Niv Petel: One Man Show

 In this podcast Adam Robert Lewis talks with Niv Petel, Israeli born actor and voice over artist. Niv has worked extensively in Israel in all mediums. Niv gravitates towards physical theatre and has explored this form in his own one man show. Niv relocated to Britain to train in Musical Theatre to broaden his skillset. Here, he experienced a different industry from his native country. Following this, Niv created a one man show called 'Knock Knock!', a play about the relationship between Mother, Son and War and the conflicts and trials faced within the Israeli culture. ‘Knock Knock!’ has gone on to win critical acclaim and the production has travelled from London, New York, Tel Aviv and beyond. Niv is living proof that actors can and must take risks and create their own opportunities. In a world where many performers now have plenty of time on their hands, why not sit down and create the role you've always wanted.

If you want to find out more about Knock Knock! Visit www.knockknockplay.co.uk

Transcript

spk_0:   0:06
Hi, I'm Adam, Robert Louis and your listening to brewing actors podcast. My chance to talkto actors to hear their stories, what inspired their performances and what decisions or relationships influence their work On today's episode

spk_1:   0:25
as a foreign actor in the UK Aiken definitely say that at some point I had to face the fact that I am not a potential Hamlet or that I'm not a potential local Londoner because I'm not. I am the Arab in the Middle Eastern. I'm the maybe Italian, maybe Spanish, maybe, but then why should we take you? Because we have tons of Spanish and Italians in London. Toe had to face this reality the faster you do that as as a foreign actor, that

spk_0:   0:59
better. My guest today is Neave. Peto is really born actor and voice over artist. Neave gravitates towards physical theatre and has explored this form in his own one man show knock, knock, a play about the relationship between mother son and war on the conflicts and trials faced within the Israeli culture knock knock has gone on to win critical acclaim on the production has traveled from London, New York, Tel Aviv and beyond. Naive is living proof that actors can and must take risks and create their own opportunities. In a world where many performers now have plenty of time on their hands, why not sit down and create the role you've always wanted? So, like any story, way have to start at the very beginning. So

spk_1:   2:03
I was born in Israel in a city called Rishon Letzion, which is in the middle of Israel in the center of Israel. My parents, my dad, works for the used to work for the Israeli airline El Al. If you heard of this one, he just retired a few months ago and my mother used to work for. She still works for the City Hall off that city

spk_0:   2:29
to be with the a toll theatrical.

spk_1:   2:32
Um, no, not that much. We did go to see a few shows once in a while when I was young, but it wasn't like a big thing in our family. I did get the artsy bit from my parents because my dad is a carpenter in his like that's his hobby. And my mother is a painter. That's her hobby. So this that they would do their arts after work. What

spk_0:   2:57
was school like for you. Were you academic for you? Good at school?

spk_1:   3:02
Yeah, it was quite a geek getting those high getting them high grades. But I always like to put costumes on and to get involved in the school events, get a spot on stage and read something or perform. And when I was about 13 or 14 I've heard about this group of the youth fit theatrical group of the city. And I went and I auditioned and I got in and I just wanted to sing. Basically, I went there because I wanted to sing. And then after a few ah, meetings like a few I don't know classes. They told me Well, you you are an actor, darling. And they gave a lead role in the little production and they moved me up to the group of the older kids. And I was the youngest in the kid in the in the group. And from there onwards, I I knew that I want to be on stage and

spk_0:   3:58
I want to go

spk_1:   3:59
back. Yeah, I got the bug.

spk_0:   4:01
So was not during school.

spk_1:   4:03
That was a 13 14 15. It's like, ah, just before high school.

spk_0:   4:09
What did your parents think when you sort of said that you wanted to maybe be inactive for a living?

spk_1:   4:14
They supported it quite from the beginning, I think I was gonna I was blessed with with my parents being so supportive and like sending me to piano classes and Teoh the sculpt, sculpting classes and ah ah, painting classes and really trying out every any field that I wanted. And they were very supportive. Supportive? When? When I started my little path onto stage.

spk_0:   4:45
What did your sort of peers do? Your friends at school. What are they going to do?

spk_1:   4:50
I was, um I was in ah, special kids class. There was only one in my in my high school for I don't know, gifted if you call, even call it that by gifted. So, like most of my classmates, if not all of them chemists and physicians and mathematicians and programmers there now, like most of them, this is what they do. And I was the only one men to more. I think two other girls who work we're in. Really

spk_0:   5:22
I aren't. Yeah. Is there options to go to a drama school in Israel?

