Latest / The Delicious Culture with Jon Francois / Are Greek Gods Delicious? w/ Safiya Jamali

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Are Greek Gods Delicious? w/ Safiya Jamali · The Delicious Culture with Jon Francois

• 0:00
  I'm holding a dead cat. Everyone has to know
• 0:01
  I'm holding a dead cat wearing sunglasses and
• 0:03
  a scarf. Cool. Yeah. I think, what was it? Like
• 0:06
  I give Bering J my business card, professional
• 0:09
  logician, my card. Is that when you say he's
• 0:11
  a logician? No, you say allow me to introduce
• 0:13
  myself. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. Oh, and then you
• 0:16
  cut me. Okay, okay. So it's allow me to introduce
• 0:18
  myself and then you go ahead. He's a logician.
• 0:23
  Hey, delishies, grab a plate and taste the delicious
• 0:25
  culture. I'm your host, John Francois. We are
• 0:27
  feasting on food, pop culture, and lifestyle
• 0:29
  with actress Sophia Jamali, who I had the good
• 0:33
  fortune of recently performing in a Vermont stage
• 0:36
  production of the Eugene Ionesco absurdist play
• 0:40
  Rhinoceros. Hello, Sophia. Hey. Yeah, that was
• 0:46
  quite a play. That was quite a play. And me and
• 0:49
  our fellow castmate, Ian Walls, for those of
• 0:51
  you listening and watching, we went through it
• 0:53
  extensively in an episode, so go tune into that.
• 0:55
  I'm not going to go too much into it because
• 0:57
  that's like beating a dead horse. But all you
• 1:00
  need to know if you have not tuned into that
• 1:02
  episode is that me and Sophia, the logician,
• 1:07
  this crazy guy that says all cats and dogs have
• 1:12
  four paws, so therefore they're the same exact...
• 1:14
  He just gives blind, stupid logic because he's
• 1:17
  just a bullshittery politician kind of character.
• 1:20
  Sophia, you are what? You are the housewife.
• 1:22
  Describe the housewife. I was the housewife.
• 1:24
  Goodness, the housewife, she was a flirt. She
• 1:26
  had her cat. She had her comfortable life. She
• 1:29
  was walking through town living their best 1950s
• 1:32
  life until it gets brutally interrupted. Yes.
• 1:39
  And a logician and housewife are just one of
• 1:41
  many small town inhabitants that grew up actually
• 1:44
  transform into rhinoceroses. And everybody in
• 1:47
  this town returns into a rhinoceros with the
• 1:49
  exception of one man bearing gay, our wonderful
• 1:53
  lead played by the wonderful actor, Jordan Gullickson.
• 1:56
  He refuses to conform to this. It is a commentary
• 2:00
  on fascism, on sort of the blind allegiance of
• 2:03
  Nazism. And one of my favorite parts of the show,
• 2:07
  Sophia, not only is your great flirtatious manner
• 2:11
  with a logician's friend. Old Gentleman and do
• 2:14
  you flirt with anybody else or is just Old Gentleman?
• 2:16
  Oh, I was flirting with mostly with OG and with
• 2:19
  the grocer. We had a little thing. Yeah, I gave
• 2:23
  John a few looks, but he wasn't buying it. Oh,
• 2:26
  Barragay's friend, John. Yeah, because John is
• 2:29
  just a very, how would you describe him? He's
• 2:34
  an uppity grump. He's like, Oh, I'm better than
• 2:36
  you. Oh, I'm better than you. And also, I...
• 2:41
  Absolutely. Pretentious, a bit of a show off,
• 2:44
  a little bit of a stick up his... Yep. Am I allowed
• 2:47
  to swear on this podcast? A stick up his booty
• 2:49
  hole. You could say that. This is a podcast.
• 2:51
  Booty hole. Excellent. Never thought I'd hear
• 2:56
  the words Jean and booty hole in the same sentence.
• 2:58
  If you know the character. Anyways, the after
• 3:02
  hours rhinoceros show. Jean's booty hole. You've
• 3:05
  never seen Jean like this before. Oh my God.
• 3:11
  One of my favorite moments is, spoiler alert
• 3:16
  for those of you who haven't seen the show, you
• 3:18
  guys suck. It was a great show. The Housewife,
• 3:22
  you, you have a moment where you are just distraught
• 3:26
  that the rhinoceros ran over your lovely cat
• 3:29
  and you give an iconic yell, which I felt bad
• 3:34
  about because I know you had to rehearse that
• 3:35
  yell many times in rehearsals. You had to do
• 3:36
  it many times in the performance. I thought you
• 3:38
  were going to give your voice out. Uh, is it
• 3:41
  possible for you to do a podcast friendly version
• 3:44
  of the yell without blowing out your computer?
• 3:47
  Absolutely. All right. Ready neighbors. My windows
• 3:49
  open. Um, can I, can I warm up? Yeah, yeah, yeah,
• 3:54
  yeah. And do warm up exercises right now. Go
• 3:56
  ahead. Go ahead. Um, I'm not, I'm just gonna,
• 3:58
  I'm gonna build up to it with one of my lines
• 4:00
  from later. Screaming, crying in the whale at
• 4:18
  the end. Like you have to do that over and over
• 4:22
  and over. How, so let, let me ask what was like
• 4:26
  on the scale of, no, no, not on a scale of one
• 4:29
  to 10, but like, what was your sort of range
• 4:32
  of enjoyment in doing that as you had to do it
• 4:34
  over and over and over again? Cause I know that
• 4:36
  we were trying to like polish that during rehearsals
• 4:38
  and you probably want it to faint. Well, can
• 4:41
  I be honest? I. I had so little to do in like
• 4:46
  the rest of the play because like the rest of
• 4:47
  the play is really just like Beringet and then
• 4:50
  he's got these little like one -on -ones with
• 4:52
  different characters as they transform. So I
• 4:56
  was milking it. I had so much fun. And I would
• 5:04
  try to, I would try to make, it was specifically
• 5:07
  Aaliyah who I could often get to crack. and laugh
• 5:11
  during rehearsal. So I tried to, I'd really ham
• 5:15
  it up and see if I could get like, do something
• 5:17
  a little different each time and try to get my
• 5:19
  fellow actors to crack. Now, was this when Aliyah
• 5:22
  was the waitress or was this when she was the
• 5:24
  office manager? She was the waitress at this
• 5:26
  point. So she was like pouring brandy down my
• 5:28
  throat and like, you know. Oh my God. It was,
• 5:32
  she was supposed to be like fawning over me and
• 5:34
  like, are you okay? And the poor thing. So she
• 5:40
  was the waitress and the office manager, Ms.
• 5:42
  Papillon, in Act One, Scene Two. Act One, Scene
• 5:46
  One is where she was the waitress. And I think
• 5:50
  I was less successful in getting her to break
• 5:51
  because I had a little running joke with her,
• 5:55
  where like me and the old gentleman are seen
• 5:57
  where we're having a conversation while Barry
• 5:58
  J and Jaune are having a conversation at the
• 6:00
  same time. And there's a moment where while Barry
• 6:03
  J and Jaune are talking, I whisper my food order
• 6:07
  to Aaliyah as the waitress. Oh, I remember hearing
• 6:10
  about this in the green room. And I was trying
• 6:13
  to come up with some like really like crazy stuff
• 6:15
  every performance, but like essentially it was
• 6:17
  a variation of Listerine and bacon, Listerine
• 6:21
  and fries, Listerine and cocoa butter. It was
• 6:24
  like always having to do with - You said was
• 6:25
  it always Listerine? Yeah, it had to do with
• 6:28
  mouthwash for some reason. So - Brilliant. Okay.
• 6:31
  The suggestion's very meticulous. You know what?
• 6:34
  I don't want to advocate people eating mouthwash
• 6:36
  as a meal. You're not supposed to do that. You're
• 6:38
  not supposed to swallow it. As a meal. No, it's
• 6:40
  not. No, you're not. Don't do that. Okay. Good.
• 6:42
  Good. You had me for a second. It seemed like
• 6:46
  you're about to say, wait a minute. No, John.
• 6:48
  No, I'm being really serious because this is
• 6:50
  a PSA. You know, there's kids out there watching
• 6:53
  this and they need to know. Yeah, because - Please
• 6:57
  go on about the matrix of ingesting mouthwash.
• 7:00
  Exactly. I accidentally swallowed mouthwash before
• 7:04
  and let's just say I had an incident of Jean's
• 7:07
  booty hole. Oh no. I won't go further than that.
• 7:16
  Okay, so those kids are gone now. Look, we went
• 7:21
  there. We went there. It's going to be that kind
• 7:22
  of podcast. Um, but, uh, yeah, no, what a fun
• 7:26
  show. And, um, now that I've given you all the
• 7:29
  compliments, uh, it is time to put you on blast
• 7:32
  because. Yeah. Okay. So you and Ian, there must
• 7:36
  be some kind of like theater actor time when
• 7:39
  it comes to podcasts. Cause there's a joke about
• 7:43
  colored people. Yeah. Yeah. So Ian, yes. So you
• 7:50
  know how like the, the, the, the whole stereotype
• 7:52
  of color people time, like black people are like
• 7:54
  everything. Yeah. Yeah. Middle Eastern. I get
• 7:56
  it. Is it a stereotype for middle Eastern people
• 7:59
  too? Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. We don't, we don't
• 8:01
  ever arrive on time. You arrive within like the
• 8:04
  half hour after the given time. And if it's like
• 8:08
  within the first 15 minutes, you're a little
• 8:09
  bit too eager. You know, it's like you're catching
• 8:11
  a mock guard. All right. So color people time
• 8:13
  expands to all people of color, not just black
• 8:15
  people. Okay. All right. Because literally me,
• 8:19
  me, me and Ian, we had a recording scheduled
• 8:21
  for three o 'clock and then three o 'clock becomes
• 8:23
  three oh five, three 10. And naturally I wonder
• 8:25
  like, Oh, okay. Is there an emergency? Are they
• 8:28
  okay? And I, I text them, you're like, Hey, what's
• 8:33
  going on? What's going on? Or is everything okay?
• 8:34
  Didn't get a response for a little bit. And then
• 8:37
  Ian was like, Oh, Oh crap. I forgot. Like what?
