On Ayad Aktar and Disgraced

Ayad Akhtar

 by Jacqueline E. Lawton
      Dramaturg 

Ayad Akhtar is a storyteller. By profession, he is an actor, a playwright, a novelist and a filmmaker. He studied theatre and religion in college. He was drawn to the ways that theatre offered audiences a form of ritual and a way to experience different narratives and cultures. In a recent article with HowlRound, Akhtar explains:

As a fundamentally religious person the theater appeals to me; we gather together in a room and we experience something that actually happens in front of us. You can do something in the theater that you cannot in any other art form and that is to reveal the face of the divine in a way, to reveal the collective energy of some source that unifies us all.

Through his writing, Akhtar explores the experience of faith and cultural identity. Disgraced examines the challenges and complexity of identity and questions the place of faith in today’s world. Through the character of Amir, we navigate the social and cultural expectations of race, religion, and ethnicity. In doing so, the play asks us to question who we are and who we want to be against the expectations of family, friends and colleagues.

Drawing from his own life and experience, Akhtar examines what it means to be Muslim in the U.S. His parents both came from Pakistan and he was raised in a secular household in Wisconsin. While Akhtar had a period of devoutness, he struggled with his cultural and religious identity. He broke away from and reawakened to his own faith. He is now a practicing Sufi and defines himself as a cultural Muslim. In Disgraced, through the character of Amir, we become intimately familiar with the struggle of what it means to be Muslim in a post-9/11 society.

Portrait of Juan de Pareja by Velázquez

Race and colonialism are also critical to Akhtar’s exploration of that world as an artist. By positioning Muslim characters in the central role of his work, he allows his audience to consider the Islamic experience as relevant as the Christian or Jewish experiences of America. While never seen on stage, Diego Velázquez’s Portrait of Juan de Pareja plays a pivotal role in the play. It anchors the narrative around cultural identity, colonialism, exoticism of the other, and cultural assimilation. Interestingly, Juan de Pareja’s story mirrors Amir’s hopes, ambitions and desire to obtain the American Dream:

Juan de Pareja was a Spanish painter born into slavery. He was of Moorish descent. He learned to paint by observing his master

Vocation of Saint Matthew by Juan de Pareja

Diego Velázquez, a leading artist of great renown in the Spanish court of King Philip IV. Pareja practiced his own craft in secret. He worked diligently and waited for the opportunity to showcase his work. According to legend, that day came when the King paid Velázquez a visit. Pareja placed one of his own paintings where he knew the King would see it. When the King entered, Pareja risked life and limb and threw himself at the King's feet. He explained that he had learned to paint in secret and begged the King for his help. On seeing the great work of art, the King replied, “any man who has this skill cannot be a slave." And with that, Velázquez had no choice, but to grant Pareja his freedom.

Amir, a Pakistani American lawyer, endeavors to become a partner at his law firm. He wants his name on the wall alongside those of his Jewish colleagues. If obtained, such an achievement would grant him a solid foothold in the American Dream. It would be an affirmation of his talent, skill and intelligence. It would exempt him from being perceived as a second class citizen. Unfortunately, for Amir and for many whose racial, religious and cultural identities mark them as other, this freedom will never be.

Like religion, theatre can also offer a space for healing. Theatre achieves its impact through the act of empathy and the process of catharsis (or what we might call emotional purgation). In an article with HowlRound, Akhtar explains:

Catharsis is only possible when the full dimension of our pity and our terror are aroused by what we see. If the volume dials down to two or three you can’t really have catharsis. Catharsis isn’t about feeling sorry for a character or shedding a few tears. It is a very specific process having to do with identification, anticipation, pity, and terror.

In the spring, our community was rocked with tragedy. An inexplicable act of violence took the young and inspiring lives of Deah Shaddy Barakat, Yusor Mohammad Abu-Salha and Razan Mohammad Abu-Salha. Since the shootings, many students, staff, faculty and community members have looked for ways to honor the lives and legacies of these young people. For instance, an interactive project called “After the Shooting” was created to allow users to learn more about issues related to mental health, gun control, the impact of the media, and the role of religion in society. At PlayMakers Repertory Company, we offer this production of Disgraced as a space to come together as a community, to examine ourselves, to challenge our assumptions, and to find a way forward through our differences.