spk_1:   5:30
There is one high school, one high school, which is for the arts. And you can go there right after primary school if you get in and then went once you finish school in high school at the age of around the age of 18 we all have to go to serve in the army. So everyone looks, just stops, whatever they doing. And they go to serve in the army for 23 years. The boys and two years the girls. Did you do that? Yeah. Yeah, I did that.

spk_0:   5:55
That you can't get out to that. You have to. Do we call it the draft?

spk_1:   5:59
Yeah. It's mandatory in Israel. I mean, you could lie. You could say that. You're very religious. You could say that. You're you have, ah, mental issues. You could say you could find your way out of it if you really, really want to. Um, but it's gonna at least in my time it was, um, in the price of being stained. Because later on, if you want to apply for jobs, people will ask you, Did you serve in the army? What

spk_0:   6:24
did you see? Okay. What did you do in the army?

spk_1:   6:28
I was with the, uh um, radio machines teller for tele performance. I don't know if you call that can call up. I was trained to deal with the radio machines and encryptions. I was sitting on the top of a mountain. Ah, in a small base full of radio machines, and I had to take care of them, like Teoh Ah, just the the angles of the anti Nas and to change the channels for the operations that were going on down in the valley to make sure that they can connect with each other.

spk_0:   7:03
So once you left the army, what did you do next?

spk_1:   7:06
I I think pretty straight. After the I finished my service, I went to acting school.

spk_0:   7:13
Did your parents think that maybe you would have enjoyed being in the military?

spk_1:   7:17
Know they knew they knew that I was waiting to finish that I actually wanted to be in an army band, but I was too healthy because they take, you know, you do healthy paper further, you do something else instead of performing on arts in the army. So my parents knew that I was waiting for eager for it. Teoh to finish and pretty much straight after the my service, I went Teoh School of Performing Arts, founded by your, um 11 stain. That's a famous acting school in Israel based in Tel Aviv. I did three years. There

spk_0:   7:50
was difficult to get it.

spk_1:   7:51
Yeah, it was, um, actually, I applied for three other schools. 00 I just remembered I didn't get in in the first round. I didn't get in, and then I got a

spk_0:   8:03
Did you get in?

spk_1:   8:04
I think there was, Ah, tricky, tricky stage in one of the article auditions. There was a tricky exercise they put into this stage. And there's the panel actors who are being auditioned. They're all sitting in the and the audience. It's just a room, and they divided the stage into two. They put one auditioning in one side and the other one on the other side, and they give you like, a minute or two, and they call it a focus competition and have toe steal the focus.

spk_0:   8:36
I see where you get it from now.

spk_1:   8:38
And I wasn't good at that. I wasn't good at that. They told me write, They

spk_0:   8:45
taught you well. We weren't very good at the beginning, but you. But she's got better.

spk_1:   8:50
Yeah, and I wasn't so good at that. And then they released me. And then I got a phone call from the man and the principal of the school and he said, Listen, I looked at you. I saw you and I want to give you another chance. Come again, do another round of auditions.

spk_0:   9:06
So the the auditions that you did was it a second audition dance tradition acting audition?

spk_1:   9:11
It was just just acting, just acting and singing a little bit of singing Because musical theater is not the big thing in Israel. There's only one school used to really do it professionally. We will talk about it. We will get to talk about the difference between those interest industries in Israel and and the UK. But either the most closest thing to professional empty has been done. But by only one school in Tel Aviv and I didn't want to go. There s O in my school, they were mainly acting and a little bit of singing. But we did get some ballet classes and some a lot of movement classes, but it wasn't you can you cannot call it. Like dancing and singing per se.

spk_0:   9:50
Why was mainly in acting school? Yeah, And you did it for three years. How did you fund? What's the sort of funding system like in Israel? Do you get public funding, or do you need to pay for it yourself?

spk_1:   10:02
I had to pay for it myself. I worked as a waiter and I used um once you finish the army, you get like, a grand from the country. And I use that for the first year I started using, ah, small scholarships that they give you throughout the year. Like there's a monologue competition or a singing competition or ah ah, you have to go and work with the community. And then in return, the city gives you a few thousands of shekels, and then you you use that.

spk_0:   10:33
Would you fund training? Yeah. So you did the three years

spk_1:   10:39
give three years on already through the during the last year during the one of the last final productions, I was already signed, um, before ah production in ah professional theater and, ah, straight off to school. I started working at the ah Beersheva Theater, which is in the South of Israel and I worked there for, like, a few years. And then I moved to Ah, another theater

spk_0:   11:07
when you graduated from drama school, do you? Is that Is it the same way you really need an agent to get work, or does it work slightly different?

