Latest / The BSB Podcast / Exclusive Interview: Awesta Zarif of 'Aftermath'

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Exclusive Interview: Awesta Zarif of 'Aftermath' · The BSB Podcast

• 0:00
  In Aftermath, the emotional fallout of survival becomes just as compelling
• 0:03
  as the events that came before it.
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  At the heart of the production is Awesta Zarif who brings Mina to the stage with
• 0:08
  a performance that adds another deeply human perspective to this already powerful
• 0:12
  story.
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  As aftermath explores journalism,
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  trauma, family, and the complicated choices people make in the pursuit of truth,
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  Awesta offers a fascinating window into a character navigating
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  a world where personal experience and professional responsibility collide.
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  Thank you so much for joining me today,
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  Awesta
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  Thank you so much for having me,
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  Brian.
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  So you're just a few weeks out from opening night of the show,
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  but how has your time with this production been so far?
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  Well, insider secret, we just had our first rehearsal yesterday.
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  Sad.
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  yeah, it was amazing. I mean, we've been sort of leading up.
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  There's been a lot of, you know,
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  aftermath emails and getting the company ready and
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  ~ you know, having coffees together,
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  getting to know each other. But our first formal rehearsal was yesterday
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  and it was great. It was, you know,
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  everyone had goosebumps after the table read and you just kind of feel like,
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  okay, we're all ready to dive in and we're all equally invested in this work because
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  it's just so good.
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  What was it about ~ aftermath and also the role of Mima that really drew
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  you to this production?
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  my gosh. I love when I first read the script,
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  I was sort of blown away at how sharp it is and how the characters
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  are so well defined and it doesn't beat around the bush.
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  ~ it's we meet this family after Josh has gotten back from
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  traumatic experience being a journalist in Afghanistan.
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  And we meet him recovering with his family in DC and Mina shows up,
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  my character, and she's just sort of the catalyst for some truths to come
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  out and for folks to take accountability for their actions
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  and some self-awareness of how our choices here can have impact,
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  you know, that spreads across.
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  That has to be really cool to play a character that's like the catalyst for
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  a lot of the conversations that's happening in the show.
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  Yeah, I think so. And it totally l lends itself to my character development too,
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  because I'm like, you know, I'm kind of self-aware of what my function
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  is within this family. I'm also the o only outsider from like coming into this
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  family. It's a mother, father,
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  and a son, and they think they're gonna have this time to themselves
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  to recover and go through this trauma together.
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  And then here shows up this woman that,
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  you know, they've only met online and they're not really sure why she's there and
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  ~
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  it really lends itself well to sort of being in the center of all that
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  and poking the bear a little bit.
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  What do you feel like it's with Mina that sticks with you or has stayed with
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  you since that initial table read?
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  Well, there's few characters as an actor that you feel,
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  I actually agree with pretty much everything this woman says and
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  Sure.
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  I think what she thinks. And it's it's deeply personal because
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  the characters from Afghanistan.
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  I'm from Afghanistan. ~
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  Mina is a British Afghan journalist who spent time reporting.
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  That's where she meets Josh. I grew up in the States,
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  but I was born in Afghanistan.
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  And a lot of the the sort of things that are talked about,
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  like I I always tell people like the show's not about Afghanistan,
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  it's about this family.
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  ~ but the themes that do come up obviously revolve heav heavily around what
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  was happening in Afghanistan around 2011,
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  which is when the play is set.
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  And it's it's my own history,
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  it's my own experience. And I have a few lines in there that are very cathartic
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  to say. And it's exciting that I get to bring that much of myself to a character.
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  And it's also I said this to the playwright,
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  like sometimes when I read ~ characters who
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  are written as Afghan people, but not written by Afghan people.
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  You sort of have your back up a little bit and I'm I'm just waiting
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  for the moment where I'm like,
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  that's not quite right, and this and that.
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  But we did a reading in December.
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  There were a few things that I was like,
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  maybe I would say or do this differently,
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  but he's been so open and I just I feel really safe in this writing because
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  I feel like she's a very well thought out written character on the writer's part.