• 8:42
  And then all of a sudden, all of a sudden he
• 8:44
  comes online at like 3 15 and he was like in
• 8:47
  the middle of his, his video games. You know
• 8:48
  how much Ian likes his video games. I love Ian
• 8:55
  so much. Right now, we're doing Imaginators together,
• 8:58
  and it's just so much fun. Ian, Laura, Brayden,
• 9:01
  and I are all three in Imaginators, and then
• 9:03
  poor Catherine is in it as well. A semi -Rhinoceros
• 9:06
  reunion, because Brayden was our... It's a semi
• 9:08
  -Rhinoceros reunion, so Laura's actually directing
• 9:12
  Imaginators. But these are all different castmates,
• 9:15
  and then Catherine, we've all worked with a bunch
• 9:18
  in Vermont stage. It's a lot of laughs. It's
• 9:20
  a lot of laughs. I love that. Yeah, so Laura,
• 9:23
  for the listeners and viewers, Laura was, um,
• 9:25
  the grocer's wife and Mrs. Booth, uh, in Rhinoceros.
• 9:30
  No, actually, no, I'm sorry. She was the grocer's,
• 9:32
  uh, mother. No, no, no, no, no, no, no. I know,
• 9:36
  I know. So Brayden, I got, I got this wrong in
• 9:38
  the Ian episode. So Brayden was the grocer's
• 9:41
  son and Laura was the grocer's wife. The grocer
• 9:45
  itself wasn't - Does not exist. Yes, because
• 9:47
  we looked at Brayden and Laura and said, there's
• 9:50
  no way on earth they would be married because
• 9:52
  the age difference could not - be more for our
• 9:54
  part. And I think that's sexist. Wait, sexist
• 10:00
  or ageist? Sexist. Sexist and ageist. But you
• 10:04
  know what? Look, if it was, I'm just saying,
• 10:07
  in Hollywood, if it was same age difference than
• 10:10
  the man was older, we wouldn't be saying shit.
• 10:15
  You're serious? You're not playing around? No.
• 10:17
  No, no. Oh. One year old, he's what? He's my
• 10:20
  age, 23. Laura's, I don't know how old Laura
• 10:23
  is, but she's like... She's not that old. Right,
• 10:29
  right, right. That is a good point. That is a
• 10:31
  good point. Yeah, if it was an older man and
• 10:33
  a younger woman, yes, perhaps we would just say,
• 10:36
  oh, this is the grocer and grocer's wife and
• 10:37
  not have a problem with it. So you make a good
• 10:39
  point there. So you guys are in Imaginators and
• 10:44
  that title sounds familiar. What's that theater
• 10:45
  production about? So that is oh, it's fun. It's
• 10:49
  a theater for young audiences. We need to tour
• 10:51
  around different schools It's like this fun imaginary
• 10:54
  story where there's like kids have just moved
• 10:56
  into the block and they meet the neighbor girl
• 10:59
  and they go in this fantastic imagine Imaginary
• 11:03
  adventure and they fight the monster and yeah,
• 11:06
  it's it's cute. It's very well written We're
• 11:11
  laughing our butts off every time we do it Um,
• 11:15
  and I have a very loud laugh. Ian's got a very
• 11:17
  loud laugh. Laura's got a very loud laugh like
• 11:19
  that broom. Whoo! Yeah. That's a lot of fun.
• 11:23
  I was gonna ask, because I know you've been doing
• 11:25
  this show for how long? Oh. Definitely before
• 11:30
  Rhinoceros, so I actually started out stage managing
• 11:33
  the tour And then I had to step in so this was
• 11:37
  pretty wild actually There was a health emergency.
• 11:41
  I was not supposed to originally play My role
• 11:44
  of housewife in Rhinoceros actress slotted to
• 11:48
  play that role and there was a health emergency
• 11:50
  and unfortunately she was not able to play that
• 11:53
  role and she was also had to step down from her
• 11:57
  role as imaginators. The health emergency happened
• 12:01
  two weeks before so it was yeah two weeks before
• 12:06
  imaginators we had scheduled performance at the
• 12:10
  school that I substitute teach at. And it was
• 12:14
  three weeks before rehearsals for Rhinoceros
• 12:17
  would start. So I was asked to step in for her
• 12:20
  role in both Imaginators and Rhinoceros. And
• 12:23
  Imaginators was a little easier because I'd stage
• 12:27
  managed it, so I knew the show very well. But
• 12:30
  I had to learn that whole script in two weeks.
• 12:34
  And all of the blocking, the blocking is very
• 12:36
  complicated. We've got like a bunch of cardboard
• 12:37
  boxes in the garage that we stack to make different
• 12:40
  like forts and thrones and all kinds of fun stuff.
• 12:44
  Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. You and I, you and I
• 12:46
  had similar stories of just like being casted
• 12:48
  into something different at the last minute.
• 12:50
  Cause that's kind of, cause with Rhinoceros,
• 12:52
  uh, there was someone else that's what that I
• 12:54
  was supposed to play the logician. So from when
• 12:57
  the show auditioned in, um, November of 2025
• 13:02
  up until literally when rehearsal started in
• 13:05
  April of this year, 2026, uh, I thought I was
• 13:09
  going to be playing Braden's character, the,
• 13:11
  the grocer. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. The grocer. Um,
• 13:14
  but the an original actor to play the logician
• 13:17
  had to drop out due to a work commitment. And
• 13:20
  a week before rehearsal started, and as you know,
• 13:24
  from rehearsal one, since we only have three
• 13:25
  weeks to rehearse this show, like we have to
• 13:27
  be off book as much as possible. As much as possible.
• 13:31
  I was learning a whole lot. I was like, I didn't
• 13:35
  know how strict they were going to be about the
• 13:36
  off book. I was panicking. And props to our director,
• 13:42
  yeah, props to our director, Christina, for forgiving
• 13:45
  myself. And I think everybody in the cast graced
• 13:47
  us to want to be off book because I went from
• 13:50
  like two or three little lines as the grocer
• 13:53
  to like this mammoth thing of dialogue as the
• 13:56
  logician in act one. I love your monologue. And
• 14:07
  this is the moment where the logician says like,
• 14:09
  Hey, like all of you who have guessed the rhinoceros
• 14:13
  running by, if it was one or two rhinoceroses,
• 14:16
  if it was one horn, two horns, if it was Asiatic
• 14:18
  African, I'm basically going to repeat all those
• 14:21
  guesses and then leave as if I just gave you
• 14:24
  the answer when I really just repeated all your
• 14:26
  guesses. to them and then they're like, you're
• 14:32
  asking the wrong questions. And then they're
• 14:34
  like, what's the question? And they're like,
• 14:37
  figure it out. It's so good. It's so well done.
• 14:43
  And my other favorite moment, my other favorite
• 14:45
  moment, just before I get into my whole monologuing,
• 14:48
  is after I introduce myself and then you as the
• 14:53
  housewife dramatically, you come out and confirm
• 14:55
  my name. Can you give me that? Oh, wait, wait.
• 14:58
  Let me cue you up. Let me cue you up. All right.
• 15:01
  I'm holding a dead cat. Everyone has to know
• 15:03
  I'm holding a dead cat wearing sunglasses and
• 15:05
  a scarf. Yes. Cool. And you. Yeah. I think, what
• 15:09
  was it? Like I give Bering J my business card.
• 15:11
  Eh, professional logician, my card. Is that when
• 15:13
  you say he's a logician? No, you say allow me
• 15:16
  to introduce myself. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. Oh,
• 15:18
  and then you cut me. Okay, okay. So it's allow
• 15:21
  me to introduce myself and then you go ahead.
• 15:23
  Yes. He's a logician. Slander. Yep. I love it.
• 15:32
  I love it. And then, no, can I share something
• 15:34
  from Rhinoceros? Sure. So then, after that, Ian
• 15:38
  is up in this window, right? So there's the puppet
• 15:40
  gallery. So we've got Ian and Laura. And I am
• 15:44
  waiting in the wings behind this door, this very
• 15:47
  light, wooden, swinging door, waiting for my
• 15:50
  cat parade with Aliyah and Abby, who are playing
• 15:54
  Waitress and Daisy. So we come after this cat
• 15:57
  funeral. And I think Ian is playing the cafe.
• 16:02
  proprietor. Yeah, yeah. The proprietor. Yeah.
• 16:05
  So Ian is a very muscular person. They're very
• 16:08
  strong. And they are very physical. Right. And
• 16:12
  they were shaking the stage so like right after
• 16:15
  he's a logician uh lian goes a logician is he
• 16:20
  and like leans out the window and i had to so
• 16:25
  from my line i would stay my line pop out and
• 16:27
  then grab the handle and hold it uh hold the
• 16:29
  handle to the piece of wood the door frame and
• 16:33
  to keep more because i didn't hold it during
• 16:35
  dress rehearsal and the door was swinging open
• 16:38
  like this move up there. Yeah, so we were we
• 16:46
  were we were we were having we was just like
• 16:49
  an earthquake because we're on this like rickety
• 16:52
  platform kind of waiting for our entrance watching
• 16:55
  up holding on for dear life. Oh, my Lord Jesus.
• 17:01
  Yeah, and then we had our big rhino choreography
• 17:03
  moment where Beringey has a nightmare about rhinoceroses
• 17:06
  attacking him and we all had our rhino masks
• 17:09
  on. And I think the most difficult part was everybody
• 17:13
  trying to be in sync with the rhino choreography
• 17:16
  movements. But once we got it, I mean, I think
• 17:19
  we had a blast, didn't we? Oh, absolutely. That,
• 17:22
  oh, I just love. I mean, Carissa did just a phenomenal
• 17:25
  job capturing, like, just elements of a rhino's
• 17:29
  movement and stylizing it. It ended up so creepy
• 17:33
  with the lights and everything, with the masks.
• 17:37
  Yeah, it was tricky going up and down those stairs
• 17:40
  in time with the music in heels and a mask in
• 17:43
  low light. Yes. Those were steps that we had
• 17:46
  to go down that you don't want to go down quickly.
• 17:47
  You want to be careful because... No. I was so
• 17:51
  afraid. Like, even while we were in the final
• 17:53
  performances. I twisted my ankle, but not during
• 17:54
  that scene. I twisted it in full light with my
• 17:57
  mask off during vows. You twisted your ankle
• 18:01
  during when we had to bow to the audience at
• 18:03
  the end of the show? Oh, yeah. As we're walking
• 18:05
  down the stage. You remember, you were right
• 18:07
  behind me. Oh, yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah,
• 18:09
  yeah. Because we do our current call where we
• 18:11
  bounce to the audience at the end of the show.
• 18:12
  And oh, yeah. Yeah. So how did you recover? Were
• 18:15
  you OK? Well, luckily, that was like that was
• 18:19
  matinee day. So we had one more show that evening
• 18:21
  that was not bad. It's not bad at all. So it
• 18:24
  was just a little sore and stiff for that. And
• 18:26
  then I got to rest it the next day. But yeah.
