NOWADAYS THEATRE is a Toronto-based not-for-profit company founded in 2016. It is a highly acclaimed theatre company with over a decade of background in Iran with its Farsi name: ‘In-Rooz-Ha’, which means: ‘Nowadays’.
Founders
NOWADAYS THEATRE is a Toronto-based not-for-profit company founded by Aida Keykhaii and Mohammad Yaghoubi in 2016.
Board Members
Aida Keykhaii is a Canadian-Iranian Dora Award nominee actor and director, producer, theatre instructor with over a decade’s experience in the Industry. She holds an M.A. in Theatre Directing and a B.A. in Acting from the University of Tehran. She is the co-founder of NOWADAYS THEATRE, the 2018-19 Company in Residency at Canadian Stage, where she made her Canadian acting debut in ‘The Only Possible Way’. During the Pandemic in 2021, Aida directed the English premiere of ‘From The Basement To The Roof’ on Zoom and had a main role in the project. Then she performed in the English premier of ‘Mother’ at the Toronto Fringe Festival 2021. Aida received excellent feedback from audiences and critics for her performances in the English premiere of "Winter of 88" at the Next Stage Theatre Festival 2020 and "Heart of a Dog" at the Next Stage Theatre Festival 2022. Her most recent stage appearance was in "Earworm," presented by Nowadays Theatre in association with Crow’s Theatre in February 2024. For her outstanding performance in "Earworm," Aida was nominated for a Dora Mavor Moore Award for Outstanding Performance by an Individual.
Select Theatre and Film Credits: ‘What we do in the Shadows’ (F.X.), ‘Coroner’ (CBC), ‘Children of Fire’, ’Harbour House‘, ‘Persimmon’, ‘Heart of a Dog’, ’Children of Fire’, ’Drought and Lies’, ‘Heart of a Dog’, ‘Mother’, ‘From The Basement To The Roof’, ‘Winter of 88’, ‘The Only Possible Way’, ‘Swim Team’, ‘Proof’, ‘Dinner with Friends’, ‘Sleeping in an Empty Cup’, ‘The Pillowman’, ‘Iceland’ and ‘we are All fine’.
Select Awards and Honours: The Iran Festival of University Theatre for Outstanding acting, Olive; The International Iran Festival of University Theatre award for Outstanding directing, Goodbye; Honourable Mention from Canadian Stage in Direction and the NOW’s annual list of the "Best of the Fest" for Outstanding Production, Ensemble, and Direction, Swim Team.
Born and raised in Iran, Mohammad Yaghoubi is an award-winning playwright, director, screenwriter, theatre instructor, and the co-artistic director of Toronto-based NOWADAYS THEATRE company.
His plays have been translated into six languages and produced in Australia, Belgium, Canada, France, Germany, Kurdistan, Russia, Sweden, The Czech Republic, Turkey, and the USA.
With over a decade of experience in theatre, Mohammad moved to Canada in 2015. After founding NOWADAYS THEATRE company in 2016, Mohammad Yaghoubi staged the English premiere of his play ‘A Moment of Silence’ at the 2016 SummerWorks Performance Festival. ‘A Moment of Silence’ has been anthologized as one of the new Iranian plays published by Aurora Metro (United Kingdom) in 2021.
In 2018, with the support of the Canada Council for the Arts, he wrote his first play in English ‘Persimmon’. Toronto Arts Council has also awarded him a grant in 2020 to write his second play in English titled ‘Earworm’.
Recent Credits: ‘Earworm’ (Crow’s Theatre, 2024), ‘Persimmon’ (360-degree video project), ‘Winter of 88’ (Next Stage Theatre Festival, 2020).
Selected Awards: The Promising Pen Prize from Cahoots Theatre for his play ‘Persimmon’, 2021; The National Theatre Critics Society Award for Outstanding Play – Drought & Lies; First place winner of the Iranian Playwrights Society and third place winner of the New Play Contest in Toronto’s Fringe Festival – 2016 for Outstanding Writing – A Moment of Silence; The National Theatre Critics Society Award for Outstanding Writing – Geraniums; The National Theatre Critics Society Award for Outstanding Direction- Dance of Torn Papers and the Tehran Theatre Festival Award for Outstanding Writing and Directing – Winter of 88.
