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 />
in Afghanistan that not many people know about. We have beautiful traditions and<br />
beautiful clothes and food and language and poetry and art that nobody associates with<br />
Afghanistan. So my role is to bring out all those things in the play which I think Khaled,<br />
the author, has done such a beautiful job with in the book.<br />
JB: Why do you feel that The Kite Runner was such an enormously popular book in the<br />
United States<br />
HG: The book is popular the world over. I was in Europe last year and went to a few<br />
countries and everywhere I turned there was a copy of The Kite Runner in a different<br />
language. I think it’s a story of human beings and it’s a story of a relationship between a<br />
father and son. Also, there is so much power in the story of these two young men who<br />
end up growing up and the difficulties that they face. And, finally, it’s mainly a story of<br />
redemption – we all have done something in our childhood that we feel badly about no<br />
matter what culture we’re from and we wish we could change that. It’s a story that has<br />
elements that we can all relate to, but it just happens to be set in Afghanistan.<br />
JB: So you feel like it’s a popular story worldwide because the thematic elements are so<br />
universal<br />
HG: Absolutely. I think that if this was a traditional Afghan story the protagonist would<br />
have some problems but there would be love and a happy ending. But this is a story of<br />
people with real challenges that has run the common thread through the world. And that’s<br />
what’s so amazing about this global world we live in. We’re all getting to realize that<br />
we’re very much all the same at the core of things.<br />
JB: Tell me about the Afghan community in America. What is the American experience<br />
like for Afghan newcomers and for first-generation Afghan-Americans<br />
HG: There is a large Afghan population in the United States. In the San Francisco Bay Area<br />
actually there are over 50,000 Afghans. There are other large communities in Virginia and<br />
in Queens, New York. So there are places where the populations are concentrated but<br />
there’s a spattering in the middle of the country and also<br />
in Los Angeles and San Diego. It is very fitting that the<br />
book was set in the Fremont area in the East Bay Area,<br />
which is the center of the Afghan community and social<br />
structure. Fremont became that way because there were<br />
some Afghans living there prior to the Russian invasion<br />
(in 1979), and then when the Russians invaded more<br />
people started coming into the United States. It’s natural<br />
for immigrants to want to go somewhere where they know<br />
somebody. So the few families that were there either<br />
became sponsors of people or they just invited people<br />
Little Kabul in Fremont, CA<br />
<strong>Arizona</strong> <strong>Theatre</strong> <strong>Company</strong> <strong>Play</strong> <strong>Guide</strong> 30