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  I mean, that's also really incredible too,
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  to feel like seen and validated in a way like that.
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  You don't get that perspective always,
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  ~ as you said, from different writers or different shows that are out there.
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  so to be seen and also be part of like the development of that and
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  not just like that, this is what's on the page,
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  just do it. You know what I mean?
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  Like that have that
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  Right.
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  approach is really awesome.
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  Yeah. And I think, you know, it's an exchange too.
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  They're I feel very valued in the production and they're happy that I
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  can bring my own personal knowledge and experience into the role as well.
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  so with Mina having a complicated relationship with the events
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  and the people surrounding her,
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  how do you kind of approach maybe the perspective,
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  ~ how do you approach finding her perspective and understanding her motivations?
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  Wow. ~ her motivations are ex extremely wrought.
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  Like you have to come.
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  See the play to understand, I don't want to give away too much.
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  Yeah.
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  But she not only on a professional level,
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  you know, Mina and Josh know each other from their careers
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  in journalism and reporting in Afghanistan.
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  But since she is an Afghan person with family there,
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  she, it's very meta, ~ is also deeply invested in the reporting
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  and the storytelling of these people.
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  And she has family there, and her motivation is not only professional,
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  but deeply.
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  ~
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  driven by her personal connection to,
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  you know, what they the two these two journalists came across together while they
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  were there. And she, you know,
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  she's connected in a way that Josh and his family will never understand.
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  What I love about that too is that,
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  you know, being a you know, a critic to some degree over here and doing
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  a little bit of journalistic stuff,
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  like it's sometimes it's really hard to separate the personal from like
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  the just like the journalistic aspect of that.
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  And it sounds like Mina kind of has a little bit of where she's kind
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  of balancing the two of like this is deeply personal to her,
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  these are people that she cares about,
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  but also having the being a journalist at the end of the day and how does that kind
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  of how do you manage those two when
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  I guess that would be hard for somebody like that,
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  you know?
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  Yeah, well I think we meet her in a moment where because of her sort of like
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  I you know, my assumption is she's very good at her job and she is able
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  to keep a sort of unbiased lens on the situation,
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  but that's why when she does share an opinion,
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  she's so empowered in her ideas and her thoughts because she knows that she's looked
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  at it from all angles.
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  Sure. I love that.
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  Mm-hmm.
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  when it comes to a show such as this,
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  where there are some pretty heavy themes running running through it,
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  how do you kind of balance like the emotional weight of the material with also
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  keeping a character such as Mina like grounded and human?
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  That's a great question.
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  I think you have to remember to leave a certain extent of that work in the room.
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  Because these are real events that are happening.
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  And it is personal to me, and I'm sure it's personal to the other actors
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  in the room too. And I think you kind of I I've done this job long enough
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  now where I'm learning the skills to be able to leave certain things in
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  the room and pick them back up when I'm there.
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  Because it also wouldn't serve the story if I'm just too lost.
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  within it. ~ I think much like Mina,
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  Sure.
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  I need to also be able to keep my outside eye onto like holistically
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  the story that we're telling. But I think also what's beautiful is that there
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  are some really emotionally driven moments in this play for all the characters.
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  And you know, that's that's why we d you know,
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  you bring so much of yourself into a part.
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  And if I'm feeling that in the moment,
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  like what could be better?
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  You know, I think
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  For sure.
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  maybe
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  actually I'm gonna flip my answer and that I'm actually leaning into that
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  a bit because it is real and I am feeling those things.
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  ~ like Mina. And so as long as in a healthy way I can come back home
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  to my husband and you know, and ~ not get too lost in that,
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  I think that's actually the benefit of being an empath as an actor.
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  You know, I w I we have a very similar rule in therapy where like you you know,
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  when you're a therapist for that hour you are with that person and then when
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  you leave you almost have to like you have to leave it in the office
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  and you come home and
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  Yeah.
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  it's still it's still there to some degree,
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  but you ha you wait until it's it's needed again to be able to walk to that room.
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  And so it sounds like again, a lot of therapy's happening in in this this show.
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  It can be, right? It definitely can feel that way.
