Tony-winning actor Ari’el Stachel worked with former Berkeley Rep director Tony Taccone to develop autobiographical solo show ‘Out of Character.’
Ari’el Stachel rehearses his world premiere show “Out of Character,” about his efforts to hide his nationality after 9/11, at Berkeley Rep.Ari’el Stachel was in fifth grade when 9/11 happened. And all of a sudden he didn’t want to be perceived as Middle Eastern anymore.
“I sort of developed this persona during my friendship with him, and that led me on to a years-long journey of appropriating other identities to survive socially growing up. You can be the same in the same skin color, the same body, the same look, but if you dress a certain way, talk a certain way, and rearrange who you are to some extent, the perception of you can change a great deal. And for me, that gave me a lot of social mileage.
“After I did ‘The Band’s Visit,’ there were a lot of opportunities,” Stachel says. “And the first thing that I said to my management team was that I wanted to do a solo show. And that wasn’t a popular idea. It was a weird next step. But I was obsessed with it.” “It was just the most incredible evening of theater,” he says. “And so I knew at that age that I wanted to perform in that style.”
Stachel and Taccone hadn’t met before but Taccone had previously worked with “Band’s Visit” book writer Itamar Moses on his play “Yellowjackets” at Berkeley Rep. Moses is also a Berkeley native and Berkeley High alum, albeit of a different generation. Stachel went to Berkeley High for one year, then transferring to Oakland School for the Arts.
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