• 18:29
  Oh my god, good for you, good for you. I'm just
• 18:31
  mad that it happened in full light. So I'm still
• 18:35
  putting you on blast for being late. Fuck! I
• 18:41
  thought I'd gotten away from that. I thought
• 18:43
  I'd successfully distracted you. Yeah, so whereas
• 18:47
  Ian Did not remember that we had a recording
• 18:50
  until 15 minutes after we were supposed to start
• 18:53
  it You I will commend you because you had a more
• 18:57
  Sort of valid reason I so you had Wait, I'm gonna
• 19:00
  make it even more valid. You just watch Okay
• 19:05
  So I believe you said you had an interview at
• 19:08
  the media factory, which is this community media
• 19:11
  house in Burlington, Vermont, which is where
• 19:13
  we also did rhinoceros. Yeah, last week. And
• 19:17
  I love the media factory. I've done some radio
• 19:20
  there in the past. They're great people. So what
• 19:24
  kind of interview did you do and why the heck
• 19:27
  did you confuse it for what you had committed
• 19:29
  to me? So the interview... So the interview was
• 19:36
  for this documentary called Patchwork, and it's
• 19:40
  an upcoming documentary by InfiniVision Studios.
• 19:44
  And it's about interviewing different artists,
• 19:48
  dancers, actors, people in the creative fields,
• 19:52
  and specifically in life performance fields,
• 19:55
  and figuring out how they kind of piece together
• 19:58
  working life with, like, you know like their
• 20:01
  professional life and creativity with um having
• 20:04
  a job and paying the rent and all of that stuff
• 20:07
  um and um the director and producer is his his
• 20:14
  name is john um so i went to get interviewed
• 20:19
  by john i'm sorry did you say the director producer
• 20:21
  his name is also john yes with an h I'm without
• 20:26
  an H Sophia. Come on. I know I should, but I
• 20:30
  was like, okay, I'm going to go and, and I'm
• 20:34
  going to be on screen talking to John at the
• 20:38
  media factory. And I put that in my calendar
• 20:43
  twice. I did have, I did have your name right?
• 20:47
  It's not the place. Okay, gotcha. So, so you
• 20:52
  thought me, John, who, although I work in Burlington
• 20:56
  and do theater in Burlington, I do my podcast
• 20:59
  remotely an hour away here in Richford. So when
• 21:02
  you were telling me like, oh yeah, we're at the
• 21:04
  media factory, right? I'm like, Sophia, I don't
• 21:06
  know if I can make it there in time. was on the
• 21:11
  bus and I was like two stops away from me. I
• 21:14
  was like, Oh, you are going to have to cancel
• 21:21
  and I was going to be so sad. I was like, I,
• 21:25
  I am so sorry. I yeah, I'm kicking myself. And
• 21:30
  then the bloody bus was late. My return bus back.
• 21:35
  So yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Because you take the city
• 21:38
  bus around Burlington, right? I take the city
• 21:40
  buses around. I don't drive. And the city buses
• 21:43
  are generally very, very reliable. But today
• 21:45
  there was a lot of traffic, weirdly. So that
• 21:50
  happened. I am so sorry, but I'm here now. You're
• 21:54
  good. You're good. Luckily, I had a, aside from
• 21:59
  the usual podcast editing and social media stuff
• 22:01
  that I do to prepare for, you know, the episode
• 22:03
  coming out tomorrow, I had a wide open day recording
• 22:07
  wise. So like, yeah, it was, it was, it was someone
• 22:11
  before you, a good friend of mine from Connecticut
• 22:13
  and then you, and then I had the rest of the
• 22:16
  day to record. So yeah, I'm glad it worked out.
• 22:19
  I'm glad you wiped the sweat off because it is
• 22:23
  very humid this time of year. I was mopping that.
• 22:26
  I had paper towels. I was like, as soon as I
• 22:28
  got home. But yeah, camera ready. Can you tell?
• 22:32
  You are camera ready, yeah. I can definitely
• 22:35
  tell. Yeah, you look fantastic. It's great. All
• 22:42
  right, so your background, I'm curious because
• 22:43
  I've only worked with you here and there and
• 22:46
  I don't really know you. So before Rhinoceros,
• 22:52
  didn't we also perform in last year's Vermont
• 22:55
  Young Playwrights Festival together? We did.
• 22:58
  We did. We did. So this is where, for our audience,
• 23:03
  this is where, I think it's, is it just high
• 23:06
  schoolers or middle schoolers and high schoolers?
• 23:08
  I think it's just high schoolers, I'm not sure.
• 23:12
  I think it's just high schoolers, so let's hold
• 23:13
  her. Okay, but I know some of them are high schoolers
• 23:17
  so like middle schoolers and high schoolers like
• 23:19
  around that age range they're invited to write
• 23:23
  uh, short plays and then we adult actors, uh,
• 23:28
  that are based here in Vermont. Uh, we decide
• 23:31
  to act out those short plays through two ways.
• 23:35
  We could do like, um, uh, what's, uh, what is
• 23:39
  it? Like, uh, there's the cold reads and the
• 23:41
  stage ratings. Yes. So the stage reading is where
• 23:44
  we have the script in hand, but like we're doing
• 23:46
  blocking it's on stage. So those are the winners,
• 23:50
  like the top ranked plays. Get the staged readings.
• 23:54
  Yeah, so it's competitive and they have like
• 23:57
  professional playwrights from around Vermont
• 23:59
  come in. Jordan's one of them, teaching artists,
• 24:02
  Shoshana, Mollie Krishner. Yeah, awesome people.
• 24:08
  come into schools and teach workshops and then
• 24:10
  the plays are read by professional playwrights
• 24:12
  and then they get ranked and scored and selected
• 24:16
  and then some of them get to do the top scored
• 24:18
  ones get stage readings and then the next group
• 24:20
  get cult readings. Yes. So whereas the stage
• 24:24
  readings is basically like, oh, we're going to
• 24:26
  like have the script in hand, but pretty much
• 24:29
  aside from not having costumes, like your play
• 24:31
  is going to come to life. We're going to have
• 24:32
  the, you know, we're going to have the blocking.
• 24:34
  We're going to have all the movement there. We're
• 24:36
  going to like have it come to life on stage.
• 24:38
  And then the cold readings is where we have like
• 24:41
  the music stands and we're in like some auditorium
• 24:43
  and we're just reading your play while standing
• 24:47
  by the music stand, but we're still giving it
• 24:50
  the same animation, the same energy, the same
• 24:52
  charisma. So I think you and I weren't, didn't
• 24:57
  we do a scene together? where you and some other
• 24:59
  girl played like these like school age soccer
• 25:04
  players that were like in love with each other.
• 25:06
  And then I play the coach. Is that what it was?
• 25:10
  Yes, I think so. It was either that or the zombies.
• 25:12
  And this sounds more right. Definitely not a
• 25:16
  zombie. I definitely would have remembered a
• 25:17
  zombie, but I definitely remember like, oh, I
• 25:19
  was a coach and I was coaching these soccer players
• 25:22
  that were like secret lesbians. It's really funny
• 25:26
  because I went on to assistant direct The Wolves
• 25:30
  the next year, which is a play about high school
• 25:32
  soccer players and got some lesbians in there.
• 25:35
  But yeah. Sophia, Sophia, you've been type acted
• 25:39
  as the high school soccer lesbian actress. I
• 25:42
  get to play lesbians or dead people in all of
• 25:45
  these shows. And I don't I mean, I guess I know
• 25:52
  why. So my next challenge to you, combine it.
• 25:58
  Become a dead lesbian in another play. On it.
• 26:01
  Okay. I might have done... No, I haven't yet.
• 26:04
  On it. Yeah. So, um, so I've been involved with
• 26:09
  Vermont stage. Um, but first I was there as a,
• 26:13
  you know, front of house staff member, house
• 26:15
  managing and box office thing for other shows.
• 26:17
  And then I acted in rhinoceros, my first production
• 26:20
  for Vermont stage specifically. Um, so I've been
• 26:24
  there for about a year, uh, and some change.
• 26:27
  How about you? When did you start working with
• 26:30
  them? Oh, my first. production with them I think
• 26:35
  was yeah I think it was the film fest actually
• 26:38
  um I think that was my first time working with
• 26:40
  them or not the film fest young playwrights sorry
• 26:42
  uh I think young playwrights that so about a
• 26:46
  year ago was been the first time I started working
• 26:48
  with them and then from there I Did know it was
• 26:54
  actually about six months before that I did a
• 26:56
  production of triangle. So that was a school
• 26:58
  tour We went it's about the triangle shirtless
• 27:01
  factory fire. It's a historical play and We went
• 27:07
  we toured around different schools in Vermont
• 27:09
  and I got to play the lead in that show Which
• 27:14
  was really cool And since then, they've been
• 27:17
  offering me, they've actually been developing
• 27:19
  me as a stage manager, which is really, really
• 27:22
  cool. It's kind of like, it's professional work,
• 27:24
  but it feels almost like an apprenticeship. I'm
• 27:26
  learning so much from the stage managers, the
• 27:31
  experienced stage managers around me. Um, so
• 27:34
  that's really cool. So you're apprenticing to
• 27:36
  be a stage manager along with the wonderful acting
• 27:39
  work you've already done. And I'm curious about
• 27:41
  this because not like officially it's more like
• 27:43
  it feels like an apprenticeship that I'm doing
• 27:45
  like a lot of work and I have the experience.
• 27:49
  Okay. So as we know, I mean, I'm like working
• 27:51
  as a stage manager, but like I'm learning a lot
• 27:54
  from more experienced ones. Yeah. And as we know
• 27:57
  from witnessing stage managers like Ryan, who
• 28:00
  was our stage manager for Rhinoceros, it is a
• 28:03
  beast of a job because you have to keep track
• 28:07
  of all the stage directions. You have to make
• 28:09
  sure everybody is on it with the memorization
• 28:11
  of their lines. You have to make sure everybody's
• 28:13
  on time to rehearsals and final performances.
• 28:15
  You have to make sure that the props people know
• 28:17
  what they're doing. I mean, and of course, you
• 28:20
  have to coordinate with the director to make
• 28:21
  sure that you're on the same page with their
• 28:24
  vision of the show. And all that's before load
• 28:26
  -in. And check. Yes, and all that is before load
• 28:31
  -in of the set and testing out the technical
• 28:33
  elements of the show from the lighting to the
• 28:35
  sound. So my question to you is how and why and
• 28:43
  where and I mean, because like I'm of the acting
• 28:47
  mindset, me, like whenever I do acting, like
• 28:50
  I just take the very sort of dumb valley person
• 28:54
  diva attitude of like, Oh my God, that sounds
• 28:56
  so hard. I just want to memorize my lines and
• 28:59
  just be on stage and be a star and be, and get,
• 29:01
  and get applause. Like I think of something like
• 29:04
  stage managing and, and it just gives me a headache
• 29:06
  because I actually was a stage manager for a
• 29:09
  community theater production in Iowa when I lived
• 29:12
  there and I was terrible at it. Like I literally
• 29:14
  like the only helpful part. that I contributed
• 29:18
  was helping with scene transitions, like, just
• 29:21
  moving set pieces. But other than that, in terms
• 29:23
  of, like, taking down notes of stage directions
• 29:25
  and, you know, coordinating with the actors,
• 29:29
  making sure they're on time. Like, I didn't do
• 29:31
  any of that. Like, I was just kind of sitting
• 29:33
  there just watching people act, and they were
• 29:35
  acting wonderfully, but it was... With my attention
• 29:38
  span, it was just really boring. I didn't like
• 29:41
  it. So my question to you is, what do you get
• 29:45
  out of stage managing that maybe you don't get
• 29:48
  from acting? Do you like it better than acting?
