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Exclusive Interview: Sarab Kamoo of Tipping Point Theatre's 'English' · The BSB Podcast

• 0:15
  Thank you so much for joining me today.
• 0:18
  How has the rehearsal process been for English?
• 0:22
  It's been great.
• 0:23
  It has been great.
• 0:24
  We actually started rehearsals on Tuesday and we got a total jump on it where we came in off book, which means our lines were memorized.
• 0:34
  So we already like hit the ground running and it's been fantastic.
• 0:39
  It just gives us more opportunity to like really interact and like help the scenes grow so much quicker.
• 0:48
  So with being off script already, when did you get that script?
• 0:52
  How long have you known the material?
• 0:54
  Yeah, well, let me see.
• 0:56
  I think we officially got the script.
• 0:59
  Gosh, I don't know, maybe November?
• 1:02
  Yeah, yes.
• 1:04
  And I've been familiar with the script prior to that, but it's kind of been a fluid script where there have been changes pretty consistently.
• 1:16
  So for us all to be on the same page, I believe it was November.
• 1:22
  Yeah.
• 1:23
  So can you tell us a little bit about the show and specifically how your character factors into the narrative of it?
• 1:28
  Yeah, okay, sure.
• 1:31
  So English is a play that takes place in Iran.
• 1:36
  And I play a teacher teaching English to students who are preparing for the TOEFL exam.
• 1:43
  And it's an acronym that stands for Test of English as a Foreign Language.
• 1:49
  And people have to take this test oftentimes when they're planning to go to university in an English speaking country.
• 1:57
  or sometimes even employers will require it if they also are English speaking.
• 2:05
  So for various reasons, these students are in the classroom.
• 2:09
  They're all advanced speakers, pretty much, pretty much advanced, some more than others.
• 2:16
  But they're trying to perfect it to a level where they can pass this exam, this TOEFL exam.
• 2:22
  And so I am their teacher.
• 2:25
  exciting.
• 2:26
  So for you, how do you kind of get into the mindset of this character?
• 2:31
  Well, let's see.
• 2:32
  I am also a school social worker, so I work in a school three days a week.
• 2:38
  So I am very comfortable in the whole teaching kind of world and aspect.
• 2:43
  So I can identify with that most definitely.
• 2:46
  And in terms of teaching to adults,
• 2:54
  Yeah, I just look at it all the same, just in terms of if you're passionate about something and then you can relay that same passion onto whoever it is you're teaching it
• 3:03
  to, then that's what I try to do.
• 3:06
  love that you're a school social worker.
• 3:08
  I'm a psychologist in my day job.
• 3:09
  know, yeah, so.
• 3:10
  are?
• 3:12
  What kind of setting do you work in?
• 3:14
  A clinical setting, so you know, private practice.
• 3:18
  So I always love connecting with those little things about that.
• 3:23
  know what it's like to like have that part of your brain, right, during the day and then you have to like switch it and then now it's this part of my brain.
• 3:32
  And that's so awesome because there's not a lot of people that I can completely relate to that understands both of my worlds.
• 3:42
  And so now with the show, your worlds are even bleeding over a little bit more.
• 3:45
  That's true.
• 3:47
  actually find, I don't know if you're a performer as well, but you are obviously a creative.
• 3:53
  But I bring so much of my social work brain into every show, into every performance, into, I just think it just deepens every aspect of my life.
• 4:06
  So I'm actually really grateful to have both.
• 4:10
  It makes for a more cohesive character, you know?
• 4:13
  It's a part of you that's coming into it.
• 4:15
  I totally agree with that.
• 4:17
  So what drew you to this project in this role?
• 4:21
  Well, I love this play.
• 4:24
  It is so beautiful.
• 4:25
  It's a Pulitzer Prize winning play in 2023.
• 4:28
  It's currently on Broadway right now.
• 4:32
  I had the honor of being able to audition for it when it was off Broadway several years ago and subsequent theaters after that at the Goodman.
• 4:42
  And I've...