spk_1:   11:21
It is a bit different because for theater, you don't really need an agent for TV and film. You do need an agent. Because the theater, industry, theater industry and Israel is very, very different than in the UK It's smaller. We have only like six theaters like Big theater. It's Repertory theater's. You can call it reputable. Not really. It's semi rep a tree, and the rest of the venues are just hosting shows from those theaters. I see. Okay, Yeah. And once you you get into one of those theaters, um, two of them are really, really repertory per se. There is a company, and you get paid every month, and they do whatever they want with you. But the rest of them you are a freelance, so they can take you for 11 production, and then you can never hear from them again, or after a few months, you'll hear from them again and you will be added to another production. But the main difference is that none of the production in the UK you know, like when a production begins you have ah, a date for the beginning of the rehearsals. I don't know, two months rehearsals or one month and 1/2 and then there's, Ah, three months, three months run or maybe more. And then that's it. It ends in Israel is not the same. That's not the case you do the rehearsals on when the show opens, and then basically it runs forever until as long as the theater can can sell tickets for it. I cannot promise you that that they will sell tickets every night so you don't have a show every night at the beginning of each month, you get ah schedule and the U you're being told OK this month there are five shows or this month or are 15 shows. You

spk_0:   13:11
want to get paid five shows, so you get paid

spk_1:   13:13
for show only per show, and you have to to get other incomes from other shows or from other things that you have to do. Eso you have a

spk_0:   13:24
national here in Israel, right?

spk_1:   13:25
It's Ah, let the title is. Yeah, that's the name of the National Theatre. That's the title that it has been

spk_0:   13:34
a operates differently. Or do they They Is it exactly the same with them that they have a production? It was

spk_1:   13:42
the same. They They used to be a proper repertory theater with a company. But the don't longer they no longer work like this. They have, ah, a few permanent actors. But most of the time for each production, they just bring more freelances ploy them. And then in Tel Aviv, there are four big theaters. Huh? Bheema back Ameri. Ah, Gesher and bake lesson. These are like the four big theaters and ah, you can find yourself working Ah, once from their ones, for them once. For them once for them because

spk_0:   14:18
you're free. What was your job like? What was the production that you did?

spk_1:   14:22
The first production that I did was a comedy like an Israeli comedy, like, uh, local being written by one of the of the theater managers. It was called the office and ah, I don't think it had anything to do with the famous show, but I had, like, a comic role. Ah, lawyer pretending to be Ah, rich old men. Yeah. So that was the first production. And I was It wasn't even like I wasn't in there in the rehearsals. My contract was to go and replace someone. Okay, so I had a few days to a few weeks to I don't know, a few days basically to learn the whole thing from a video and by with the text. And then we had two or three rehearsals just for me. And then that's it. I went on stage.

spk_0:   15:12
You say this sort of theater industry is quite small in Israel. So does that mean that a lot of people in your year never worked?

spk_1:   15:20
Yeah. I think the rash eo is quite the same as in the numbers are smaller, but the Russia is the same. Like, a small percentage of each class will actually work. And, you know, you know what they say The real test is what happens after 10 years. Um, if you still work after 10 years, then you made it. So they say. So they said,

spk_0:   15:42
Did you have a plan in mind of what you wanted to do. Obviously I know that you came to the UK to train, but where you feel fielding offers in other countries,

spk_1:   15:53
I didn't have plans to go to to go abroad. I was actually quite excited about me graduating and being ah, wooed by theaters and getting another role in another role on at the same time. You know, while doing the these performances in the evenings, I would do a lot of voiceovers in studios Hebrew voiceovers for films. And I would do a lot of shows for kids in the mornings. Like my schedule was very, very full, like I had this excel table on my on my computer and each show was in a different color, and it was like a whole mixture of of colors because, as I said, you have to combine your month from a lot of different shows because none of them can promise you a full and yeah, so my schedule was, ah, very colorful, and I was very blessed and lucky. But then I I think what happened is that I want to do some more singing and I want to to be expressed in a more in bigger and bigger productions. And I felt like the last two productions that was involved in were quite, ah, shallow, uh, saloon dramas. You could call them like that. Ah, and I really wanted to do maybe classic or maybe a musical or, ah, to be able to be expressed to to express my my talents because I thought I could give more.

spk_0:   17:24
How did you get into voiceover work?