• 29:50
  What does it provide for you? Interesting. I
• 29:52
  think, well, I've been acting since I was seven
• 29:57
  years old. This is something that I've always
• 29:59
  known I'm going to be doing for the rest of my
• 30:01
  life. I'm going to be making a career of it if
• 30:04
  possible, but I'm... Never gonna go a year without
• 30:08
  being in a show, you know, like and I don't think
• 30:11
  I have ever Yeah, so acting has always been a
• 30:20
  part of my life and studio spaces, acting, dance,
• 30:25
  singing. I trade in musical theater. Studios
• 30:28
  are my safe space. Theaters are where I'm happiest,
• 30:31
  where all the people I like are. So anything
• 30:35
  that gets me more time in a theater and more
• 30:38
  time around these, like, these really interesting
• 30:41
  people who are so passionate about the same thing
• 30:44
  that I'm passionate about is a gift, you know?
• 30:49
  And stage managing is slightly more lucrative
• 30:52
  than acting Especially here. Yep. I Definitely
• 30:59
  never got bored with Vermont stage stage manager
• 31:02
  is there if it's a lot to do, you know I was
• 31:05
  thinking like I had a you know There's a spreadsheet
• 31:08
  of every time a prop moves if it moves from here
• 31:11
  to here on which line which page which after
• 31:14
  moves it Where do they, you know, everything
• 31:16
  is written down. There's props tracking sheets.
• 31:19
  There are sound cue sheets. There's everything
• 31:22
  is in a spreadsheet. Everything's instantly accessible.
• 31:26
  And you get to know the show inside and out.
• 31:29
  Like for imaginators, because I've had that experience
• 31:33
  being the stage manager, even if I sometimes
• 31:36
  like when I was memorizing the script, it was
• 31:38
  shockingly easy because I knew I knew the whole
• 31:42
  play inside out. I didn't necessarily know if
• 31:45
  I was saying the words or if another character
• 31:47
  was saying the lines, but I knew the play. And
• 31:52
  it's just a totally different way to approach.
• 31:54
  Like, I love dramaturgy. I love plays. It's just
• 31:57
  a totally different way of looking at them. It's
• 31:59
  very analytical, which I enjoy. I'm curious,
• 32:04
  because you are originally from Iran. Yeah, well,
• 32:08
  my dad's family, my dad's half of the family
• 32:11
  immigrated from Iran to Bahrain, along with a
• 32:14
  large population of Iranians. I'm sorry, where's
• 32:18
  Bahrain on the map? So Bahrain, it's this tiny,
• 32:22
  tiny little island. It's smaller than Vermont.
• 32:25
  It's between, right between Saudi Arabia and
• 32:28
  Iran. So there's like a little land bridge connecting
• 32:31
  it to Saudi Arabia, but it's like right off the
• 32:33
  coast. Okay. Um, yeah, and that's where I'm from.
• 32:37
  So I'm trainee. Um, my mother is, and that's
• 32:40
  where I was raised. Um, my mother is American,
• 32:43
  so I also am American. Okay. Okay. So, um, I,
• 32:48
  I, I'm very curious about your story, like your
• 32:51
  time there, your eventual journey to America,
• 32:55
  how acting found itself in your life. Like just,
• 32:57
  just, just tell me all that. Yeah, I started,
• 33:02
  my parents are journalists, so they, my dad's
• 33:06
  a photographer, my mom's a writer, and they met
• 33:11
  in Egypt, fell in love, had me, I was born in
• 33:16
  Egypt on the Nile, and we lived there for the
• 33:19
  first couple years of my life, and then we moved
• 33:22
  to Bahrain, which is where I spent the majority
• 33:25
  of my life. That's where I remember growing up.
• 33:28
  That's where I have my ginormous family on my
• 33:31
  dad's side. So lots of roots there, lots of strong
• 33:36
  ties. While we were in Bahrain, the Arab Spring
• 33:43
  began. There were uprisings. And my father, as
• 33:48
  the Associated Press journalist, was one of the
• 33:50
  few members of the foreign press able to cover
• 33:53
  the atrocities that the government was committing
• 33:55
  against its people. So currently there are still,
• 33:58
  from 2011, there are still the Bahraini government
• 34:02
  imprisoned many academics, doctors who would
• 34:06
  treat protesters. There were peaceful protests
• 34:10
  for democracy that were just crushed. by the
• 34:14
  Masrini government and by Saudi. After we were
• 34:17
  crushed, it went on for a while where the government
• 34:21
  would not allow any journalists to report. We
• 34:25
  stayed for a while and then this part's a bit
• 34:28
  murky for me. But my understanding is my dad
• 34:34
  believed that it was no longer safe for him specifically
• 34:38
  and for our family. I know that the Bahraini
• 34:40
  government does threats. I know that they have
• 34:43
  threatened many journalists in the past. I know
• 34:46
  many journalists who I grew up with were tortured.
• 34:50
  I don't know exactly what it was, but we left
• 34:53
  quickly and went to Cyprus. I'd been doing musical
• 34:58
  theater since I was seven. I'd been doing it
• 35:01
  in Spain. So when we got to Cyprus, I enrolled
• 35:04
  in a dance school that was like, it was a proper
• 35:08
  like musical theater school. Like we were doing
• 35:12
  And we were learning musical theater numbers.
• 35:14
  We were doing private singing lessons. I was
• 35:16
  taking jazz, tap, ballet. I was doing everything.
• 35:20
  Everything I could get my hands on. And then
• 35:22
  when we couldn't afford lessons, I started teaching
• 35:24
  there. And we, for more lessons, I did my Lambda
• 35:30
  exams. I did Trinity exams, which are like the
• 35:35
  British theater examinations and like voice examinations
• 35:40
  that get you like, kind of like the equivalent
• 35:42
  of They're called UCAS points. They're like kind
• 35:44
  of like college credits, but not. They're like
• 35:47
  a scoring points. And they're like, if you get
• 35:49
  enough of them, you're a really good student.
• 35:52
  So like I did the British system for theater
• 35:55
  training. And yeah, from there, my parents, yeah,
• 35:58
  my dad got a screen card during COVID. So my
• 36:01
  parents moved to, had to move quickly and they
• 36:04
  found a home in Vermont where my aunt lives.
• 36:06
  My parents moved to Vermont and I wrapped up
• 36:09
  high school in Cyprus on my own. I'm working
• 36:12
  at the dance school. And then I got into arts
• 36:15
  educational schools in London for their musical
• 36:18
  theater foundation program. So that was a one
• 36:21
  year program, one and a half at the best school
• 36:24
  for musical theater in London. And I got to train
• 36:27
  every single day. There was 30 of us and we were
• 36:30
  like split in half. I got to train with the most
• 36:33
  incredible teachers. It was like every day you
• 36:35
  got in at eight and the day finished at like
• 36:38
  five. It was ballet classes, jazz classes, script
• 36:43
  study. It was a musical theater workshop. It
• 36:46
  was an incredible education. I learned so much
• 36:48
  there. And since then I graduated from that program
• 36:52
  and I've been working professionally ever since
• 36:53
  as an actor. I came to the US to be nearer to
• 36:57
  my parents and I've been working in Burlington.
• 37:00
  How has your Vermont experience been? I mean,
• 37:05
  cause like you and I both being people of color,
• 37:09
  like we could, you know, we could certainly have
• 37:11
  our share of experiences. I mean, I'll just briefly
• 37:15
  state that I originally come from Connecticut,
• 37:18
  where it was a lot more diverse. I mean, I had
• 37:21
  a brief time in college in Philly. I spent my
• 37:24
  first three college semesters at the University
• 37:27
  of the Arts in Philadelphia, which is now closed.
• 37:29
  And then I moved back to Connecticut to finish
• 37:31
  my college degree and then went to Iowa, which
• 37:35
  was very much not like diverse Connecticut. So,
• 37:39
  definitely got my taste of... So, it's interesting,
• 37:43
  because what I experienced in Iowa was equivalent
• 37:46
  to, strangely enough, what I was experiencing,
• 37:49
  like, at my high school theater department in
• 37:51
  Connecticut, because, like, while... Yeah. Yeah.
• 37:54
  Cause while like I would go to class in Connecticut
• 37:57
  and I would see, you know, blacks, Asians, Hispanics,
• 38:00
  white people, just a nice melting pot of diversity.
• 38:03
  I go to my theater department and it's all lily
• 38:06
  white. And I feel kind of uncomfortable, but
• 38:09
  also having to accept the fact that, all right,
• 38:12
  I'm the only person of color in my school that
• 38:14
  apparently wants to be regularly interested in
• 38:16
  theater. Um, so I experienced that pretty much
• 38:19
  on a daily basis, just living in Iowa. Like,
• 38:21
  as you know, Iowa, one of the. greatest estates
• 38:23
  in the country. But I lucked out and I was in
• 38:28
  a very liberal college town. So everyone was
• 38:31
  very loving and accepting and fun. I had a great
• 38:35
  time there. And then I found my way to Vermont.
• 38:39
  I'm doing all this moving, Sophia, because I
• 38:41
  used to work in radio and I went where the work
• 38:43
  was. So that's why. Love. No, I'm a traveler.
• 38:47
  Yeah, exactly. Yeah. We're drifters. We're drifters.
• 38:51
  We're POC drifters, people of color drifters.
• 38:54
  Oh, God. Yeah, just please. They're like, we
• 38:59
  don't want you here. Yeah. So I'm coming here
• 39:02
  to Vermont for radio work, but it happens to
• 39:03
  be another majority white state. And I've been
• 39:07
  here, you know, say for seven or eight months
• 39:10
  when I was doing radio in Albany, New York, more
• 39:13
  diverse, obviously. Yeah. I've been in Vermont
• 39:17
  for eight years. I've called Vermont my home
• 39:19
  for eight years. I've been here during the pandemic,
• 39:25
  which was especially tense with the Black Lives
• 39:29
  Matter of it all. Definitely, definitely, definitely
• 39:32
  experienced some casual racism during that period
• 39:34
  of time. And, and also, you know, that's so interesting.
