“Theater is a concentrate of life as normal. Theater is a purified version of real life, an extraction, an essence of human behavior that is stranger and more tragic and more perfect than everything that is ordinary about me and you.”
— Eleanor Catton, “The Rehearsal”
The theater is often a place to educate, entertain and enlighten. I have to admit that I have a tendency toward escapist entertainment — dance, musicals and light comedy — but when I do go for thoughtful drama I’m rarely disappointed. That’s why I’ve decided to seek out more theater experiences this year. We have a wonderful theater community in Philadelphia and the surrounding suburbs with award-winning companies producing incredible shows at affordable prices. This week I spoke to Anthony Mustafa Adair about his upcoming production and his journey from University of the Arts student to working actor.
PGN: Tell me a little about where you’re from.
AMA: I was born in Colorado, in a little town called Littleton. Mostly raised there, but my mom works in technology so I spent a few of the early years moving around. We lived for a year in India and in Singapore for two years; I actually went to an international kindergarten there. But then we went back to Colorado and I spent most of my life there until I decided at 18 to move to Philadelphia to pursue a career in the arts. I got a BFA in acting at UArts and I’ve been here ever since.
PGN: What’s a favorite memory from home?
AMA: I love Colorado. If there were more acting opportunities there, I’d love to split my time between here and home. I just got back from a 10-day trip to visit the folks, and it’s just so beautiful there. The people are nice and there’s no humidity there, which is a big plus. I can handle dry heat but not this sticky stuff here.
PGN: Any siblings?
AMA: It’s a little complicated. I have a half-sibling from each parent: a little sister with the same dad but a different mom, and an older brother with the same mom but different dad. So I’m related to each of them, but they’re not related to each other.
PGN: Tell me about the folks.
AMA: My mom is a white American, like Irish and something, and my dad is a political refugee from Afghanistan.
PGN: What made him a refugee?
AMA: I don’t have a lot of clarity on this issue but from what I understand my family lived in Kabul, which is a major city in Afghanistan, and they weren’t super rich but they were better off than most. I know my paternal grandmother had a pretty good job and when the Soviets invaded they were able to come to America.
PGN: They got out of dodge, or in this case, Kabul.
AMA: Yes, both of my parents were one of six, but my father had a brother who died there so his mother and siblings came over.
PGN: So what were you like as a kid; were you dramatically bent?
AMA: Yeah, I think so! I’ve always been a ham. I liked performing and getting attention but I always had more intellectual goals and interests. I always thought that I’d go to law school until I was in a show, “Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead.” I’d never read the show or any Tom Stoppard before and it was the first time that I realized how intellectual and meaningful theater could be. I just thought theater was for fun, but I started to understand that good theater could make a difference and be just as consequential.
PGN: What were your other extracurricular activities in school?
AMA: I played football and track and field around middle school and in high school I was the captain of the speech and debate team. That was formative; if I could make a mandate, it would be that every kid should have to take it. It’s so empowering. It teaches you how to think critically and it teaches you how to argue your point of view. As captain, I’d recruit kids by saying, “This will teach you how to win arguments with your parents!”
PGN: I never took it, but wish I’d known about it. I think I would have excelled because I’m good at seeing things from other people’s perspective even if I don’t agree.
AMA: Yes, just think if everyone learned to think critically and understand the argument from the other side how much better we could all communicate with each other. Not to mention that speaking in front of people is almost a bigger fear than death to some, and speech and debate makes you feel more comfortable expressing yourself.
PGN: How did you end up in Philly?
AMA: I came here to go to UArts and decided to stay after graduation. It took me about a full year before I started getting cast in shows, fully mounted productions. The first was the Theater Company of Philadelphia’s production of “Disgraced,” written by Ayad Akhtar. Next was a show at Theatre Exile called “The Invisible Hand,” which was nominated for 13 Barrymore Awards, so that was exciting. And now I’ll be performing in their newest show, “Guards at the Taj,” which opens Oct. 20.
PGN: What was your worst mishap on stage?
AMA: “Disgraced” was a bit of a controversial piece, and I think almost every single time we did the show we’d have someone walk out during the first scene, usually elderly couples who weren’t ready for the subject matter. When we did the talkbacks after the show, people would regularly tell us that the topic was unacceptable: “You shouldn’t be saying this stuff in public,” etc.
PGN: Jeez, what was so controversial?
AMA: It’s basically a show about racial politics, which is bound to get anyone riled up. It’s about a Pakistani-American guy who is married to a white, American woman and they host a dinner party with their friends — a Jewish man and a black woman — and it doesn’t go well. I played the Pakistani guy’s nephew. If you try to hide who you are, it will come back to bite you.
PGN: And you’re someone who I understand self-describes as a proud, out, gay, Afghan-American Muslim. How do those different things intersect and meld for you?
AMA: It’s kind of tricky because I don’t think that those parts of my life necessarily intersect in a nice, anecdotal way, at least not one that’s an easily shareable story. I’ve never felt any pressure from my family to be an “Afghan man.” My father is the least devout out of his family. We have varying levels in the family, from an imam to my dad who drinks regularly and doesn’t practice Islam really at all. My experience is pretty atypical. I’ve never been told, “These are the things that represent being an Afghan,” or had any conflicts about being gay. My family and friends have always been supportive. I know that being gay can be very difficult for some Muslim people in the U.S., but mostly outside of the states, where it can be downright dangerous to be gay and out. It’s not really an option for most.