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  Yeah. And I think also like my own ~ sort of upbringing,
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  what I've learned, and also I think Afghan people in particular were very good
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  at compartmentalizing. And you still are human and you still have to exist
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  in a fully rounded way. And so there's an ability to sort of like talk about
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  something really traumatic, and then two seconds later be able to move
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  on from it and you know, talk about.
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  dinner or what's in front of you.
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  And, you know, a lot of that comes,
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  you know, my family, we fled ~ in the early 90s.
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  So when it was still the Mujahideen.
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  So there's so many stories. I was a baby.
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  I don't, you know, most of ~ that is stories that have been told to me.
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  But I just remember be like some nights I would sit around with my family
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  and be like, wow, they just like touched upon a really crazy memory
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  and now we're all laughing at this joke that like my aunt made.
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  It's kind of fascinating and incredible to be able to do that and have that sort
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  of resilience, I think.
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  That was where that's definitely coming to mind.
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  Like the the form of resilience there,
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  ~ to be able to touch on something that is so could be so trama traumatic,
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  you know, but also then to have like levity to that or to just be able
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  to continue moving on. ~ I mean,
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  I'm sure there's pros and cons to that,
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  but it sounds like it is really a pro when it comes to like when you're talking
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  about your family unit.
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  Yeah. I mean I it yeah, and a certain ~ on a certain level it's survival mechanism
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  for sure. ~ but on the other hand it you you can't ~ you know,
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  everyone has their own way of being able to move forward.
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  And the idea is to live the full human experience,
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  right? So we're still entitled to laugh and be happy and joyous even when there's,
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  you know, so many things ongoing and that doesn't mean those things aren't
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  on your mind.
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  For sure. Now, when it comes to aftermath,
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  was there a particular scene or moment with Mina that proved maybe challenging
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  for you as an actor?
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  Mm.
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  I know you're still really early in that rehearsal process
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  I know, it started yesterday.
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  too. So like so
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  I think I guess what comes to mind is like feeling like the outsider coming into
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  this family. ~ I'll be real,
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  she's only I'm she's the only person of color ~ on the stage.
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  And that that's not to say necessarily that that feels like a challenge,
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  but because it's common in my life.
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  But it's more just the that feeling of like,
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  where do I find my groove with this family dynamic?
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  you kind of touched on this a little bit earlier about how you're working with
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  the playwright and stuff like that and how you're kind of making sure like
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  who who Mina is. But what is it like developing a new play where
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  the casting creative team are essentially helping to shape the production
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  as it comes to life?
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  It's amazing. It's a living, breathing thing,
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  and you feel like you're, you know,
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  actively contributing to that.
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  Nothing feels, you know, I instead of feeling like,
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  ~ I'm coming across this obstacle,
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  how can I work around it? ~ you know,
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  yesterday we just could bring things up and be like,
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  actually that this would be a smoother ride for me,
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  or this would sort of make more sense based on where I'm feeling internally
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  in this moment.
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  ~ it's it's amazing to be in collaboration with a playwright in that way
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  and with a whole production team.
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  And so do you feel like there's like times where I know again,
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  you've only had one rehearsal.
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  So like this isn't very early on,
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  but like when you're reading it and you're just like,
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  This doesn't maybe feel who like Mina is in that moment and then you get
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  to kind of explore that and then like I obviously you get to bring it back
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  to the playwright and stuff, but is there times as you're kinda feeling this
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  character, you're like, Mm, that doesn't feel like who maybe Mina is?
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  Honestly, I ha I have not come across that in this play.
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  That's incredible.
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  Yeah. Yeah. And I think also David Zax's our playwright,
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  he's been working on this for years.
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  So,
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  Sure.
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  you know, it's gotten more and more and more refined.
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  And by the time, you know, I read the script in December,
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  I think it was already a very ~ clean version and
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  Sure.
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  sharp version of of what this play is.
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  So I think he kind of did all that work before.
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  I got to read it.
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  You know, we get
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  we recently here in Michigan to ha got to have a production where we it's very early
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  on. It's like the first time it's ever been produced.