• 39:41
  I know. So I, so I moved here, when I moved here,
• 39:44
  it was in the middle of the first Trump presidency,
• 39:48
  then we went through the pandemic, Black Lives
• 39:50
  Matter hitting a peak. And then Biden comes in,
• 39:53
  of course, there's a backlash to that. And then
• 39:56
  now here we are at the second Trump presidency.
• 39:59
  So being a person of color here in Vermont, it's
• 40:02
  just it's an interesting thing because like,
• 40:05
  there is certainly Uh, many examples of the kindness
• 40:10
  that I've heard about Vermonters. Uh, there's
• 40:14
  certainly many examples of like people minding
• 40:16
  their own business. Um, and not really like,
• 40:20
  you know, trying to spy on you and figure out
• 40:23
  what you're about. I've certainly experienced
• 40:25
  an aspect of that, but you know, I've also experienced
• 40:28
  an aspect of like, oh yeah, I'm reminded that
• 40:31
  I don't look like many other people here. So
• 40:36
  I guess I'm just curious, what has your Vermont
• 40:40
  experience been? Looking the way you do, woman.
• 40:46
  So this is so, so interesting, because it's Vermont
• 40:51
  racism. But it's also like, it's my first real
• 40:56
  interaction with American racism. And it's very
• 40:59
  different from the kinds of racism that I've
• 41:01
  experienced, like living in other places. So
• 41:04
  like living like, like when I first moved here,
• 41:07
  I was in Jeffersonville and I got a job at a
• 41:10
  grocery store and first day on the job, somebody
• 41:14
  comes in, like a coworker from a different department
• 41:17
  comes in and goes, oh my God, you look so ethnic.
• 41:20
  God, are you serious? First day. And I was like,
• 41:26
  thanks. What? And that has never happened to
• 41:30
  me before. It's like the racism like that I'd
• 41:34
  experienced before would be like, would be like
• 41:36
  the assumptions that people would have like things
• 41:39
  like like, you know, like stereotypes like she's
• 41:42
  part white, so she's gonna be looser or she is
• 41:46
  Middle Eastern. So she's gonna, she's gonna be
• 41:52
  really like militant about like Islam, like Islamist
• 41:56
  system and like modesty and stuff. Like it was
• 41:59
  weird because it was like based on assumptions
• 42:01
  and not just like shock at my presence. It was
• 42:05
  like, cause they'd seen other people like me
• 42:08
  and developed like. Yeah. So like in London,
• 42:12
  I would get people say things like, oh, like
• 42:14
  people would think I was Pakistani a lot. So
• 42:16
  they would like say things like, oh, you're just
• 42:18
  clogging up. You're standing in line. You're
• 42:21
  taking our, our, uh, resources. It was kind of
• 42:27
  like that kind of attitude. We're like, oh, were
• 42:29
  you still, oh, another one. Get out of my way.
• 42:34
  And here it's either. And that's just from the
• 42:38
  racists there. Generally, the vast majority of
• 42:41
  the people in London were perfectly lovely and
• 42:43
  it was a way more diverse place than this. And
• 42:47
  it was fine most of the time and those instances
• 42:50
  were less common. But here, well first of all,
• 42:54
  they don't know what I am. So I get a lot of
• 42:57
  people trying to figure that out. And I get a
• 42:59
  lot of like, so what are you? Then... I guess
• 43:03
  it very much depends on what's currently in the
• 43:06
  conversation, like in the national conversation.
• 43:08
  I feel like people are a lot more, I feel like
• 43:11
  race is such a huge part of the national conversation
• 43:13
  here, where it is an undercurrent in other countries,
• 43:18
  but it's less of the focus. You get like a lot
• 43:22
  of whiplash, like during, like when the attacks
• 43:25
  in Gaza first started, I was in a Palestinian
• 43:30
  play at that point. working with other Middle
• 43:35
  Eastern Jewish and Desi actors who had all, like,
• 43:41
  I was the only Vermont actor. Everyone else had
• 43:44
  been flown in. We did this. It's called Returning
• 43:47
  to Haifa by Hassan Qanafani. We put it up at
• 43:50
  the Umidilla Theater. It was a wonderful experience.
• 43:53
  Zafar T. Chab directed that one. You know, people
• 43:56
  came, people. I was the only, of the cast, I
• 43:59
  was the only like Middle Eastern person. And
• 44:02
  the questions, it's hard to put. It's hard to
• 44:05
  put into words the American racism because it
• 44:08
  was very much, I'm gonna poke you. and then wait
• 44:11
  for your response and I'm ready I've got a defense
• 44:13
  like I know you might you know it's very much
• 44:15
  uh and I'm gonna ask this question and then but
• 44:20
  don't you get offended you know we're like it's
• 44:23
  very much uh I feel like there was a lot of like
• 44:26
  asking questions to make a point about themselves
• 44:30
  oh yeah rather than actually looking for a new
• 44:34
  perspective or an answer. It's something that,
• 44:37
  yeah, it's something I struggled a lot with when
• 44:40
  I first moved here, because I just was not used
• 44:43
  to, like, everybody asking me about politics
• 44:47
  and asking me about my opinion. And like, okay,
• 44:50
  like everybody asks me about politics anyway,
• 44:52
  because my parents are journalists. And that's
• 44:53
  always been kind of like my role in my French
• 44:55
  group. But this time it was with... with a look,
• 44:59
  you know? It was with a... And how do you feel
• 45:02
  about this? And the U .S. has been having tension
• 45:06
  with the Middle East for the past 20 years. What's
• 45:09
  your opinion? Because you're Middle Eastern,
• 45:10
  you must have an opinion. Like, it's just, it's
• 45:12
  such an uncomfortable position to be in. Or not
• 45:14
  even a what's your opinion, but like, your opinion
• 45:19
  is probably either your opinion holds more weight
• 45:23
  than... I'm used, like my opinion holds more
• 45:26
  weight than I'm used to it holding. Like I should
• 45:29
  be able to say an opinion without representing
• 45:32
  the entirety of my race. Yes. Absolutely. And
• 45:37
  it feels like when, uh, when I'm asked questions
• 45:40
  here, it's very much I'm being asked as an authority
• 45:44
  on the subject, which I'm not, you know? I'm
• 45:47
  a human being and I can only speak for myself,
• 45:50
  not for my entire - Yeah, exactly. My, not, not
• 45:53
  my entire race. Yeah. I mean, God, I, I know
• 45:56
  what you're, I know what you mean about that
• 45:57
  Vermont kind of racism. Cause like, okay, maybe
• 45:59
  you go down in the South, certain areas of the
• 46:02
  South and you'll experience a more overt aggressive
• 46:05
  kind of racism. Like who are you? What are you
• 46:08
  doing here? And I'm going to prove either through
• 46:12
  physically or verbally hurtful language that
• 46:14
  you don't belong here. Whereas in Vermont, um,
• 46:18
  there is sort of a Midwestern. hospitality, non
• 46:24
  -awareness, subtlety to the racism. Like, these
• 46:32
  people have been amongst their own fellow white
• 46:36
  people for a long time. They barely see people
• 46:38
  of color, so they just don't know. I'll give
• 46:41
  you an example. I am an Uber and Lyft driver
• 46:44
  to pay the bills. And this very sweet old lady
• 46:48
  who is not quite there in the mind, but she's
• 46:51
  very sweet and lovely. She asked me a question
• 46:54
  that a lot of Usually white drivers ask me, which
• 46:58
  is, where am I from? I often wonder. I get that
• 47:01
  a lot. Yeah, yeah. I often wonder like, oh, if
• 47:03
  I was a white driver, would you ask if I'm from
• 47:06
  Vermont, if I'm from Vermont originally, where
• 47:07
  am I from? But no, I mean, I said, okay, I'm
• 47:11
  from Connecticut and I lived here and there.
• 47:14
  And she was like, oh, okay, so you're not like
• 47:17
  from Africa. And I'm like, nope, I'm not from
• 47:19
  Africa. Yeah, exactly. Exactly. Um, and again,
• 47:23
  this is a senile old lady, not in her, not in
• 47:26
  her, not in her mind, not in her right mind.
• 47:29
  She clearly doesn't know what she's saying. She
• 47:31
  just thinks of it as like, oh yeah, you're black.
• 47:33
  Black people are from Africa. That's an innocent
• 47:35
  question to ask, but no, again, like. It's, uh,
• 47:40
  you're, you're, you're making an assumption based
• 47:42
  on my race that this is my background. This is
• 47:45
  where I was originally born in. And that can
• 47:50
  be hurtful to, to hear rather than just simply,
• 47:54
  Oh, like. Like, okay, maybe I don't get offended
• 47:57
  so much, like, when people ask, like, oh, are
• 47:59
  you from Vermont originally? Like, it is what
• 48:01
  it is. Like, in some respects, you can, the white
• 48:05
  drivers can be asked that as well. But, you know,
• 48:09
  yeah. They're not gonna ask, are you from Africa?
• 48:12
  Yeah. Like, that was just like, whoa. So yeah,
• 48:17
  so that hit me out of nowhere. And I had another
• 48:20
  senile old lady experience, more so during the
• 48:22
  pandemic when the Black Lives Matter thing was
• 48:24
  happening. And this is to bounce off of your
• 48:26
  point of like, you know, we're likely to experience
• 48:29
  racism around here if current events are happening
• 48:32
  that are kind of tied to that. I'm just eating
• 48:35
  breakfast in my car, because we couldn't really
• 48:38
  go inside to eat breakfast at the time. And this
• 48:40
  old lady just comes right next to my car because
• 48:42
  she was parked right next to me. And just out
• 48:45
  of nowhere, she's like, those Black Lives Matter
• 48:47
  people, they're not doing anything for you. Those
• 48:50
  Black Lives Matter people, they're just insane.
• 48:55
  They're overdoing it. They're intense. They're
• 48:57
  not helping you. And it's like... Hey, Black!
• 49:00
  guy, you don't matter. Exactly. Exactly. But
• 49:04
  no, no, but more so I was just like, um, hello
• 49:07
  to you too. Uh, hi, good morning. I'm just here
• 49:10
  eating my breakfast. Like, you know, she's just
• 49:14
  been bubbling for weeks, just waiting to see
• 49:16
  a black person so she can give him a piece of
• 49:18
  her mind. Yeah. Not only are you ignorant and
• 49:21
  wrong and racist, uh, about your opinion of black
• 49:24
  lives matter, but also just looking at me and
• 49:28
  all you can see is my race and you want to talk
• 49:31
  about that rather than like, Oh, look at any
• 49:33
  other white human being. You'll probably. It's
• 49:35
  not even like there it's you look and you're
• 49:38
  not even seeing the race. You're seeing your
• 49:41
  the other side's political argument. It's like
• 49:45
  you're not even, you're not even a human being.