spk_1:   17:28
That was a dream of mine, since I was very young. Was lucky to know a girl back then when I was 13 or 14 who used to do that a lot for, ah, famous Ah, um, animated series. And then one day she gave my name to the director and he invited me for an audition, a voice test. Since then, ever since his has been calling me to do stuff into addition for for films, mainly films I did with him.

spk_0:   17:56
So did you have to audition for how to train the dragon,

spk_1:   18:00
the studio, the recording studio in Israel or in any other country? They have to the work under the supervision off Disney or Pixar or DreamWorks. So they suggest the actress the voices that they think might fit to this in that role. And they send the voices to Disney or Pixar or DreamWorks or Sonny or Universal, and they bring them back. The what they think, Yes. Take this one. No, we don't. We don't approve that one.

spk_0:   18:29
So eventually, in Israel, they shortlist the voice actors that they want and they think will be suitable. They submit those tapes to Disney or Pixar or whoever they decide. And then you get booked from there.

spk_1:   18:41
Yeah, And when I did how to train your dragon, it was, Ah, a magical match

spk_0:   18:47
without your first big movie coving.

spk_1:   18:49
Yeah, it was the first big was one before that the Chihuahua goes to Hollywood, I don't know some Maria silly family of this knee. And I was I had a small role there. But how to train your dragon was the big the first big lead role that I did, um, in voice over. It was an amazing experience. This film really touched me, you know, Moved me. I was connected to it in so many ways.

spk_0:   19:14
Different you obviously. When they originally designed and record the film how to train your dragon, they get an actor in that they have chosen to represent their character. And then, obviously they probably go through many, many different takes of how he wants to say a line or Andi. Essentially, how we puts the character together sort of coming in is Ah, as a dubbing voice over actor specifically told to keep to the sort of structure of how it's said or you allowed to put your own interpretation on it.

spk_1:   19:49
It's a very unique, um, profession, I think dubbing, you know, not being the original voice because you are you are, ah, limited by the Internation and the tone of voice quality of voice off the original actor you have to do You have to be like a parrot like like a You have to really imitate it. But at the same time, there is freedom to bring your own spirit to it because it's a different language. So especially in Hebrew, which is so opposite to English, so the intonation will never sound the saying. You have to gray area of freedom in which you can pour your soul into it. So it's ah, it's a delicate game between being exactly as the original and finding how how can you bring yourself into it.

spk_0:   20:38
So how Maney takes, do you do per line or per sentence? Roughly, You know,

spk_1:   20:43
depending on the director, directors are like, OK, let's just record it's and blah, blah, blah line. Let's finish it. And the director that I was, I'm working with. He's his very passionate about finding performance of deliverance off the line, and also he's very much into finding the right the actual words in Hebrew that will look like the lips. The lip sing in English, which is, I see close to impossible, and a lot of times you have to find other words who might sound like and look like and use the same continents, and you don't want to lose the content. So you have to 3000 years. So, uh, work. And he is good at that. So we used to spend like hours and hours. But then the the outcome is, I think, what what he's telling me all the time is that when you want to go to the cinema and watch a film ah dubbed into Hebrew and you forget that it's dubbed into Hebrew

spk_0:   21:44
is when you've done your job

spk_1:   21:45
is when you've done the job. Yeah, so I learned a lot from him. And that's why I think later on, like I did the first how to train drug in the 2nd 1 And in the 3rd 1 I also translated it. And now I'm gonna hopefully begin. Ah three d character animation course with one of the animators off. Pick up from

spk_0:   22:06
dream Warming's Have you voiced any original current is in Hebrew.

spk_1:   22:11
There are there is, ah, a Siris for, like education TV, which is an original Siri's. I got one of the one of the characters there obviously, so much a different experience because you don't see the video, you see ah, storyboard. And sometimes you don't even see anything. You just have a picture of the character and text saying, explaining what the episode is about and then your lines, and you have to make it up.

spk_0:   22:43
A May animated later.

spk_1:   22:44
Yeah, it's a very different experience.

spk_0:   22:46
Obviously, After your first theater job, you did a couple of other sort of straight theatre pieces in Israel. When was the crossroads for you to sort of decide that you wanted to experience bigger productions, maybe musicals? Why did you decide to come to the UK and retrain.