Join us for Disgraced. Onstage through October 4th.

Click here or call our Box Office at 919-962-7529 for tickets.

2015/16 Season Preview and Q&A with Joseph Haj

On June 11th at 6:30pm we’re hosting a special preview of the upcoming season including a Q&A with Producing Artistic Director Joseph Haj. WUNC’s Frank Stasio will join Joe onstage to discuss the 2015/16 lineup and what’s ahead for PlayMakers. It will be an evening of celebration for our PlayMakers family and the community.

As a prelude to our June 11th event, Joe sat down for an interview with PlayMakers dramaturg Jacqueline Lawton to discuss how he selects a season and what excites him about our new slate of plays. He also shares a few thoughts on his time at PlayMakers.

Read on for highlights from their conversation; then we hope you’ll join us on June 11th for more of Joe’s insider look at the road ahead and the chance to pose some of your own questions.

This event is FREE, but reservations are required, first come, first served, as space is limited. Please contact the Box Office at 919.962.7529 to reserve your spot today!

Click here for June 11th event details.

A conversation with Producing Artistic Director Joseph Haj & Dramaturg Jacqueline Lawton

Jacqueline Lawton (JL): What guides you when selecting a season? 

Joseph Haj (JH): A season ought to feel like a multi-course meal. If it’s all dessert, that’s no good. If it’s all meat, that’s no good either. Like any good meal, there’s a salad, a first course, an entrée, and, of course, dessert and coffee. We proportion the menu with a variety of dishes - larger to smaller cast shows, larger to smaller productions. We also want to give ample opportunities to our company – our resident acting company as well as the graduate students in technical and costume production. So, for instance, we ask - is there a play in period in the season? The students can’t just put jeans and t-shirts on characters all season long. There must be a variety of styles and approaches for educational purposes, along with providing variety onstage. So you see many factors are involved. But to answer the question narrowly, we choose a pattern of plays that make us sit up and say “THIS … this is the season we want to make.”

JL: The 2015/16 Mainstage Season opener is Disgraced by Ayad Akhtar. Why did you want to produce this play?

JH: I went with my family to visit my wife’s parents in South Carolina and Disgraced was one of several scripts I read over the weekend. I finished reading and was so disturbed by it. And all the other plays all kind of vanished. All I could think about was this complicated, atypical, challenging play. It caused me to think about ideas around, not just racial prejudice, but cultural assimilation. Anything that had me thinking for so long and so deeply about these important questions had to be a part of the season.

JL: Next in the lineup is Seminar by Theresa Rebeck. Why do you feel Seminar will resonate so well here? 

JH: I love this play particularly in our world here, as a professional theatre on a university campus. The play deals with the dynamic of a brilliant, complicated teacher and four students, who pay a fair amount of money to be close to his genius and learn about writing. It says an awful lot about the dynamic between teachers and students, and the way we make heroes and knock them down. It also lines up beautifully for the magnificent actor, Ray Dooley, in the central role of the teacher, and four members of our acting company as the students.

JL: Then you selected Peter and the Starcatcher for the holidays. 

JH: I wanted a family show for the holiday season, but the challenge is to find something that’s thrilling, fun, beautifully crafted, and not just for kids. So, I’m very excited about Peter and the Starcatcher because it truly resonates on an adult level as well as with young people. It’s an absolute delight, filled with invention and will feature 13-14 members of our acting company. Brendon Fox, who led terrific productions of Opus and Angels in America at PlayMakers, will be directing for us.

JL: Following that, we have the world premiere of a new adaptation of Anton Chekhov’s Three Sisters. 

JH: Libby Appel, former artistic director of the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, is one of our great Chekhov scholars, translators, adaptors, and I love her new version of Three Sisters. I love her point of view. It’s smart and muscular. It’s not pulled out of period in any way, yet it feels contemporary in a way that feels close to us. To see Anton Chekhov’s great text through the lens of Libby’s expertise made me excited to do this play. And with a wonderful director like Vivienne Benesch, who’s been with us on multiple occasions (Red, In the Next Room, Love Alone), it will be in good hands.

JL: From there, we have We Are Proud to Present… by Jackie Sibblies Drury. What draws you to this play? 