• 4:45
  been in love with this play ever since then and I always had it in my brain if I didn't get cast in those shows I would love to bring it to Michigan for its Michigan premiere.
• 4:55
  I think it's pretty like universal, it's funny, it's but it has so much depth and the characters are so relatable.
• 5:04
  They like I mentioned they're there in that class for various reasons.
• 5:08
  And I think when people come and see it, they can identify most definitely with one of those five people on that stage.
• 5:17
  And they're just really, I don't know, really honest and good people, like on stage, whether they're struggling or there's some conflicts that happen, which always make a good
• 5:31
  show, right?
• 5:31
  But when you just think about what their intentions are and what they want.
• 5:37
  It just makes them all so relatable.
• 5:40
  Absolutely, and it's so it's so real, you know, it's such a real story I mean, I have not seen English yet, but I've kind of I kind of was reading and researching it and it's it's
• 5:48
  such a it's such a story that so many people can relate to on some degree
• 5:51
  especially anybody who speaks another language, right?
• 5:55
  Whether receptively they understand it or expressively they are fluent or whether they have family members.
• 6:02
  But I just think it's really, it kind of sheds a new light on how identity really is impacted by language and accents and how they're perceived and how you're perceived as a
• 6:17
  result.
• 6:17
  And can you really show your true self when
• 6:21
  You can't speak the language fully and I don't know.
• 6:24
  So like all those questions, Brian, are posed in this play, which kind of brings in the depth that I was referencing.
• 6:35
  Do you feel like, know, not with telling this story, but also bringing it to Michigan, is there kind of like a pressure to that?
• 6:40
  Is there like, you know, this is like the Michigan premiere.
• 6:42
  Yeah, of this beautiful play and I'm like, God, I hope, you know, it gets as well received as it has every place that it's been done.
• 6:53
  But also, yeah, I do feel pressure.
• 6:55
  I did because I brought the play to a couple of my artistic director friends at various theaters and Julia Glander from Tipping Point jumped on it and she fell in love with it as
• 7:08
  much as I fell in love with it.
• 7:10
  And so,
• 7:12
  Yeah, I do feel a little bit of pressure but also excitement to bring this beautiful story and play to, you know, people of Michigan and I really hope people come out and see it.
• 7:25
  When it comes to the themes of English, which ones do you feel like resonate with you the most?
• 7:29
  the themes.
• 7:31
  There's so many of them, it sounds like.
• 7:33
  I know.
• 7:35
  Well, let me see.
• 7:37
  So my family came over as immigrants from Iraq.
• 7:43
  My family was born in Baghdad.
• 7:45
  And so I really can identify with the whole culture trying to remain true to your native country while also trying to assimilate to a new culture and a new language.
• 8:01
  And kind of being like in the middle of like a gap, kind of.
• 8:05
  They even reference that in the play.
• 8:08
  One character says he kind of feels like he's in a gap.
• 8:10
  You know, do I belong here?
• 8:12
  Do I belong there?
• 8:13
  Where am I?
• 8:13
  I'm kind of like in the middle there.
• 8:15
  And I think that resonates really with me, you know, having parents who were really trying to keep that culture and identity and then me trying to...
• 8:30
  you know, I was born here and so feeling like definitely a part of this country and this language, but you know, still wanting to hold on to it.
• 8:41
  And my character kind of wants to, she's very much into like the whole type of teaching of like immersion kind of teaching with language where you only speak the language you're
• 8:54
  learning and you kind of let everything go and.
• 8:57
  I kind of let the students know that.
• 9:00
  And I not only don't want them to speak another language, that Farsi, their native tongue, but I want them to kind of like forget any kind of influence they have regarding being
• 9:15
  from Iran.
• 9:16
  I want them to let it all go.
• 9:17
  And that doesn't always get taken very well.
• 9:20
  You can imagine.
• 9:22
  Some people are like, no, that's where I come from.
• 9:24
  That's my identity.
• 9:27
  but I'm trying to like give them, open up their world to something different.
• 9:31
  And there's no good or bad about it.
