THE KITE RUNNER Arizona Theatre Company Play Guide 1
THE KITE RUNNER Arizona Theatre Company Play Guide 1
THE KITE RUNNER Arizona Theatre Company Play Guide 1
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<strong>THE</strong> <strong>KITE</strong> <strong>RUNNER</strong><br />
GHILZAI<br />
UNDERSTANDING AFGHANISTAN:<br />
A Conversation with the Cultural Consultant<br />
Literary Manager Jenny Bazzell recently spoke with Humaira Ghilzai, who serves as<br />
the Cultural Consultant on ATC’s upcoming production of The Kite Runner. Ms. Ghilzai<br />
served in the same capacity for the play’s world premiere production last season at San<br />
Jose Repertory <strong>Theatre</strong>. Read on to find out Humaira’s perceptions of working on The<br />
Kite Runner as well as her views on what Afghan-Americans immigrants face in their<br />
transition to life in the United States.<br />
Jenny Bazzell: Tell me about your role in the production. What does a cultural<br />
consultant do<br />
Rinabeth Apostol and Barzin Akhavan in<br />
The Kite Runner. Photo by Kevin Berne.<br />
Humaira Ghilzai: The role of the<br />
cultural consultant is a very fluid one.<br />
Not many directors and playwrights<br />
get to work with one so together we<br />
determined what should be covered.<br />
My main focus was to make sure<br />
that the Afghan culture, traditions,<br />
language (which is called Dari) as<br />
well as the historical perspective of<br />
the play is being correctly portrayed<br />
and reflected. I had the pleasure<br />
of working with so many different<br />
components and phases of the play.<br />
For instance, I worked with Matthew<br />
Spangler, the playwright, on rewriting<br />
a couple of scenes, with David Ira Goldstein, the director, with Kish Finnegan on the<br />
costumes and with the actors. Specifically, there is a wedding scene that I was very<br />
involved in. David even let me produce that part of the play so I told him that I want full<br />
credit for that [laughs]. And I also worked along with the marketing and outreach team<br />
when I was working with San Jose Rep in promoting the play. So I think that my main<br />
role was to make sure the Afghan culture and traditions were presented in a positive and<br />
rich way in the production.<br />
JB: What is the greatest challenge in presenting Afghan culture to an American audience<br />
HG: I think the biggest challenge is breaking a lot of the perceptions that not only just<br />
Americans, but the West has of Afghans. They’ve only seen what is shown in the media,<br />
which are the Taliban and the Afghan children and families in villages, which always<br />
makes for a nice caption on a photograph. But there was and is still a very rich culture<br />
<strong>Arizona</strong> <strong>Theatre</strong> <strong>Company</strong> <strong>Play</strong> <strong>Guide</strong> 29