• 49:48
  Like you're just, you're just a puppet. You know,
• 49:52
  one of those straw man puppets that is everything
• 49:55
  that you've been built up to be. Yeah. Oh, here's
• 49:58
  probably the first black person that I've seen
• 49:59
  in like 10 or 15 years in Vermont. And this reminds
• 50:02
  me of the Black Lives Matter movement. So I'm
• 50:03
  going to say my opinion on that without even
• 50:05
  at least saying a hi. How are you? How you doing?
• 50:08
  Like. And also clearly this black person. in
• 50:10
  Vermont is representative of the entire Black
• 50:14
  Lives Matter movement. If I just talk to this
• 50:16
  black guy, I'm sure it'll get, we'll get word
• 50:18
  back to the top. You know? How do you even know
• 50:22
  that I'm for the Black Lives Matter movement?
• 50:24
  I could be against it. I could be... You could
• 50:27
  be, you could be one. Yeah. Oh yeah, you're black.
• 50:30
  So you must be in support of Black Lives Matter.
• 50:32
  It's just like, it's just, it's, it's not only
• 50:35
  being like against something that is with good
• 50:38
  intentions, but it's also, this is also a reminder
• 50:40
  of like, oh yeah, like when you look at me, you're
• 50:42
  looking at a race and not a person. And also
• 50:44
  like, what are you supposed to do about it? Because
• 50:47
  there's also this idea that you're, if you have,
• 50:50
  if you are a part of that race, you're automatically
• 50:53
  connected to everybody else who's part of that
• 50:56
  race. It's like, okay, you've got all these opinions.
• 50:59
  You've just told me that. What am I supposed
• 51:03
  to do about it? I know. Good for you. You got
• 51:06
  it. You got it out. Literally. And when I was
• 51:10
  in Iowa. I'll call the headquarters. Exactly.
• 51:14
  So, and when I was in Iowa, like earlier on in
• 51:16
  Trump's first presidency, and this was like around
• 51:18
  the time when Colin Kaepernick was kneeling down
• 51:21
  and refusing to do the national anthem. Um, I
• 51:24
  go to, uh, an eye doctor at Walmart in Iowa and
• 51:29
  very nice guy, but just out of nowhere, he's
• 51:32
  like, Oh, Hey, like, you know, I hope you don't
• 51:35
  take this personally. I think I just, I'm just
• 51:36
  curious. I just want to get your thoughts. What
• 51:38
  do you think about these football players kneeling
• 51:42
  down and not doing the national anthem just out
• 51:44
  of nowhere? Like, you know, I could tell his
• 51:47
  assistant was just like, Oh my God, don't do
• 51:49
  this. What are you doing? Like. And this guy
• 51:53
  thinks that he's being nice and cordial about
• 51:55
  it, but it's like, this is the problem. This
• 51:57
  is the problem. This is the problem. Instead
• 52:00
  of, hi, how are you human being? And then maybe
• 52:03
  we'll gradually work into a conversation about
• 52:05
  race. It's, oh, you're, you're this race. So
• 52:08
  I'm going to talk to you about race right now,
• 52:09
  because that is all you are. Because that is
• 52:11
  all you are. And that's all you will have to
• 52:13
  contribute to the conversation. Yeah. Yeah. And
• 52:19
  this is something that. And it's tricky because
• 52:22
  it's like, it turns into something where like,
• 52:25
  I have, I am one of the very few actors of color
• 52:28
  I know in Vermont. And like, yeah, yeah. And
• 52:32
  like, yeah, it becomes a thing. Like this is
• 52:35
  something that I am like one of the other few
• 52:37
  actors of color in Vermont who I work with often.
• 52:41
  We... have to, we talk about this a lot, especially
• 52:44
  because we're like, we're touring the schools.
• 52:46
  We talk about, you know, like, how does race
• 52:49
  affect the character? How does this, how does
• 52:52
  it, how is it because we're going into these
• 52:54
  like really, really white schools and they're
• 52:55
  seeing like a black woman on stage and only in
• 52:59
  a play. Yeah. And they're seeing, I don't know,
• 53:04
  there's interesting conversations that happen
• 53:06
  in the talkbacks. especially like we were touring
• 53:09
  before a play where many of the characters were
• 53:13
  Jewish. Then this play is about fascism. And
• 53:18
  she was recently, the actress who I'm talking
• 53:21
  about, Brittany Abdelmanek, was recently in a
• 53:24
  production of White, which is a play about race.
• 53:29
  Which yes, Ian's company, that's Between the
• 53:32
  Willows. She opens white and like I was in the
• 53:36
  audience and I was in this primarily white audience,
• 53:41
  I think Ian and I were the only people of color
• 53:43
  there, watching this play that was very well
• 53:47
  done, watching Britney's phenomenal performance.
• 53:51
  And she walks on and the audience, and she sets
• 53:53
  these jokes, like, you know, there's like jokes
• 53:56
  about her name being mispronounced and like the
• 53:58
  ethnic name and like I get that all the time
• 54:01
  and stuff. I was laughing at some jokes. and
• 54:04
  the audience around me was laughing at other
• 54:07
  jokes. And sometimes we were laughing at the
• 54:10
  same time, but I feel like we were laughing for
• 54:12
  very different reasons. Okay. So what exactly
• 54:15
  were those other audience members laughing at,
• 54:18
  and why do you think it might have been an awkward
• 54:20
  thing to laugh at? Like, her coming in, there's
• 54:22
  a transformation scene where she comes in and
• 54:26
  she is transformed into this almost stereotypical
• 54:30
  version of herself. Um, but like she likes like
• 54:34
  she and this, uh, so like the basic storyline
• 54:37
  of white you've got this, um white actor uh white
• 54:40
  artist, uh, who wants to be put his paintings
• 54:43
  into a gallery show But his friendly art director
• 54:46
  wants it to be doesn't want another white guy's
• 54:49
  painting in the show So he goes and hires a black
• 54:51
  artist to pretend that she painted his paintings
• 54:53
  Um, and he creates a whole character of her.
• 54:57
  Um, and then she kind of takes over that character
• 55:01
  starts to live in it. And at the end of the play,
• 55:04
  spoilers, but she, it turns out she is the art
• 55:06
  piece. She is what gets put on display and she
• 55:09
  lives in her blackness. Her femininity is just
• 55:14
  put on display forever. It's like built up into
• 55:17
  this like version of herself and then it's put
• 55:20
  out. And it's something like something I've watched
• 55:22
  happen to myself, to her, to other actors of
• 55:26
  color in Vermont where like your color is built
• 55:30
  up. And like you say, it's going to be celebrated.
• 55:33
  And then you get there and it feels like, oh
• 55:36
  shit, I am in a glass box on display. Like I'm
• 55:40
  in a zoo, you know? It was just, it was difficult
• 55:43
  to watch. It was difficult to watch like during
• 55:45
  the transformation when she's wearing like this
• 55:47
  big wig and she's suddenly in like flowing clothes,
• 55:51
  speaking with like way like, with like more of
• 55:54
  a Southern accent. And the audience is laughing.
• 55:57
  And I'm like, are you laughing at? the things
• 56:00
  she's saying or are you laughing at her? You
• 56:04
  know? Right, right. And watching my friend go
• 56:07
  through that stage sucked, even though it was
• 56:09
  a very good play. But, you know, and it's something
• 56:12
  that I think happens to like actors everywhere
• 56:17
  and every time, like even during like returning
• 56:19
  to Haifa in a way, like that was a play, a Palestinian
• 56:22
  play. It was about Middle Eastern culture. I
• 56:26
  was the only Middle Eastern person there. And
• 56:28
  I was answering so many of the questions. It's
• 56:33
  like, I have to do this. And I know that when
• 56:37
  she chose the play, she wanted to do this because
• 56:39
  there are so few plays centering Black actors
• 56:43
  and Black stories in Vermont. And I know how
• 56:45
  important it was to her, but I could see the
• 56:47
  absolute labor that she was doing and how draining
• 56:50
  that was. And I think that's something a lot
• 56:53
  of actors of color have to go through in Vermont.
• 56:57
  It's something just I've been noticing more and
• 56:59
  more and that I've been exhausted by more and
• 57:02
  more. Yeah, I feel like you, me, Ian, I mean,
• 57:05
  Ian and I, we were talking about the people of
• 57:06
  color struggle when auditioning for stuff in
• 57:09
  Vermont. Yeah. Brittany, I feel like we have
• 57:12
  to have like some kind of like POC theater actors
• 57:15
  therapy club in Vermont. Oh, God, just vent.
• 57:21
  Vent. The struggle, the misconceptions. Um, God,
• 57:28
  wonderful conversation, Sophia. And I'm sorry,
• 57:31
  I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm pronouncing your name as if
• 57:33
  it's S O P H I A, but I know S A F I Y A. Sophia?
• 57:38
  Sophia. Yeah. Are you ready for my three? Yes,
• 57:43
  I am. Wait, wait, wait. Say that one more time.
• 57:48
  That's my prodi trick for the elementary school
• 57:50
  kids when I teach. Oh, that's your actual full
• 57:52
  name. Yeah. I cannot say that even. One time,
• 57:56
  fast. Seven of them. Boom. Is that her name?
• 58:02
  Wait, I think so. Sophia, Beth, Hassan, Abbas,
• 58:05
  Mohammed, Mevrouz, Jamali. Yeah, seven. But your
• 58:08
  Gmail is just Sophia, Beth, Jamali. Is that like...
• 58:11
  Well, okay, we'll leak my Gmail. Imagine if that
• 58:18
  was your Gmail address. Boy, you expect me to
• 58:19
  put the whole thing in. Oh my god. Imagine if
• 58:22
  you had like a 10 name email address. Like that
• 58:24
  would be like very hard to back out. I feel like
• 58:27
  what I've got already like first, middle, last,
• 58:29
  lower. It's already pretty long. A delicious
• 58:35
  meal that you've had lately. Go. Momo. Chili
• 58:38
  Momo from CK Dumpling House. If you live in the
• 58:41
  Old North End in Burlington, go try it guys.
• 58:44
  It's delicious. It's Nepali. dumplings and it's
• 58:47
  family run. And, you know, there's just like
• 58:50
  little kid on his iPad manning the register while
• 58:53
  his mom cooks the dumplings. And it's delightful.
• 58:55
  It's delicious. Yeah, I think a guest from a
• 59:00
  while ago, this filmmaker from LA, Ian, also
• 59:03
  also named Ian, as a matter of fact, he we were
• 59:08
  talking about the movie One Battle After Another,
• 59:09
  and he had mentioned Momo's being a great meal
• 59:12
  that he loved. Yeah. So you said CK Dumpling
• 59:17
  is the name of the place? They're really good.