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  And so getting to see it like that comparatively to like when you have like
• 12:48
  a very cleaned script and stuff like that,
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  it's interesting because how much can change from start to finish,
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  but it's cool that you still get to you're all working together to really make this
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  project something special.
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  The play deals with the aftermath of traumatic experiences rather than maybe simply
• 13:01
  focusing on the events themselves.
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  What do you think makes this perspective particularly compelling?
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  I think that's what the the part that we don't get to see.
• 13:08
  That's definit I love that you asked that because that is what drew me to this play.
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  And I feel like we've we've heard this story before,
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  but I've not quite seen it from this angle.
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  And I've not quite seen it ~ be so audacious
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  in its calling out of the situation.
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  ~ yeah, I think when we think of events like this,
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  the exciting part is to be, you know,
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  in the action when something's really happening,
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  but
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  what
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  happens to those people afterward?
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  What is that internal internal journey?
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  What was our impact? How did we affect everyone around us that we love?
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  ~ it sort of widens the lens and makes us think about our own choices that we've
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  made in the past and how we affect our loved ones.
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  I'm very, very interested in in that part of a recovery for sure.
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  I I would say as a psychologist I agree that piece of it's always because w again,
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  yeah, I mean there's the story of what happens,
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  there's like you said, all that action,
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  but like what happens to the people who are living on the other side of that,
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  you know, or have to deal with that or have seen things,
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  ~ and there's not always a world where
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  W unfortunately we don't live in a world where there's ~ a lot of available help,
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  you know, or
• 14:20
  Yeah.
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  as easily accessible help. So it's interesting to see a story where you're having
• 14:24
  kind of the aftermath and maybe the healing instead of just maybe the event itself.
• 14:30
  Yeah, definitely. And the event is the event itself,
• 14:33
  you know, is never as long as the process of overcoming an event like
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  ~ so that's the part that we live with as people,
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  I th I think like longer in our lives,
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  right? And the event starts to become a memory and a memory and a memory of itself.
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  So it's like how we deal with those things.
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  And I think also as Mina, I have a responsibility.
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  Also, like exp being inside of a trauma,
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  we don't have much opportunity to process things,
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  right? So the processing happens after.
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  And I have these really wonderful moments where I get to lay things out.
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  Really clearly. And I feel that maybe that this is a better response
• 15:14
  to your earlier question about what I feel like is a challenge,
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  but there are some moments where I sort of feel like I have
• 15:20
  the responsibility to really explain this thing and drive this point home because
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  you may not have heard it spelled out like this before.
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  And sometimes that's what it takes to connect the dots,
• 15:31
  right?
• 15:33
  I love that. I mean, I think that that's one of the beauties of theater too,
• 15:36
  is that people are maybe sometimes seeing something that they n kind of know
• 15:40
  or that they you know, that they experienced before,
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  but it's not spelled out as clearly or as differently and it doesn't maybe have like
• 15:46
  the same punch that it would by having like someone like Mina or like you
• 15:50
  as as Mina per projecting that to them or explaining it to them in a new way.
• 15:55
  Yeah. And I think that also makes me realize like with you know,
• 16:00
  ta when we're specifically talking about like the war in Afghanistan
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  and the you know, there it's it's great to have stories from the people that
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  are inside of it as well or and experiencing it.
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  But if we're thinking about where we are,
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  we're in the United States and it's gonna be an American audience.
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  So maybe our way in isn't always
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  Here
• 16:20
  of course we can empathize, but maybe our way to really understand is to also
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  see it through an American lens,
• 16:27
  which is what this family is, right?
• 16:29
  There are Josh was an American who went to Afghanistan and had an experience
• 16:34
  and now he's processing and his family's processing from their perspective.
• 16:38
  So maybe this will be I'm now I'm so excited to see,
• 16:43
  you know, how audiences react because they kind of have that buffer,
• 16:46
  you know, of that lens, and maybe that'll blend itself to more understanding.
• 16:50
  in a way. You won't you don't feel
• 16:51
  And yeah.
• 16:52
  like, you know, I'm watching a story about people that are far away and that
• 16:55
  I can't relate to because this is Josh and he's from Washington,
• 16:58
  DC, and I know this guy. I went to school with him.