JH: I love this play. I love it formally. I love it aesthetically. I love its politics. A group of well-minded, well-intentioned folks get together to try to put on a play - which is something ludicrously hard to do under the best of circumstances. Then, in their exploration of the topics in the play, the wheels come off, which ends up being terrifically revealing about the undercurrents of prejudice that reside even in those of us who consider ourselves progressive. The play illuminates these ideas in insightful ways in the form of a very exciting piece of theatre. We Are Proud to Present… will be directed by Desdemona Chiang, who so beautifully helmed this season’s Mainstage finale, 4000 Miles.

JL: Tell us about the Mainstage Season finale, Stephen Sondheim’s Sweeney Todd. 

JH: Sondheim is hands-down one of our great playwrights; and Sweeney Todd, which is almost entirely sung, is a masterpiece. A revenge story, it’s set against the meat grinder of the Industrial Revolution. This idea of the meat grinder – in the story there are people ground into pies – is a metaphor for a society grinding its own citizens into the dust. With themes of economic disparity, it speaks to our current moment in a lot of ways. I’m thrilled to have it in the season as another look at the masterworks of Stephen Sondheim, as last season featured Into the Woods.

JL: Why did you chose Uncle Ho to Uncle Sam and Highway 47 for the PRC² second stage series?

JH: Uncle Ho to Uncle Sam follows the harrowing journey of Trieu Tran and his family from Vietnam to the United States. It’s a profound immigrant story. KJ Sanchez’s Highway 47 is another story about the American experience. KJ can track her ancestry in New Mexico back at least a dozen generations through the land given to her family through Spanish land grants. The play is about enormous battles in her family for the rights to that land. KJ is both writer and performer; as is Trieu Tran of his play.

JL: Being located in the Triangle area of North Carolina and based on a university campus, there’s a wide range of cultures, racial and gender identities, religions in our community. Can you talk about the efforts that go into making sure those communities are represented onstage in the plays and off stage in the audience? 

JH: It’s an enormous challenge. Universities are often seen as ivory towers in their broader community. And theatres, institutional theatres, are often thought of in the same way. So when you’re a professional theatre housed on a university campus, you’re talking about an ivory tower inside an ivory tower in terms of perception. We’ve worked very, very, very hard over these last nine years to make the walls of the building more porous. To offer a broader sense of invitation – to really make clear that all of our community is welcome and desired to be part of our theatre.

JL: Share with us how you work to bring greater inclusion to theatre. 

JH: The leader of an organization needs to determine whether diversity is a priority. And if it is, then you must be intentional about what you’re doing, at least some of the time. We work hard to make sure there’s inclusion of a diversity of voices across the season in terms of the work that we do. It’s a challenge when you’re a theatre dedicated to the classics, but there are ways, such as determining who gets to tell those stories, who are the directors and do you have gender and ethnic balance amongst those directors and who will design the plays. We’re very intentional about having a plurality of voices; different points of view. And not as a matter of checking boxes, but because we believe it actually makes the art better.

JL: Allow me to express a heartfelt congrats from all of us at PlayMakers on your appointment as the Guthrie Theater’s next Artistic Director. You’ve achieved so much during your tenure here. What do you feel most proud of? 

JH: Thank you. It has been an honor to serve this community. I’m proud that we’ve built an audience, a community of people, who are interested in their own growth through participation in the life of a professional theatre. That’s a beautiful gift, and I’ll miss that entirely. We have an audience who comes not only to be entertained, to have a laugh or see a show that may be forgotten by morning. Our audience members are also interested in testing themselves … testing their ideas and their ideas about themselves. And that’s been built over time. When I came here nine years ago, we were a theatre making five plays a year. And I thought of something Ben Cameron, head of TCG [Theatre Communications Group], used to say. Ben said, “A good question for an arts organization to ask itself is what would be lost from the community if it were to shutter its doors?” I firmly held that question in mind when I started here. I remember thinking, if the answer is only five well-made plays a year, then that wouldn’t be nearly enough. That’s not nearly an important enough role for a regional theatre. I think PlayMakers has become an important part of the cultural fabric of this community. And for that, I’m very proud.

JL: And finally, what do you think you’ll miss the most? 

