance Research Project and Ray Performance Collective. Before moving to Canada, she taught first- and second year acting classes at Beykent University and published individual and collaborative ideas on Conference of the Parties (COP20), civil disobedience, theatre in conflict zones and poems on possibilities of hope. She is currently doing her PhD in Interdisciplinary Program at UBC and collaborating with artists on performances in the era of pandemics.

Sarvin Esmaeili
Sarvin/سروین/Sarv is a gender fluid Iranian-born multidisciplinary theatre artist. Her name means as tall as a cedar tree but she’s only 5’3. Sarv is a poet, actor and facilitator. Sarvin loves playing with words, nurturing children’s creativity and hugging trees. Sarv is a graduate of Studio 58’s acting program. They’re currently enrolled in SFU’s Writer’s Studio ( Poetry). سروین is so grateful to Medusa Theatre Society for allowing her a space where she’s not a minority. A space where her stories are understood. Next see Sarv on stage at the Ignite Festival at the Cultch on May 22, 2022.

Musicians

Katelin Coleman
Katelin completed her Bachelor’s in bassoon performance at McGill in 2012, graduating with distinction, and went on to pursue a Master’s at the Staatlichen Hochschule für Musik und Darstellende Kunst in Mannheim, Germany, where she studied with Ole Kristian Dahl.
Katelin was an active freelancer throughout Europe. She has performed with Danish Radio National Symphony Orchestra, Odense Symphony Orchestra, RTÉ Irish National Symphony Orchestra, Vancouver Symphony Orchestra, Vancouver
Opera, Symphony 21, the Vancouver Metropolitan Orchestra, Allegra Chamber Orchestra, the Okanagan Symphony Orchestra, Kamloops Symphony Orchestra and the Vancouver Island Symphony Orchestra, and more. Katelin is a member of Ventos Wind Quintet in Vancouver. She is also the founder and artistic director of Artemis Musicians’ Society: a chamber ensemble comprised entirely of professional musicians who are survivors of sexual violence.

Morgan Zentner
Morgan is a Vancouver based oboist who began her studies in upstate New York. Morgan received a full scholarship to the East Carolina University School of Music. After completing her Bachelor’s degree, Morgan moved to Vancouver where she completed her Masters degree in instrumental performance at UBC with a full scholarship. She held a 3-year principal position with the Kamloops Symphony as well as studying contemporary music at McGill University.

While attending UBC and McGill, she had many new works commissioned for her for both oboe and English horn by various Canadian student composers. Morgan has had the opportunity to play with various ensembles like the all female chamber orchestra Allegra, Ventos Woodwind Quintet, the Vancouver Intercultural Orchestra that features local composers Mark Armanini, Moshe Denburg, Farshid Samandari, Lan Tung, and various others local ensembles. As well as playing various styles of music as a freelance oboist, Morgan has also recorded and toured with various Canadian heavy metal groups and is currently working with Artemis, a chamber group of mixed instrumentation that works with musicians who strive to raise awareness of assault within the music community.

Saina Khaledi
Saina was the winner of the Iranian Santour Festival in 2003. Saina received her diploma from Iran’s most prestigious music school, the Tehran Music Conservatoire. She continued her studies and graduated in Music (Bachelors of Arts) from the Tehran Music University in 2007 at which point she studied with Masters: Mr. Nasrollah Khaledi, Mrs. Soosan Aslani (Dehlavi), and Mrs. Arfa Atraei. Saina has performed in Iran, Austria, Japan, Netherlands, USA and Canada often as a composer, soloist or with groups such as Music On Main, Vashaan Ensemble, Vancouver Intercultural Orchestra (VICO), BC Chinese Music Ensemble (BCCME), Vancouver Symphony Orchestra (VSO), National Orchestra of Iran Conservatoire, Mellal Orchestra and Hamnavazan Ensemble. She also took part in different music productions and recordings.

Currently, Saina teaches Santour at Capilano University, Persian Culture and Art Institute (Percai) as well as private lessons.

Bardia Sadeghi

Bardia started his musical learning at a very young age. His first debut was playing Persian Percussion ”TOMBAK” on a live Friday morning show ” SOBHE JOME BA SHOMA ” at the famous Iranian National Radio Network at the age of three.After that, Bardia continued to play percussion in various concerts and cultural events in Iran, Canada, the U.S.A., and Japan to name a few.His mentors in learning “TOMBAK” were Mr. Davood Yaseri, Mohammad Esmaeili, Mahmood Farahmand, and Kourosh Bozorg Pour.

Bardia is the leader of “DAFAN BAND ” which is the first Iranian Percussion Band in North America. Their songs and videos are available to download and stream on major music platforms.
Bardia published his first Tonbak book in 2021 named ” Amozesh Tonbak Be Revayate Bardia Sadeghi ” which has the modern techniques to learn Iranian Percussion ” Tonbak” for beginners. He has published five books this year for DAF(Beginner to Advance) and other Iranian Percussion Instruments which are available to purchase from his website.