Kimberly Senior

Tradition vs. Modern World at the La Jolla Playhouse

 La Jolla Playhouse has opened its last production of the 2013-2014 season titled The Who & The What by author, playwright and screenwriter Ayad Akhtar.

The play had its first developmental reading February 2013, during
the Playhouse’s inaugural DNA New Work Series, which entailed a six-week
period of workshop productions and readings of new plays and musicals.
“Yes, that is how this project started. Gabriel Greene, Director of New
Play Development at the Playhouse, is in charge of new work series. It
is this terrific opportunity for work that is in a very early stage to
be heard out loud” explained The Who &  The What director, Kimberly Senior.
San Diego Free Press had a chance to talk to the Chicago based
freelance director, regarding this piece and how it came about, along
with other projects in store for her in the near future. “The Who & The What
was in a very early stage.  We got a full day of rehearsal with
professional actors and had an informal reading that evening where the
public was invited. With that we were able to get some really good
feedback on what was working and what was not,” Senior  explained.

(L-R) Kai Lennox and Bernard White; photo by Kevin Berne.

 The plot revolves around the outspoken and brilliant Zarina, raised
in a conservative Muslim family in Atlanta who routinely clashes with
her traditional father and sister. “It is so important to engage the
audience. It was so wonderful to see that a play that talks about
something very specific manages to feel so universal at the same time.
That reading felt very special.   We knew then that we were on to
something great.”

Despite what audiences may initially think about the plot,  the play
is a comedy. “It is loosely inspired by ‘The Taming of the Shrew’ by
Shakespeare.   The younger daughter wants to marry in the traditional
sense and the oldest daughter is not ready to do so.  The father
conspires to marry off the oldest daughter and that is where the play
begins.”
Zarina, the older sister, has an outlet: her recently completed book
about women and Islam — which threatens to tear her family apart for
good. “The dad creates an online dating profile for her daughter at
‘muslimlove.com’, which is very funny. In one scene, he screens one of
the daughter’s dates at a coffee shop.”

This play will highly resonate with audiences across both California
and Baja California because both places are destinations for people
coming from various places to make a better life for themselves and
their families.  It reflects their desire to maintain their traditions
while adopting new ones where they now reside.

(L-R) Meera Rohit Kumbhani and Monika Jolly in La Jolla Playhouse’s world-premiere of THE WHO & THE WHAT, by Ayad Akhtar, directed by Kimberly Senior, running February 11 – March 9 in the Sheila and Hughes Potiker Theatre; photo by Kevin Berne.

 Senior points out “This also talks about the inter-generational
separation, especially about marriage and courtship. People are
attempting to hold on to traditional values while trying to understand
how to fit in a modern American culture. You can say it about Judaism or
Christianity with their traditions that come from so very long ago,
where there are rules and cultural ideas that come from a time and place
that is not our own. How do we apply them in a world that has internet?
Where people live differently? That is really the question the play is
asking.”

Senior will keep busy after this engagement. She is scheduled to direct the second production of The Who & The What
at the Lincoln Center in New York this spring. In regards to being a
freelance director, she explained that it is a challenging job. “You are
always sort of hustling for the next thing. That is how it works. But I
work a lot with writers as I worked with Ayad. I also have
relationships with theaters. It is a little bit like working paycheck to
paycheck but I have been doing it for twenty years, I have been finding
my rhythm.”
Why should audiences come and see The Who & The What?
Senior explains “It is resonant about our own families and reflective of
our own lives.  It is an entertaining evening at the theater. You leave
with really great questions. You leave with things to think about and
talk about with the people that you love.”