JH: The greatest gift an artistic director can be given is the opportunity to make work for smart people; and we have an incredibly smart community here. Many patrons come to us as sophisticated theatre-goers and many more have become sophisticated theatre-goers by virtue of participating in our work. I’ll miss that a lot. Fortunately I’m going to the Guthrie, and the Twin Cities, an area also noted for supporting of the arts. I’m incredibly grateful for the support of this community and for what we’ve achieved at PlayMakers.

Join us on June 11th for our FREE 2015/16 Season Preview event and Q&A with Joseph Haj. Reservations are required as space is limited, so call our Box Office at 919.962.7529 to reserve your spot!

Wrestling Jerusalem Post-Show Conversations

Join us for the 'Second Act' of PRC².

We've created PRC² as a venue for stimulating, topical artistic presentations and a safe place to talk about the themes they raise pertaining to the challenging issues of our day.

Jan 7 - 11, following each performance of Wrestling Jerusalem, expert panelists joining artist Aaron Davidman and moderator Collin Rustin include:

Panelists

Wednesday, Jan 7

Michael Figueroa
Michael A. Figueroa is an ethnomusicologist who researches the relation between music, place, and violence in the Middle East and Mediterranean regions. His current book project focuses on how national space is musically and poetically constructed in Israel/Palestine, with a focus on the critical moment of the Six-Day War of 1967. A multidisciplinary study of musical-poetic practice (including public rituals of commemoration, festivals, recording projects, and a variety of print and mass media), the monograph will explore the close relation between musical knowledge and spatial justice in the region. His additional research interests include music and memory in/of Muslim Iberia, global popular music, black music, music and violence, music and literature, hermeneutics, and the analysis of song. He holds a Ph.D. in Ethnomusicology from the University of Chicago and a B.A. in Musicology from Northwestern University. His research has been supported by the Ford Foundation, American Musicological Society (Howard Mayer Brown Fellowship), and a Fulbright-IIE Fellowship. He currently serves as Co-chair of the Society for Ethnomusicology’s Special Interest Group for the Study of Music and Violence, Assistant Editor for the International Council for Traditional Music’s Mediterranean Music Studies Study Group, and Board Member for the Mayart Foundation.

Thursday, Jan 8

Ari Roth, Artistic Director, Mosaic Theater Company (former Artistic Director at Theater J)
Ari Roth is an American theatrical producer, playwright, director and educator. From 1997 to 2014, he served as the Artistic Director of Theater J in Washington, D.C. Roth grew up on the South Side of Chicago and is a graduate of the University of Chicago Laboratory High School and the University of Michigan where he studied playwriting and received his first of two Avery Hopwood Awards for Drama from noted Michigan alum, playwright Arthur Miller. The Washington Post has described Roth as a “maverick artistic director” noted for staging premiers of new works by both “established and budding playwrights.” The New York Times called Roth's play Born Guilty a "searing drama." The play was commissioned and produced by Arena Stage, directed by Zelda Fichandler and nominated for the 1992 Helen Hayes/Charles MacArthur Award for Outstanding New Play. As a producer, with Theater J he produced world premieres by the late Wendy Wasserstein (Welcome To My Rash & Third), Joyce Carol Oates (The Tattooed Girl), Richard Greenberg (Bal Masque), Ariel Dorfman (Picasso's Closet), and Either Or by “Schindler's List” author, Thomas Keneally. As an educator, he has taught at the University of Michigan for ten years and has lectured at Brandeis, Carnegie Mellon and New York Universities. He currently teaches a course in political theater for the University of Michigan's “Michigan in DC” internship program and is the Founding Artistic Director of Mosaic Theatre Company.

Jacqueline E. Lawton, Professor, Department of Dramatic Art, UNC-Chapel Hill
Jacqueline E. Lawton was named one of 30 of the nation's leading black playwrights by Arena Stage’s American Voices New Play Institute. Her plays include: Anna K; Blood-bound and Tongue-tied; Deep Belly Beautiful; The Devil’s Sweet Water; The Hampton Years; Ira Aldridge: the African Roscius; Lions of Industry, Mothers of Invention; Love Brothers Serenade (2013 semi-finalist for the Eugene O’Neill Theater Center’s National Playwrights Conference); Mad Breed; Noms de Guerre; and Our Man Beverly Snow. Ms. Lawton received her MFA in Playwriting from the University of Texas at Austin, where she was a James A. Michener Fellow. She is a 2012 TCG Young Leaders of Color award recipient, National New Play Network (NNPN) Playwright Alum, and member of Arena Stage's Playwrights' Arena. She is also a proud member of the Dramatist Guild of America.