• 59:21
  CK Dumplings. I've been there a few times when
• 59:27
  I used to DoorDash. I've been to pick up a couple
• 59:29
  of deliveries. There was one time where it took
• 59:34
  maybe 30 to 45 minutes to get a delivery. So
• 59:38
  I caught them on a bad day. But I will say I
• 59:42
  love me some Asian cuisine, and I'm going to
• 59:45
  try this. Now, what specifically about their
• 59:48
  Momo Nepali dumpling goodness, and I may be paraphrasing,
• 59:53
  I think I'm getting the name wrong. What is it
• 59:55
  that makes it distinct and tasteful compared
• 59:57
  to anything else you've tasted? Man, it's got
• 1:00:00
  to be, look, I mean, I'm talking specifically
• 1:00:02
  about the chili momos, and it's that chili sauce.
• 1:00:06
  It's just, it's, it's, it's spicy, but not too
• 1:00:09
  spicy. It is flavorful. They're just slathered
• 1:00:14
  in them, so you pick it up, you scoop it up.
• 1:00:15
  The momos, they're damp, but they're not wet.
• 1:00:18
  They're just perfect, like, momo texture. They've
• 1:00:21
  got the little bit of almost crunch on top. It's
• 1:00:23
  not crunchy, but it's texture in the sauce. It's
• 1:00:26
  a thick sauce. And then, yeah, you just take
• 1:00:29
  it all in one bite. You've got the kind of noodley
• 1:00:32
  wrap. You've got the vegetable fillings inside.
• 1:00:35
  You can get chicken. I don't. But you can have
• 1:00:38
  the... Tell a chili sauce. It's just it's just
• 1:00:42
  a feast for the mouth As are many other things
• 1:00:55
  So that's great. Okay. So, uh, yeah, yeah, we'll
• 1:00:58
  definitely have to go there. Uh, yeah. So, so
• 1:01:00
  me, me and Ian, we're, we're having dinner at
• 1:01:02
  a place that he recommended East West cafe, which
• 1:01:04
  I've been to many times. Um, I was door dashing
• 1:01:07
  that place during rhinoceros. Good stuff. Wait
• 1:01:11
  door dashing like uh buying door dash or buying
• 1:01:14
  buying buying Okay, okay. Yeah Poor sophia. I
• 1:01:18
  remember so so are you are you single? Do you
• 1:01:20
  live alone? Yeah, uh, I live with three roommates
• 1:01:23
  and two cats. Okay, do you cook? Yes, okay, uh
• 1:01:28
  so but but I would imagine that um When you work
• 1:01:32
  you said yours you substitute each and you do
• 1:01:34
  theater. That's what you do Okay, um, and babysits
• 1:01:38
  sometimes odd gigs Okay. So, so, so, so, so good
• 1:01:41
  amount of odd jobs. I just remember, uh, at one
• 1:01:44
  point in the dressing room during rhinoceros,
• 1:01:46
  where you looked at your phone after you received
• 1:01:48
  a door dash delivery and you were like, Oh my
• 1:01:51
  God, I'm going so broke being in this show. Cause
• 1:01:54
  like you're always getting, you're always getting,
• 1:01:57
  you're always getting things door dash to you.
• 1:01:59
  Cause of course there's no time to cook anything.
• 1:02:01
  time to do anything. I would like get home from
• 1:02:05
  rehearsal and collapse. Like I wouldn't even
• 1:02:08
  eat before coming. I was like... Delicious piece
• 1:02:14
  of pop culture. What is a TV show, movie, book,
• 1:02:18
  podcast, play, music, just anything that you're
• 1:02:20
  watching, listening to, that you love, that you
• 1:02:22
  want to share? So actually, right now, it's a
• 1:02:23
  video game. And it is Hades 2 by Supergiant Games.
• 1:02:29
  So I played the first Hades. I was obsessed with
• 1:02:31
  it. It's like this 2D. It's like this roguelike
• 1:02:34
  dungeon crawler game. But there's a lot of great
• 1:02:37
  storyline. The characters, it's based on Greek
• 1:02:39
  mythology. So in the first game, you're this
• 1:02:42
  prince of the underworld. You're the son of Hades
• 1:02:44
  and you're trying to fight your way out of the
• 1:02:46
  underworld because you don't like your dad Which
• 1:02:50
  like I was a Percy Jackson kid. So I grew up
• 1:02:54
  Loving Greek mythology like I would be on the
• 1:02:57
  Percy Jackson. I went like deep I read my Oh
• 1:03:02
  my god, I read the Odyssey. I read the only one
• 1:03:03
  I read. I was very, very into Greek mythology
• 1:03:06
  as a kid. So you get boons from the different
• 1:03:09
  Greek gods and they're all interacting and they
• 1:03:11
  have sassy little dialogue between them. The
• 1:03:14
  voice acting, phenomenal. The music, original
• 1:03:17
  scores. The music is great. It's a beautifully,
• 1:03:22
  just beautiful artwork. It's a beautifully designed
• 1:03:24
  game. And now they've released the second game,
• 1:03:28
  Hades 2, which is even better somehow. It's got
• 1:03:31
  much smoother game mechanics. You're playing
• 1:03:33
  his sister now. And I'm not going to spoil too
• 1:03:36
  much, but like this big war of the gods and Titans.
• 1:03:39
  And it's, it's very fun. I have sunk so many
• 1:03:43
  hours into it. I had spilled a coffee on my laptop.
• 1:03:47
  So I was out of commission for a long time, but
• 1:03:49
  now it's on iPad through cloud gaming. So I've
• 1:03:52
  got an Xbox cloud gaming subscription and I can
• 1:03:55
  play both games. You, you and Ian, you and Ian,
• 1:03:58
  cause I remember Ian backstage. often was, I
• 1:04:01
  think he has like a Nintendo Switch that he was
• 1:04:03
  playing with backstage. Yeah, so it wasn't a
• 1:04:06
  Switch. It was actually, so I asked them about
• 1:04:08
  it. It was their phone in there the whole time
• 1:04:14
  and it's just a set of controller, it's a controller
• 1:04:17
  case that they got because they're a TikToker
• 1:04:19
  and they got the product to review. And, yeah,
• 1:04:23
  no Switch, just their phone. How advanced video
• 1:04:25
  gaming has been since I last played a video game,
• 1:04:29
  which I think might have been Nintendo Wii Ping
• 1:04:32
  Pong, like 20 years ago. Oh, buddy. Buddy! Okay,
• 1:04:37
  so, when are you picking up Hades? Look, I mean,
• 1:04:42
  I've never been passionate about video games,
• 1:04:46
  like, because I have a little brother, I have
• 1:04:49
  cousins in Connecticut who are much more passionate
• 1:04:51
  about it. So, yeah, they can have a long conversation
• 1:04:55
  about video games. What I will say about Hades
• 1:04:59
  is, so that's the name of an actual Greek god,
• 1:05:02
  correct? Yes, the Greek god of the underworld.
• 1:05:04
  And what is Hades' signature Like, what does
• 1:05:07
  it mean to be the Greek god of the underworld?
• 1:05:08
  Hades' signature thing, he's the one who kidnapped
• 1:05:10
  Persephone. He's the one who, yeah, he rules
• 1:05:14
  the underworld. He helped cut his dad up when
• 1:05:17
  he overthrew him, married, kidnapped and married
• 1:05:20
  his niece. Yeah, she, yeah, there's a lot. I
• 1:05:25
  really, we're to start with Hades. I mean, I
• 1:05:30
  forgot how the Greek gods be cray -cray, because
• 1:05:33
  like... Yeah. Here I am, you're describing Hades
• 1:05:36
  to me and I'm just like, wait, why did Hades
• 1:05:38
  kidnap Persephone? Why did he marry his niece?
• 1:05:41
  Why couldn't he marry someone he wasn't related
• 1:05:42
  to? Why did he cut his father up into pieces?
• 1:05:47
  Did they have some kind of tension when they
• 1:05:48
  were growing up together? I have so many questions.
• 1:05:51
  Well, you see, first his father ate him. You
• 1:05:54
  know, that explains it. Wait, so how could he
• 1:05:56
  cut his father up into pieces when his father
• 1:05:58
  ate him? What? Well, then his little brother
• 1:06:01
  tricked his father by having him, some say a
• 1:06:04
  stone, some say a mixture of like mustard seeds
• 1:06:07
  and herbs. He tricked him into eating that instead
• 1:06:11
  of the baby. Zeus. So Kronos threw up all of
• 1:06:16
  his kids. He was eating a lot of kids. So Hades
• 1:06:21
  isn't the only child that Kronos ate. He ate
• 1:06:24
  all his babies. So like Rhea would just pop them
• 1:06:26
  out and he'd be like tossing down. Is there a
• 1:06:30
  certain delicious protein that you can get from
• 1:06:32
  eating children that you couldn't get from anything
• 1:06:34
  else? Well, yes, actually. And it was not being
• 1:06:39
  chopped up. So he knew that he was going to get
• 1:06:41
  killed eventually by his kids. And he was like,
• 1:06:44
  well, they can't kill me if they're in my stomach.
• 1:06:47
  So I'm just going to eat them as you do. As you
• 1:06:51
  do. So Zeus is the, I'm sorry, is Zeus the son
• 1:06:54
  of Hades? Is that, did I get that correct? Yes.
• 1:06:56
  So you've got Zeus and Poseidon and Hades are
• 1:06:59
  brothers, right? And then you've also got like
• 1:07:02
  Demeter, you've got Hestia, you've got the chicks,
• 1:07:06
  you've got Hera. And Zeus is the youngest. Kronos
• 1:07:11
  is just popping out babies, so he's popping out
• 1:07:13
  the older kids. And each time he has a baby,
• 1:07:17
  he's not popping them out. To be clear, he does
• 1:07:19
  have a wife who is actually doing the physical
• 1:07:21
  labor of popping out the babies. But as soon
• 1:07:23
  as she pops them out, he eats the baby. And she
• 1:07:28
  was like, well, I don't want this last baby to
• 1:07:30
  be eaten. So she tricks him with the mustard
• 1:07:33
  seed or Brock. Um, and yeah, he, he chucks up,
• 1:07:39
  you know, he vomits the babies. And by this time
• 1:07:41
  they're fully grown. So they kill them. So this
• 1:07:44
  all sounds very sick. Um, where does Hercules,
• 1:07:47
  where does Hercules fit into all this? Hercules
• 1:07:51
  is the son of Zeus and he comes in later and
• 1:07:54
  he doesn't eat anyone or chop them into pieces.