PGN: As a black American, I know any time something goes terribly wrong, the first thought is, Dear Lord, please don’t let them be black, please don’t let them be black. Do you have the same kind of thoughts?
AMA: Oh totally! It’s immediately, Please, please let it be a Jeff or a John! I don’t know, I’m a pretty light-skinned guy, so most people assume that I’m Italian or Brazilian or something unless they’re really clued in. So I haven’t really been affected much personally, but yeah, any time something major happens … I mean, I was in fourth grade when 9/11 happened. I was on my way to school and my mother pulled me aside and said, “You can’t tell anybody where your dad is from.” She had a very serious talk with me about how people would misunderstand if I told them about my father. I was 9 years old and getting confronted with racial politics for the first time. I’d never thought about the fact that my parents were different colors until that point. It’s also a strange sensation because when my mom said, “You can’t tell anyone that you’re half-Afghani,” it had the effect of making me want to be proud of it more than I ever had been. Obviously not being proud of anything happening with 9/11, just wanting to say, “No, I don’t want to deny who I am, I want to be proud of it.” And I’d never cared about that before. It was very formative in my views about being a brown man.
PGN: I’d guess part of that was wanting to show, “Hey, we’re not all bad people.”
AMA: Right, right. And also grasping the power to say, “I don’t care what you think, this is who I am. I’m not going to pretend to be something else for you.” And yes, there is a part that kind of wants to say, “C’mon, we’re not all … [hesitates] … well, we’re not all terrorists.”
PGN: It’s hard to say, but that is the rhetoric that was going around then and is sadly back on the front burner thanks to a certain presidential nominee. It’s funny, you mentioned being Afghani but passing for Italian or Latino, I have a similar problem; people know I’m something other than white, and often guess something Middle-Eastern. I was traveling back and forth to Waco, Texas, not long after 9/11 and got pulled out of the line and had my bags searched every single time I went through Waco security. No one else on our crew was searched. So I got racially profiled for you.
AMA: That’s funny. It happens less and less now but I remember one time when I was with my mom. We were going through the Philadelphia Airport and there was a family in front of us from some Muslim country. We were in the security line and it was them, then me and then my mom. The guards pulled the family aside for extra checking and they tried to put me in with them, and it was like, “No, no, I’m with the white lady, she’s my mom!”
PGN: I would imagine some of the anti-Muslim sentiment died down after a while, but as I mentioned, it seems to be getting stirred up again. Do you find that?
AMA: It’s interesting. The play “Disgraced” takes place in 2011 and it’s specifically set 10 years after 9/11. I didn’t understand why at first until I realized that the 10th anniversary is when people, especially the media, started to unpack it again and unearth all of the unrest that people felt in 2001. The good side of it is that it allows us to air it out and discuss our feelings and thoughts like in these different plays. I can’t remember any major plays that were written by Middle-Eastern or South-Asian people before any of this stuff came out. The upside of racism I guess.
PGN: Tell me about the show that’s coming up.
AMA: It’s called “Guards at the Taj” and it was written by Rajiv Joseph, who is one of my favorite contemporary playwrights. The first play I read by him was called “Gruesome Playground Injuries,” and I immediately resonated with the male character. The way he felt and thought and spoke was just the way I feel and think and speak. The syntax, everything, it felt like me so I’ve followed his work ever since and I’m excited to do this show.
PGN: What’s it about?
AMA: It takes place in 1648 India, as two Imperial Guards watch the sun rise for the first time on the newly completed Taj Mahal. An event takes place that shakes their respective worlds and set the wheels in motion for an existential crisis that shakes their faith in God, the empire and each other. It’s a dark comedy and it just won an Obie Award for best new play.
PGN: A side thought: You’ve played many different ethnicities; are you good with accents?
AMA: In this show, the playwright was very clear that the actors should not use a dialect. In fact, the dialogue is very contemporary. We swear like people do in modern vernacular, it’s very accessible. However in the last play I did for Theatre Exile, I played a Pakistani farmer with a very thick accent, which was a huge challenge.
PGN: Changing gears. Who did you tell first that you were gay?
AMA: I told a bunch of friends in middle school right at the end of the school year. I wanted them to have the summer to think about it so by the time we got together again for high school it would be old news. Looking back, that was a smart move on my part, some forward-thinking if I don’t say so myself.
PGN: And family?
AMA: I guess my mom but I really don’t remember. I guess that’s a good thing, that there are no painful or traumatic memories. I’ve always been pretty well-supported by everyone.
PGN: And now a few random questions … If you were to be a natural element, what would you be?
AMA: Earth. I’m a Taurus, and I can be rather rooted and immovable in my ideals.
PGN: A fellow Taurus! I knew I liked you! If you were a multi-millionaire, what would you being doing right this minute?
AMA: Traveling the world, for sure.
PGN: What would you leave in your will for the one you love?
AMA: Ha! Probably my debts.
“Guards at the Taj” runs Oct. 20-Nov. 13 at Studio X, 1340 S. 13th St. For more information, visit www.theatreexile.org.