Ari'el Stachel's 'Other' Off-Broadway offers introspection and solace
MANHATTAN, New York (WABC) -- Tony-award winner Ari'el Stachel is baring his soul onstage in the Off-Broadway one-man play "Other," telling his life story.
In the 90-minute play running at the Greenwich House Theater, Stachel plays some 40 different characters, and tells the story of his journey through identity, anxiety, and what it means to never quite fit in.
"I named it 'Other' as an invitation," Stachel said. "Anybody who has ever felt like an other - and I think I started to realize that we all do. And so it's kind of a subversive title, because so many of us are very, very specific people with specific stories, specific backgrounds and lineages, and it gets sort of mushed into this category of other."
For Stachel, this is particularly pertinent when it comes to his own "experience of never quite fitting in with the Jewish community, never quite fitting in with the Arab community, and always having to negotiate these changes."
The play opens on the 2018 night he won a Tony for "The Band's Visit."
"I show up and I play a bunch of different partygoers who are celebrating me, interspersed with me having panic attacks in the bathroom until I pass out," Stachel said. "And then I come into the present, and I look at the audience, and I say, 'How many people have anxiety?' And almost everyone does."
It is his vulnerability and honesty that makes "Other" as powerful as it is.
"I felt like it was the greatest service I could offer at this moment in my life, with the skills that I've trained my entire life to develop and the gifts that I've been given," Stachel said.
He referenced the Jewish concept of Tikkun Olam, or fixing the world, explaining that "as actors, we can do things that are really self-serving ... But I do things that really matter to me and that I believe will have an impact."
He continued, describing the impact he feels his work has had so far.
"I found that in taking this risk and being this open about my anxiety, about my identity, it actually freed other people," Stachel said.
He shared that an audience member messaged him recently to share the way the show helped them - exactly what Stachel hopes to accomplish with the play.
"Giving people permission to talk about their mental health challenges or identity challenges, especially for young people, means the world to me," he said.
Stachel reiterated that now, more than ever, he feels his story can demonstrate the importance of unity that his identity represents.
"This is a time that is more divided than ever," Stachel said. "And I believe that we come from a very small community of Yemeni Jews who are living examples of what unity should and could be. We are walking and living bridges."
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