• 9:34
  There's no right or wrong.
• 9:35
  It's just how it's, how each character kind of perceives that.
• 9:40
  Right, and especially with individuals, depends on how much pride they have for their, know, age is a big factor too, of people who are in a culture for longer, they have a much
• 9:51
  deeper rooted feeling towards that and letting that go is so hard, and then people who are more prideful of that, and there's lots of different aspects of that and how to
• 9:59
  assimilate, and like you said, there's really no right or wrong answer.
• 10:02
  And you see that, Brian, you see this in the play.
• 10:05
  There is a character who is a little bit older.
• 10:07
  There's a few very young characters and you will see that, absolutely.
• 10:12
  Where she feels a sense of pride and almost like feels off put by the fact of somebody saying, we're gonna let that go.
• 10:23
  It doesn't sit well.
• 10:25
  It has to be really difficult to just be like, what if, like, I'm letting myself go, you know?
• 10:31
  I'm letting myself go exactly, my true self, right?
• 10:35
  Yeah.
• 10:36
  So how has your time on this production challenged you as an actor?
• 10:41
  How is the time?
• 10:44
  You mean like with rehearsals and the prep for getting ready for it?
• 10:48
  Yeah.
• 10:49
  or like, how does it change how's it changed you or how you've approached like how you approach it because I guess I don't know but I would assume like you probably have acted
• 10:57
  before.
• 10:58
  I mean, if you're doing this so you know there's probably a different approach there's probably a different feeling to how this has changed you as an actor and in your art.
• 11:10
  Well, I love telling Middle Eastern stories.
• 11:13
  I am Middle Eastern.
• 11:14
  Like I said, my parents are from Iraq.
• 11:16
  And I kind of feel like those stories are not always presented in a positive way, right?
• 11:22
  Especially with so much happening politically, so much turmoil.
• 11:26
  And so when there's an opportunity to kind of like share a story and kind of let people in a little bit in terms of like our true selves, like we were saying.
• 11:41
  to reference that term again or what the culture is really like.
• 11:46
  I love that and I find that to be an honor and a gift, Brian.
• 11:50
  So I always approach it that way.
• 11:52
  I did a play called Nine Parts of Desire.
• 11:57
  It was a one woman show, Heather Raffo's play.
• 12:00
  And I've done it six different times in different venues over the course of, since 2007.
• 12:09
  That play was my first really like look at telling Middle Eastern stories.
• 12:16
  And that one is specifically about women dealing with war.
• 12:21
  And so it was such an honor for me and to hear people come after the play and say things such as, wow, I never realized that, or that opened my eyes, or you gave me a totally
• 12:34
  different perspective.
• 12:36
  Right, that is the hugest compliment I could ever ask for as an artist.
• 12:41
  And so I think entering this play, I kind of look at it the same way.
• 12:46
  To be able to maybe highlight people that maybe wouldn't normally be highlighted in the media or on television or on stage.
• 12:54
  And this playwright is so talented in terms of the way that she tells this story.
• 13:02
  Like I said, in such a funny but deep way.
• 13:06
  that I hope really resonates with people.
• 13:08
  And so that's kind of how I always approach it.
• 13:13
  Absolutely.
• 13:14
  I love that you said that because, know, when it comes to, like local, even professional local theaters, but you don't see a lot of people taking gambles on stories that aren't
• 13:25
  gonna bring in, you know, that they don't want, they want the most ticket sales and stuff like that.
• 13:30
  And so they're like, maybe we won't do this one right now.
• 13:34
  And so when I saw this, was like, this is huge because this is the one that you, again, a lot of theaters probably wouldn't tell, but Tipping Point Theater is like, this is the one
• 13:42
  to tell right now.
• 13:43
  Exactly.
• 13:43
  And it's on Broadway, where you normally don't see plays like this on Broadway.
• 13:49
  So how cool is that, right?
• 13:51
  That's a huge win.
• 13:53
  And I have to plug it.
