Ari'el Stachel on Identity, Anxiety, and His Solo Show 'Other'

The Journey to 'Other'

• 🎭 Tony Award-winning actor Ari'el Stachel discusses his new solo show, 'Other,' which delves into his experiences navigating his identity as both an Arab American and a Jewish American.
• 🎤 Stachel recounts his emotional Tony Awards acceptance speech in 2018, where he publicly embraced his Middle Eastern heritage after years of concealing it due to post-9/11 discrimination.
• 💡 The show 'Other' begins at the afterparty of his Tony win, exploring the anxiety that followed this moment of public affirmation and how it intertwined with his lifelong struggle with identity.

Identity and Anxiety

• 🧠 Stachel reveals that acting served as a refuge from childhood pain, and he initially believed achieving success like a Tony Award would bring perfection.
• 😥 However, post-Tony, he experienced daily panic attacks, feeling overwhelmed by expectations and still grappling with shame and anxiety.
• ✍️ He began writing 'Other' seriously about two months after his Tony win, initially focusing on identity but later realizing his debilitating anxiety was a central theme.

Overcoming Internal Struggles

• 🎯 A pivotal moment in the writing process occurred during a workshop where his director challenged him to identify what his character wanted, leading Stachel to realize his character's core desire was to be less anxious.
• 🗣️ Revealing and freeing himself from years of concealing both his identity and his anxiety through the play has been liberating for him and, he's found, for audiences as well.
• 🎭 Stachel initially considered having OCD as a voiceover but decided to perform it himself, naming the manifestation 'Meredith Blake,' to better embody the theatrical experience and connect more authentically with the audience.

Navigating Heritage and Belonging

• 🌍 Stachel's mother is an Ashkenazi Jew focused on service, while his father is the charismatic son of Yemeni immigrants; their unlikely pairing led to divorce when Stachel was one.
• 🚫 Neither parent initially understood his identity struggles, as they had not faced similar challenges in their own lives.
• 🤔 The play has fostered conversations with his father about Stachel's self-identification as Arab, exploring the complexities of being an Arab Jew and challenging his father's more rigid definitions of identity.

The Power of 'Passing'

• 🏃‍♂️ After 9/11, Stachel, then 10, experienced being called