• 1:07:57
  He just goes off and does his labors and questing
• 1:07:59
  and stuff. This is long, long after all of that.
• 1:08:02
  So this is why it was safe enough to do a Disney
• 1:08:04
  movie about him? Yeah. Although, let's just say,
• 1:08:09
  let's just say they left a lot out. Oh, what
• 1:08:13
  did they leave out that was not so Disney friendly?
• 1:08:18
  Well, you've got the whole thing with Hercules'
• 1:08:22
  mother. Which one was she? I know that Hera killed
• 1:08:25
  her. Because Hera is Zeus' wife and the goddess
• 1:08:28
  of marriage and his sister who helped him kill
• 1:08:31
  their dad after they were both eaten. They weren't
• 1:08:33
  both eaten, just she was. So yeah, Hera keeps
• 1:08:36
  trying to kill. She kills his mom. She keeps
• 1:08:39
  trying to kill him. I'm sure there were more
• 1:08:41
  gory details in Hercules' story. Most of it's
• 1:08:44
  just very visceral. He does have to, he does
• 1:08:47
  rape the queen of the Amazon as one of his labors.
• 1:08:51
  Does that count? She's like sworn to be a virgin
• 1:08:53
  forever and lead the Amazons and he rapes her.
• 1:08:58
  Okay. So, so, so rape and children eating tells
• 1:09:01
  me that the Greek gods weren't exactly, uh, the,
• 1:09:04
  the, the picture of perfection. No, no, no, no.
• 1:09:08
  They were more of a, they were more of like a
• 1:09:10
  reflection of humanity. Like humanity, like super
• 1:09:14
  -sized. How did you gain this education Sophia?
• 1:09:16
  Like do you just like read these big giant books
• 1:09:19
  called The History of the Greek Gods? Do you
• 1:09:20
  learn this in school? Like how do you learn all
• 1:09:22
  this? big books. I've read a lot of big books.
• 1:09:27
  Yeah, I was a pretty voracious reader as a kid
• 1:09:30
  and my mom encouraged it. I had like, you know,
• 1:09:33
  big old like encyclopedias and books full of
• 1:09:36
  Greek myths and then I'd go online and find more
• 1:09:39
  Greek myths and oh this is an obscure one and
• 1:09:42
  then there would be communities of people talking
• 1:09:44
  about them and so you kind of like just keep
• 1:09:47
  acquiring. acquiring the knowledge over time.
• 1:09:53
  And Percy Jackson, I know my brother was definitely
• 1:09:56
  into the books growing up. How does that all
• 1:09:58
  relate to Greek mythology? Oh, so that is like,
• 1:10:02
  so it wasn't my like intro point, but it definitely
• 1:10:05
  like fueled the fire. fueled the passion. So
• 1:10:08
  Percy Jackson was this incredibly popular teen
• 1:10:11
  kids and teens books and it's about this son
• 1:10:15
  of about the children of the Greek gods in modern
• 1:10:18
  times going on adventures. So they're like these
• 1:10:21
  little 13 year olds and I'm the son of Poseidon
• 1:10:23
  and I can control the water and I'm but they
• 1:10:27
  are written by a person who is obsessed with
• 1:10:31
  Greek mythology and is a very good writer. So
• 1:10:35
  they get really into the more obscure myths and
• 1:10:40
  it gets really interesting and fun and they get
• 1:10:43
  a lot of really cool adventures out of it. And
• 1:10:46
  it feels very true to the original myths in a
• 1:10:48
  way, which is fun. It's a real love letter. Yeah,
• 1:10:52
  there were books. I remember they became movies
• 1:10:54
  for a little while. Oh God. It seems like you're
• 1:10:59
  not a fan of the movies. No. No. They made a
• 1:11:02
  new series, though, and apparently it's much
• 1:11:04
  better. I've watched a bit of it with my little
• 1:11:06
  brother, because he's a Percy Jackson fan. Yeah.
• 1:11:08
  And he liked it. Why don't you like the movies?
• 1:11:10
  They're so inaccurate. Oh my god. They changed
• 1:11:14
  the entire bloody story. They changed it so that
• 1:11:17
  they're hunting for bloody pearls. No, they just
• 1:11:21
  took the characters' names, and they wrote their
• 1:11:25
  own book. They wrote their own story and they
• 1:11:28
  vaguely set it around Greek gods. The monsters
• 1:11:31
  don't even do what the monsters are supposed
• 1:11:33
  to do. It's, it's, it's a hot mess. There's like,
• 1:11:37
  the characters are aged way up. It's no. All
• 1:11:40
  right. It's inaccurate, poorly, poorly done.
• 1:11:45
  Last question for you. Delicious event that's
• 1:11:48
  happened in your life lately. Any positive thing
• 1:11:50
  in your world that you would like to share? The
• 1:11:52
  Rhinoceros Green Broom Crochet Club. We met for
• 1:11:57
  the first time like since it's uh, since we've
• 1:11:59
  been like been getting together and crocheting
• 1:12:02
  in the green room. We were teaching Ian how to
• 1:12:04
  crochet. So me, Max, who was RMSM for Rhinoceros,
• 1:12:07
  and Ian were all crocheting and chatting about
• 1:12:10
  theater in the green room. We decided to do that
• 1:12:12
  again and we went to this, we went to Muddy Waters
• 1:12:14
  and we got their vegan chili and we crocheted
• 1:12:17
  and chatted and it was so much fun and we're
• 1:12:20
  gonna do it again and if you want to come crochet
• 1:12:23
  and are you about an hour away or if you know
• 1:12:25
  any other theater people who want to come crochet
• 1:12:27
  and eat chili come join us. I would love to.
• 1:12:32
  Ian actually also talked about crocheting on
• 1:12:34
  the episode that we did together. I saw that.
• 1:12:37
  I watched that episode. Oh, thank you. Thank
• 1:12:39
  you. I appreciate it. Yeah, he was a good time
• 1:12:40
  or they were a good time. Uh, so, uh, I need
• 1:12:46
  patience from all of you because as you know,
• 1:12:50
  my wife will send me TikToks like, Oh, Hey, here's
• 1:12:53
  another person who also gets frightened when
• 1:12:55
  someone explains instructions to a new game in
• 1:12:58
  a group setting. Like I'm that person. Like I'm
• 1:13:00
  that person, like if it's a new task and I'm
• 1:13:04
  in front of a bunch of people that either know
• 1:13:05
  the task or can pick up the task pretty quickly.
• 1:13:08
  I'm the person that's just like, I, I, I'm so
• 1:13:10
  slow. I don't know what I'm doing. So fair though,
• 1:13:15
  so real. No, it's so low -pressure. It's so just
• 1:13:19
  sweet and non -pressure -y and Yeah, Ian's just
• 1:13:23
  getting started and they're already they just
• 1:13:26
  took off. They were like showing off these different
• 1:13:28
  little guys They made last time I saw them. They
• 1:13:31
  were just like making chains It's it's really
• 1:13:34
  fun. Wait, wait, wait, wait crochet chains to
• 1:13:36
  arrest people with no no like like like Like
• 1:13:42
  just like a chain like just like One of these
• 1:13:46
  guys like back and forth just a string Okay,
• 1:13:49
  so if you guys are watching on Spotify and YouTube,
• 1:13:50
  you'll see what Sophia is talking about Yeah,
• 1:13:55
  you know, Corsheng, you're recommending it. Ian
• 1:13:58
  is recommending it. It seems like a nice, relaxing,
• 1:14:02
  therapeutic activity. It also seems very much
• 1:14:04
  like a social group activity. So yeah, you two
• 1:14:08
  and Max, as you mentioned, are assistant stage
• 1:14:10
  manager for Rhinoceros. I love that all of you
• 1:14:13
  are getting into that. I love even more, Sophia,
• 1:14:17
  that you took the time to be on this episode.
• 1:14:21
  And thank you for, you know, not only - uh, being
• 1:14:26
  late, but being beautifully, beautifully late
• 1:14:28
  in that we had something to talk about. Uh, and
• 1:14:32
  thank you for the sweat. Cause literally you
• 1:14:34
  were sweating on the way here and you had to
• 1:14:36
  take some time to wipe off the sweat and, and
• 1:14:38
  put in the work here. And you really did. So
• 1:14:40
  thank you for your, your late sweat theater acting,
• 1:14:44
  stage managing, uh, good times. Thanks for being
• 1:14:50
  late and sweaty. Get out of here. How can people
• 1:14:56
  follow you and what you're doing? Tell us everything.
• 1:15:00
  Yeah, I'm on Instagram. I'm at Saw Famous Bee.
• 1:15:05
  I'm also on IMDB. So you can check out my work
• 1:15:09
  there. My upcoming, currently I've got one film
• 1:15:12
  in like the Festival Circuit. We've got OVAX.
• 1:15:15
  It's phenomenal. O -V -A -X -X. And Patchwork
• 1:15:20
  is an upcoming documentary by John Schleck, which
• 1:15:23
  will be on the more details on the Infine Efficient
• 1:15:25
  website. Now, do you mind spelling your social
• 1:15:28
  media handle and your name just so people know
• 1:15:30
  where to find you? Yes. So... Sophia is S -A
• 1:15:35
  -F -I -Y -A and Jamali J -A -M -A -L -I. My Instagram,
• 1:15:44
  Safi Miss B, S -A -F -I -M -I -S -S -B. Love
• 1:15:51
  it! Yay. Go follow what Sophia is doing. She's
• 1:15:54
  wonderful. As always, listen, watch whatever,
• 1:15:57
  consume the delicious culture wherever you get
• 1:15:59
  your podcasts, YouTube, Apple, Spotify, iHeart,
• 1:16:01
  SiriusXM, Amazon, et cetera, wherever. Leave
• 1:16:04
  us a five -star rating on Spotify if you like
• 1:16:05
  us and leave us a written review on Apple podcasts
• 1:16:08
  if you like us there. Email thedeliciouscultureatgmail
• 1:16:11
  .com with any feedback and follow us on Instagram
• 1:16:15
  and TikTok at The Delicious Culture. There are
• 1:16:17
  two YouTube channels to my knowledge associated
• 1:16:20
  with this podcast. One is where the full episodes
• 1:16:22
  will be seen at the Delicious Culture, John Francois,
• 1:16:26
  J -O -N -F -R -A -N -C -O -I -S. And the other
• 1:16:29
  one is for shorter clips of the podcast at John
• 1:16:32
  Francois clips. So check us out there. That would
• 1:16:35
  be much appreciated. Sophia, we got to do this
• 1:16:38
  again. This was great. This was so much fun.
• 1:16:40
  Thank you for having me on. It was a blast. Yes.
• 1:16:44
  And for all of you listening and watching, let
• 1:16:46
  deliciousness ring.