Andy Warhol in Iran
Date/Time
Location
Barrington Stage Company (30 Union St., Pittsfield, MA 01201, Pittsfield MA)
Barrington Stage presents a world premiere play by Brent Askari, an awardwinning Persian-American playwright and actor, winner of the 2019 National New Play Network Smith Prize for Political Theater for his play, The Refugees.
In 1976, Andy Warhol, the portrait painter of the rich and famous, travels to Tehran to take Polaroids of the Shah’s wife. While there, Warhol encounters a young man who throws his plans into turmoil. In this stunning new comedy, Brent Askari (American Underground, 2019) returns to Barrington Stage with a fictional portrait of the artist’s famed visit to Iran.
The fictional account of artist Andy Warhol’s famed 1976 visit to Tehran, will star Henry Stram as Warhol (director for Eleanor at BSC, and on Broadway the Network, The Elephant Man, The Crucible), and Nima Rakhshanifar as Farhad (performances with ACT Seattle, South Coast Rep, Victory Gardens, Chicago Shakespeare Theatre and Milwaukee Rep).
Nima Rakhshanifar is an Iranian-American actor, singer, dancer, and musician from the Silicon Valley. Nima started exploring traditional Persian music and Western music at four-years-old with Mohammad Nejad and became a founding member of the Iranian Youth Orchestra in San Jose, Calif., then studied acting at Pacific Conservatory Theatre in Santa Maria and appeared as an Emerging Professional Resident at Milwaukee Repertory Theater, performing in Ayad Akhtar’s Junk, and understudying and performing Humayun in Guards at the Taj.
Henry Stram has appeared on Broadway in The Elephant Man (and also in the London West End), Inherit the Wind, The Crucible and Titanic. Off-Broadway his appearances include The Hairy Ape (Park Avenue Armory), The School for Scandal (Red Bull), Posterity (Atlantic Theater), Fly by Night (Playwrights Horizons), Antony and Cleopatra (The Public, RSC), The Cradle Will Rock (City Center Encores! Off- Center) and Charles Ives Take Me Home (Rattlestick). On film, he has performed in The World’s Greatest Showman, Submission, Angelica, The Grey Zone, Cradle Will Rock. TV: “The Detour,” “Smash,” “The Americans,” “Law & Order,” “Law & Order: Criminal Intent.” He holds an Obie Award for sustained excellence.
The play will run June 2 to 25 at the St. Germain Stage at the Sydelle and Lee Blatt Performing Arts Center — 36 Linden St. in Pittsfield.