Friday, Jan 9

Layla Quran, Undergraduate, UNC-Chapel Hill
Layla Quran was born in Jerusalem and raised in Greenville, NC. She is a senior Global Studies and Journalism student at UNC. After her first year at Carolina, she visited the West Bank to complete a research project on the role of the Arts as a form of resistance in Palestine. She interviewed nearly 50 Palestinian artists throughout the West Bank.  She most recently returned from a research trip this past summer where she conducted interviews with Palestinian artists on their thoughts regarding the cultural boycott movement for her honors thesis. She hopes to pursue a career in multimedia journalism after graduation.

Itay Asaf, Israel Scholar, NC Hillel
Itay Asaf, Jewish Agency Israel Fellow to Hillel, earned his BA in behavioral science from Yizrael Valley College in Israel. He grew up in kibbutz Ginossar, on the shores of the Sea of Galilee. He worked as a counselor at an after school program for 1st through 6th graders on his kibbutz. He served in the special forces of the IDF for 3 years. He is a former basketball coach and the manager of a basketball school in Emek Yizrael valley basketball club. 

Saturday, Jan 10

Itay Asaf, Israel Scholar, NC Hillel
Itay Asaf, Jewish Agency Israel Fellow to Hillel, earned his BA in behavioral science from Yizrael Valley College in Israel. He grew up in kibbutz Ginossar, on the shores of the Sea of Galilee. He worked as a counselor at an after school program for 1st through 6th graders on his kibbutz. He served in the special forces of the IDF for 3 years. He is a former basketball coach and the manager of a basketball school in Emek Yizrael valley basketball club. 

Elyse Crystall, Professor, English and Comparative Literature, UNC-Chapel Hill
Elyse Crystall, originally from Brooklyn, NY, is a long time social justice activist and human rights advocate. She teaches in the Department of English and Comparative Literature at UNC-CH, is a member of Concerned Faculty for Palestine at UNC-Chapel Hill, and co-convenes the Carolina Seminar "Rethinking Israel/Palestine." She is also a member of Jewish Voice for Peace. In the summers of 2006 and 2011, Dr. Crystall visited the West Bank to rebuild demolished Palestinian homes.
 

Sunday, January 11 (7:30pm)

Yaakov Ariel, Professor, Department of Religious Studies, UNC-Chapel Hill
Yaakov Ariel is a native of Jerusalem. He studied at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and the University of Chicago, where he obtained his doctoral degree. A scholar of Christian-Jewish relations, he teaches at the Department of Religious Studies at UNC.

Conversation Facilitator

Collin E. Rustin, Jr., President – Rustin & Associates, L.L.C.
Collin established his company to help businesses improve productivity and manage conflict; to help community organizations increase their effectiveness in handling controversial issues; and to help governmental agencies improve their efficiency by providing skill-building workshops focusing on executive coaching, diversity awareness training, mediation services and conflict resolution. Prior to operating his own business full time, Collin was director of Human Resources Counseling Services at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where his staff was responsible for providing confidential services, workplace mediation, resolving employee/management conflicts, and approving employment terminations to more than 5,000 staff employees.

Collin also provides management feedback and executive training services at the internationally renowned Center for Creative Leadership in Greensboro and for AvoLead, LLC in Durham NC. He co-leads training modules focusing on developing high performance teams and leading people through transitions.

He has used his mediation training to help corporations and governmental agencies manage different conflict situations and reduce tensions among members of different ethnic groups.
A graduate of UNC-CH, Collin received his BA degree in Psychology and his Master of Arts degree in Public Administration/Political Science. Collin is recognized as a Board Certified Coach by the Center for Credentialing & Education, Inc.

All are welcome - join us!

These post-show discussions are free and open to the public (beginning 5 minutes after the end of each 90-minute performance of Wrestling Jerusalem), however, space is limited.

Call the Box Office at 919.962.PLAY (7529) to reserve your seat!