• 13:55
  I have to plug that after this one closes, I'm doing at Williamston Theater a play called Baba, which is also a Middle Eastern story.
• 14:05
  And that's a one-woman show again.
• 14:08
  So that is happening in the month of May.
• 14:11
  So I just want to...
• 14:12
  Just plug that because Williamson is also really excited to tell those stories as well.
• 14:21
  love that.
• 14:23
  You had mentioned that like this story, this script, it's constantly changing.
• 14:26
  There's changes being made as you're developing it.
• 14:29
  How are you like developing your character?
• 14:31
  How are you kind of like making it your own?
• 14:34
  So the playwright has been making those changes as it's been going along.
• 14:40
  Yeah, not us, no, no.
• 14:42
  So we just wanted to get the most current and up-to-date script from when the playwright has completed thus far.
• 14:52
  And I'm sorry, what'd you say?
• 14:54
  actually beautiful that the playwright's still changing and adapting and telling the story, you know?
• 15:01
  She's just like, I love writers who do that.
• 15:04
  They're like not married to any of their work.
• 15:06
  They're like, okay, if this is going to make it better or this is going to change.
• 15:10
  And, you know, I don't know, I don't know her personally and I don't know what her process was, but you know, writers who are in the rehearsal room and they hear things or they get
• 15:19
  moved by something and then they're just making those changes.
• 15:22
  That's incredible.
• 15:23
  I love that as an actor to be a part of that.
• 15:27
  my gosh, it's so cool.
• 15:29
  I was in a play at the Purple Rose this past summer called What Springs Forth by Keri Krim.
• 15:35
  And she was in the rehearsal room with us, Brian, and she did exactly what I just said.
• 15:40
  She was coming in with new pages, new ideas.
• 15:42
  She's asking us our thoughts.
• 15:44
  She would have us improv and then take our words directly from what we said and put it in the play.
• 15:51
  She was incredible.
• 15:53
  So I would imagine Sanaz Toossi, who's
• 15:57
  amazing is doing similar work like that to keep it up to date.
• 16:03
  You guys kind of described this, or this is being described as kind of like there's like a comedic side, but also like it's very heartfelt.
• 16:08
  There's like laughing and there's also probably crying in my part, you know?
• 16:14
  But how do you feel like English balances those tones?
• 16:18
  I really well.
• 16:19
  I think, you know, it's a play that puts people in situations that are funny, which I think is the best kind of comedy, right?
• 16:28
  It's very situational.
• 16:30
  And they're so endearing, the characters.
• 16:35
  You just really fall in love with them.
• 16:38
  And so their situations are just so funny.
• 16:44
  I don't know how to put it.
• 16:44
  They're just very comic.
• 16:48
  circumstances that they're put in and then but there's so much nuance and depth to them that it can just change, you know, immediately and you see a different side to them.
• 17:03
  Yeah.
• 17:03
  last question for you is what are you hoping audiences take away from this production of English?
• 17:10
  Kind of what we're saying that maybe they look at people who speak with an accent or people who don't speak as fluent the language that you're comfortable with that you you
• 17:26
  realize you see them maybe in a different light a little more empathy Just a little gentler and then you realize that maybe you don't know all of them and you can't always
• 17:38
  see their true self because some of those barriers get in the way of that.
• 17:43
  And so just to kind of see that and just maybe I would love it if people kind of if they have any kind of like connection to like I said maybe family members or people they know
• 17:57
  or themselves that speak a different language you know that they really kind of question how identity falls into
• 18:05
  learning another language and how that kind of like is all connected and where they fall on that whole question.
• 18:13
  You know, that would be so cool if people could have that whole conversation about that.
• 18:18
  I'm sure that they will.
• 18:19
  Thank you so much for your time.
• 18:21
  I appreciate it so much.
• 18:27
  I'll be there.
• 18:27
  I'll be there.
• 18:29
  So the Michigan premiere of English arrives at the Tipping Point Theater March 12th and runs through April 6th.
• 18:34
  So get your tickets now and we look forward to seeing you there.
• 18:37
  Thank you.