Hamid is a Civil Engineer and freelancer developer holding masters degree from Tehran university. He runs Nowadays theater website and consulting the Nowadays team in marketing.
Nazanin Malekan is a graduate of English Translation from Iran, with some acting background in Farsi and French. She moved to Canada in 2005 and got involved with the NAGs – Nomads Acting Group - between 2006 and 2011, where she acted in minor roles and helped with the props, stage management and play productions. She attended Aida Keykhaii’s acting workshop in 2016 and was cast in ‘Dance of Torn Papers’ as the workshop’s final acting project in Toronto. She joined NOWADAYS THEATRE shortly after and collaborated with the company in areas such as script translations, grant applications and other admin-related tasks. Nazanin Joined Mohammad Yaghoubi’s acting workshops between 2017 and 2018 and was cast in ‘Angles in Iran’ as the workshop’s final acting project in Toronto and Waterloo. She is a utility corporate planner from 9 to 5, and an art and theater lover the rest of the day.
Recent credits (as translator) include: ‘Winter of 88’ (a play by Mohammad Yaghoubi), ‘Dance of Torn Papers’ (a play by Mohammad Yaghoubi), and ‘Moon in the Water’ (a play by Mohammad Yaghoubi).
Ali Mostolizadeh is a PhD student in Sociology at the University of Waterloo. Ali’s interest in film has directed him to the applications of documentary films into his research. Ali’s first film “7 Menaras” got accepted in Kerman’s International Tourism Film Festival in Iran when he was 18. Since then, as a film-maker, he has involved in making the films representing findings of his academic works through reinforcing stories of non-dominant subjects. Some of Ali’s films screened and acclaimed in the academic conferences of his field. His recent work as an actor was ‘Angels in Iran’ directed by Mohammad Yaghoubi in Toronto, George Ignatieff Theatre in June 2018.
Mahsa Ershadifar is a bilingual (English and Farsi) performer, assistant director and stage manager. She has worked on several projects with Nowadays Theatre including productions of Dance of Torn Paper (DanceMakers Studio) and The Only Possible Way (Canadian Stage Company in Residency Program) as an actor and assistant director. Her most recent acting role was as Katy, in the English remount of Swim Team, directed by Aida Keykhaii and presented by NOWADAYS THEATRE at Theatre Center.
Amir Esmi is the logo designer of NOWADAYS THEATRE company. He is an established artist and a professional graphic designer with over two decades of experience in the theatre industry of Iran. He created the NOWADAYS THEATRE’s loge in 2016.
He is also the poster designer of two Farsi productions presented by NOWADAYS THEATRE in Canada (Pillowman co-directed by Mohammad Yaghoubi and Aida Keykhaii, and Dance of Torn Papers directed by Aida Keykhaii) as well as most theatre projects produced by NOWADAYS THEATRE in Iran under the Farsi name of the company (InRooz‘ha). His collaboration as a graphic Designer with NOWADAYS THEATRE in Iran include: ’Red and the others‘, ’Geraniums‘, ’Machismo‘, ’Drought and Lies‘, ‘The Only Possible Way’, ’Writing in the Dark‘, ‘Goodbye’, ‘A Moment of Silence’, ’Winter of 88‘, and ’Proof’.
Marjan Moosavi is an Iranian-Canadian PhD candidate and instructor at the University of Toronto’s Centre for Drama, Theatre, and Performance Studies. Her professional work is rounded out with dramaturgy, dramatic translation, lecturing at various conferences, and sessional work as an instructor of Persian at York University. She has articles on Iranian dramaturgy and diasporic theatre published inThe Routledge Companion to Dramaturgy, TDR (The Drama Review), New Theatre Quarterly, and Critical Stages. She is the Regional Managing Editor of the Iran section for TheTheatreTimes.com. Since January, she has been the 2018 Graduate Fellow at the Centre for Diaspora and Transnational Studies at the University of Toronto, where she is researching Middle Eastern diasporic theatre and performance in Toronto. Her collaboration with Nowadays Theatre Company started three years ago and continues to present. She worked as the assistant director and researcher for the team of ‘A Moment of Silence’ performed in 2016 SummerWorks festival, Toronto and is thrilled to be working on the company’s upcoming projects.