• 17:01
  Right. He's my next door neighbor.
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  He's somebody or also, you know,
• 17:04
  we can easily put ourselves into that position because we can see ourselves as,
• 17:08
  you know, hib, you know, or you know,
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  maybe it's not the same, you know,
• 17:11
  experience, but we have experience that's like that.
• 17:14
  And so I think that is very interesting because you're right,
• 17:16
  it's kinda like the back door into opening the bigger conversation that
• 17:19
  we need to be having, but through a way that maybe they can connect a little easier.
• 17:23
  I could see that how much passion that you have for this project.
• 17:27
  And I think that really speaks to the work that's on the page,
• 17:29
  but also what everybody's doing with this show.
• 17:32
  And also, like you said, the material that's there and the stories that
• 17:34
  are being told, ~ you can just tell how much you actually like you love this.
• 17:40
  I really do. I really champion this play.
• 17:44
  I think it's
• 17:45
  Very well written. I think the team is super passionate.
• 17:48
  And ~ they it's really cool.
• 17:51
  They found me actually because they did back in December,
• 17:55
  there was one final reading to sort of a push to get the production going
• 17:59
  in New York City. And ~ you know,
• 18:03
  Colton, Pometta, and our direct our director and our producer,
• 18:07
  Joe, they really did their due diligence.
• 18:09
  And I think they were very ~
• 18:12
  passionate about finding ~ an Afghan actress for Mina and they found me,
• 18:18
  you know, they found me through my work and we got to know each other and
• 18:22
  it means a lot. I just feel like it was sort of like,
• 18:24
  you know, we're all meant to be there through our through our own ways.
• 18:28
  ~ yeah. And luckily like
• 18:31
  I love that.
• 18:31
  I read the play and I loved it and ~ the rest is history.
• 18:35
  Now we're here.
• 18:36
  I mean and now
• 18:37
  for three weeks you get to bring the show to people.
• 18:38
  And hopefully this is just the beginning of you guys telling the story
• 18:42
  and that there's more there's more of aftermath that you get to to explore with more
• 18:46
  I hope so. Yeah.
• 18:47
  and more
• 18:47
  ~ audience members. ~ but speaking of the audiences,
• 18:52
  one final question for you, just what are you hoping audiences take away from both
• 18:55
  aftermath but or specifically Mina story in aftermath?
• 18:58
  Wow.
• 18:59
  From Mina's story, I think just a reminder that ~ there's so much more
• 19:05
  to people than you understand.
• 19:07
  And all you have to do is be curious before jumping to conclusions
• 19:13
  and assumptions about who a people are.
• 19:16
  And I think from the story in general,
• 19:18
  not to just keep repeating this point,
• 19:21
  but it really is about understanding the impact and consequences of
• 19:25
  our actions and that we have a responsibility.
• 19:29
  Well, maybe that's not the right way to put it,
• 19:32
  but as Americans, as people who live in the United States and the
• 19:36
  way our government is involved overseas,
• 19:39
  we ~ we are part of that machine.
• 19:43
  And if we could all just
• 19:46
  I don't know, be mindful of that,
• 19:48
  be thoughtful. There's obviously so many limitations to what we can do,
• 19:54
  but there's also it goes a long way first to educate yourself.
• 19:58
  ~ and then just having a perspective shift,
• 20:02
  I think that's what I want people to walk away with.
• 20:07
  That's a fantastic answer. Well,
• 20:09
  thank you so much for being here and chatting with me about the show.
• 20:11
  That was that got deep.
• 20:11
  it has been incredible. But I mean,
• 20:15
  with a show like this, the of course it's gonna get deep,
• 20:17
  right?
• 20:18
  Yeah, yeah. No, you're
• 20:19
  gr your questions are great. Thank you so much.
• 20:22
  Well, thank so much for being here.
• 20:23
  and again, we are so excited for Aftermath to arrive.
• 20:25
  ~ so Aftermath does run for a limited three week engagement beginning
• 20:30
  on October nineteenth and running through November eighth.
• 20:32
  So get your tickets now
• 20:32
  Mm-hmm.
• 20:33
  and we'll see you there.