The Darvag Theater Group was founded in Berkeley in 1985, with the dual mission of exploring creative expression in theater arts and maintaining a vital living connection with the group’s Iranian heritage.

In 1994, San Francisco’s Intersection for the Arts provided fiscal sponsorship as well as guidance in development and the company incorporated in 1995 as the non-profit Darvag Arts Foundation. Darvag is organized as an artists’ collective governed by a volunteer Board of Directors composed of participating artists.

Darvag’s repertoire consists of contemporary Iranian works, new plays by group members, and Farsi translations of classic and contemporary works from other languages. In 1994, Darvag received a grant from the Rockefeller Foundation for the presentation of its first bilingual production, What Is Fatima Going To Do With Her Hair? and Image is Everything! In 1997 Darvag continued its exploration in bilingual programming with Zara Houshmand’s production of Bijan Mofid’s children’s play, The Butterfly, with performances at the Asian Art Museum and the Randall Museum. Remembering the Unforgettable by Hossein Khosrowjah in 1998 was Darvag’s first original play in English, exploring the lives of exiles and their emotional ties to political prisoners.

In 1999 Darvag translated (into English) and staged Bahram Beyzai’s “The Eighth Voyage of Sinbad” collaborating with the Shotgun Players, an established East Bay theatre company. With these plays Darvag continued to reach beyond its Farsi speaking audience to establish a bridge to a larger community while continuing to stage plays in the Farsi language.

Up to now (January 2011), there have been about forty Darvag productions, half of which have been original works by group members.