“My Jewish identity has gotten stronger in the past few years, as I believe it has for many other Jews my age. I’m incredibly proud of where I come from,” actor and playwright Ari’el Stachel told the Independent. “And, even more so, I’m incredibly proud of sharing my Yemenite Jewish heritage, which was something that very few people were aware of where I was growing up. I’m excited by how many different kinds of Jewish stories are beginning to be told.”
Stachel will share his story with local audiences Nov. 9-10 at the Annex, as part of this year’s Chutzpah! Festival, which runs Nov. 3-15.
The award-winning performer received multiple honours for his role in the Broadway production of The Band’s Visit. His autobiographical solo play Other ran Off-Broadway last year, and has been mounted at several theatres. He has appeared on television’s Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, Jessica Jones, Blue Bloods and other shows. He has been in several movies, including Zola and Don’t Worry Darling.
Stachel has wanted to be a performer since he was a kid.
“I used to entertain my family doing impersonations of family members at 5 years old,” he said. “Once I realized, at 14, that I wouldn’t become a professional basketball player, I dove into the arts and, ultimately, found myself playing Tevye in Fiddler on the Roof. That’s when I knew I needed to be on Broadway.”
He wasn’t as enthusiastic about writing as a career.
“I didn’t have an interest in writing,” he admitted. “But I had stories burning inside of me that I wanted to tell. Once I had reached a pinnacle in my career, having won the Tony for The Band’s Visit, it dawned on me that I might never be able to tell a story that represented my own experience if I didn’t write it myself. I was constantly being typecast for Arab roles. The industry didn’t comprehend that I was Jewish. So, I started writing to share my own experience as a Yemenite Jew, and also to express myself and share myself more deeply.”
Stachel’s father is Yemenite Israeli; his mother, Ashkenazi. The performer was raised in California and trained in New York. According to the press release, Stachel, in his show, “traces his lifelong struggle with OCD, the pressure to assimilate and the identity fracture that began in the aftermath of 9/11 … [when he] began hiding his father, denying parts of his heritage and reshaping himself to fit into a culture that increasingly viewed his identity with suspicion…. The piece also reflects on the aftermath of Oct. 7, confronting the painful complexity of holding both Arab and Jewish identity in a world increasingly demanding division.” Identity remains complicated for Stachel.
“I thought being Middle Eastern and claiming that part of myself would be enough,” he told the Independent. “But, of course, the events and the way the world has changed after Oct. 7 has made me feel isolated from the Middle Eastern community that I used to feel at home with. The way I process it is by sharing who I am, and realizing that identity is fluid and always in conversation with the world.”
Storytelling is “the greatest medicine we have,” he said. “Sometimes it helps us escape. Sometimes it helps us connect with ourselves. Sometimes it helps us understand ourselves more deeply. Sometimes it introduces us to people that we’ve never met and helps us gain more empathy and curiosity. For me, that’s how I connect to the world and how I express myself.”
He called writing and performing “incredibly cathartic, because it’s so amazing to share the deepest parts of yourself and realize that those are the parts that really connect you with other people.” He also finds it “exciting to use very different parts of your brain. The part of me that writes and the part that performs are completely different and I love the combination.”
For Stachel, who is also known for his Jewish advocacy work, the courage to talk so openly now comes from a part of himself “that feels like being an artist should have some sort of cost,” he said. “It’s my version of tikkun olam. I’m not solving cancer, but I can expose myself in a way that is healing for other people. So, when I think of it as a service art, that’s what makes me comfortable sharing my soul.”
For tickets to see Stachel and for the full Chutzpah! lineup, go to chutzpahfestival.com.
