Today we’d like to introduce you to Rohina Malik.
Thanks for sharing your story with us Rohina. So, let’s start at the beginning and we can move on from there.
I was born and raised in London, England, the daughter of Pakistani immigrants. When I was 15 years old, my family decided to leave London and move to Chicago. It was in my high school theater class that I discovered that I was a playwright. I tend to write plays about the American Muslim experience, which is something we rarely see on the American stage. As for Television and Film, Muslims are often portrayed in a stereotypical manner. In my plays, I try to share my experience of the Muslim world that I grew up in and know in a very deep way.
My first production was at the 16th Street Theater, it was my solo play Unveiled, directed by Ann Filmer. The play received critical acclaim and now tours in cities across America. In 2010 I received my first commission from The Goodman theatre, and the opportunity to develop it in a one-year residency called the Playwright’s Unit. I wrote a play called The Mecca tales. Once my residency at The Goodman ended, I became a resident playwright at Chicago Dramatists, where I wrote and developed Yasmina’s necklace. Both The Mecca Tales and Yasmina’s Necklace were nominated for a Joseph Jefferson Award for Best New Play. Yasmina’s Necklace was produced by the 16th Street Theater and then received a second production in Chicago at the Goodman, it was a dream come true.
Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
The biggest obstacles I faced as a writer, was finding a home for my plays. It is 99% rejection, but you need to hang in there and fight for that one percent.
I’ve learned that a career in the Arts is a very long road, and you need grit. Without grit, you will never stand a chance in this industry. You have to fight for your Art, and think outside the box. I learned early on that nobody is going to hand me anything in life, so, I organized readings of my plays, on my own dime, invited industry. Sometimes industry does not show up, eventually, they do, and your work begins to get noticed. Grit, it’s all about grit.
Alright – so let’s talk business. Tell us about Playwright and Solo Artist. – What should we know?
Over the last ten years, my plays have had 15 productions across the United States. My play Unveiled went to South Africa and in the fall it will be presented in Switzerland. I’ve been invited to Churches, Synagogues, Mosques, Universities and high schools, to perform Unveiled at talk about Anti-Muslim bias and hate. I have experienced how Art can address social problems and make a huge difference.
Often with our television shows and with our films, roles that are written about Muslims are often written by people who are not Muslim and can often really fall into stereotype, which is so problematic and I’m concerned to see Muslims so frequently represented as the villain, the terrorist, somebody who’s plotting something evil. Rarely do we see Muslims as normal human beings and that’s so dangerous. When I was writing Unveiled, I did a lot of research on hate crime and what I found was hate crime never begins with the weapon, the gun, the knife, the bat. It begins with an atmosphere of negative stereotyping and degrading language and when those two things are left unchallenged, the result can be a murder. And I find that so frightening so when we are bombarded by images of Muslims in this stereotypical way. I hope my plays have made a positive difference.
Any shoutouts? Who else deserves credit in this story – who has played a meaningful role?
Ann Filmer is the Artistic Director of the 16th Street Theater. I love this woman. When I had no resume, so took a chance on me, and gave me my first production of Unveiled. She beautifully directed Yasmina’s Necklace at 16th Street Theater and the Goodman, she understands my writing and is one of my best collaborators. Chicago Dramatists gave me an artistic home, and every play I have written has come out of my time at CD. Crossroads Theater in NJ and Voyage Theater Company in NYC have become my East coast artistic homes. They co-produced The Mecca Tales, directed by Kareem Fahmy, and the production was gorgeous. I get goosebumps just thinking about October 2017. Yasmina’s necklace was up at The Goodman, and The Mecca Tales was running at the Sheen center black box, it was one of the best moments of my life.
Contact Info:
- Website: rohinamalik.weebly.com
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