spk_1:   23:01
I knew that, knowing myself, I know that I work best. I met my best when I'm inside some kind of ah, of formal. How are Ah, I'm good. I'm good at being student a student, I guess. And I think that I wanted for myself a program, especially because it's gonna be in a new country with a foreign language. I knew I wanted for myself to be inside of a program that will help me to adjust and to acquire new skills and to familiarize myself with the local industry something That's why I was looking for to study

spk_0:   23:42
you. Never. There was never an option for you just to come to the UK and hope that your CV would translate into, obviously, the the industry that we have here.

spk_1:   23:52
There's a friend of mine who did that. He never trained, narrowing not in Israel nor in the UK, and he succeeded very, very much, and he did a few shows in the West then. But I felt that this is not the case with me, cause I wanted to to get Cem professional training and singing and in movement I really wanted to learn more simply, and I was looking for programs in New York, in Paris and in London, and the only place that I found ah, short programs like one or two years was London.

spk_0:   24:27
Oh,

spk_1:   24:27
and I auditioned for a few and ah got into to Central School for speech and drama, and one was in Mountain View. And I decided to go with why, Because by then I knew that the program that I wanted to take was an empty program and

spk_0:   24:49
which is obviously, I'm sure people know what MT is, but it's musical theater, musical

spk_1:   24:54
theater program and by asking people around people who studied there and there by looking at the at the website of the of the theater and reading the curriculum and asking some advice from other people and also the feeling, you know, when I stepped into Mount you, I got this inner voice telling me that this is where I should be

spk_0:   25:20
Glad you got it. I think I had any Intel voice for me about Get out now, Runner. What was the process like leaving Israel? I'm coming over to the UK So did you have to do an audition at man for you? Or did you do a sort of self tape?

spk_1:   25:45
The first round I had to fly over and do. In addition. I mean, I chose to do that. I wanted him to see me, and I wanted to feel the place to see if this inner voice is gonna tell me something. And eso I did the first round. And then when I was when I got the second call, I did it on a video. Like I recorded myself and sent it

spk_0:   26:06
on what they are. Did you do

spk_1:   26:08
two monologues and two songs? Contrasting. Contrasting. Yeah.

spk_0:   26:13
And what did you sing?

spk_1:   26:16
Uh, e ah. I sang, um, confrontation from Jekyll and Hyde. Yeah, and I sang ah from Pippen, uh, corner in the sky.

spk_0:   26:32
Very contrasting pieces. Very contrasting pieces on for your active monologues.

spk_1:   26:38
I did, um oh. From Julius Caesar. Men, countrymen,

spk_0:   26:47
friends, Romans, countrymen. Uh, let me or years.

spk_1:   26:52
Yeah, And that was the classic one. And for the comic one. I did. Ah, from a French comedy called The Comeback of Boeri Spillman. It's about this guy who gets split up with with his wife because they had a terrible marriage and you get stuck with his dad. Ah, in ah, prison cell for the night Because they were drunk. And he tells him, how come he and his wife are no longer together? And in this monologue, I was playing both the mother that that, like the wife and the husband and changing characters, which you can tell how I enjoy that. Yeah, of course. We get about some kind of a one man show. It was. And then the next step was to get the money because it's a lot of money. Tick tock

spk_0:   27:41
goes the feedback, Like from your initial audition. Did you get a good vibe? Did you get a sense that you we're going to get off of this space?

spk_1:   27:49
You know what? I don't remember a lot of this day. I was so stressful. Ah, I think I got out with a good you know what? Yeah, I can tell. I can I do remember stuff. I remember that I had a good feeling about my acting. I remember that. I knew that I'm that white. My weaknesses are ah, dancing. And I knew that my singing is okay. Ah, So it was relaying, relying on my acting, and I think eventually that's what they told me later. I think Jackie Summerfield told me later, like at the end of the whole process, that she was very impressed by by my acting and she and even though my singing was in need of work, they decided to give me a spot because this all our

spk_0:   28:35
potential Well, I think I could remember my audition. I was really late to the party because I didn't really want to go to drama school if I was honest. So this was like a really last resort for me at any way. I could remember finish in the final audition. What did you think? So I did. If I can't love her from Disney's Beauty and the Beast and then I did good thing going from merrily we roll along. And then I think I did. Ah, a Welsh Gary O in play for my modern On Di did Iago from Othello. Four. My classic piece s. Anyway, I finished the audition. I couldn't wait to get out of there when, straight to the pub, and then I had this phone call on. It was Jackie Somerville that she basically said, Um, yes. Ah, great voice. Good actor. Ah, but you're you're You're damn sin is, um, bad. So, you know, this is a really you know, you're a gamble, You're a wild card. So at one hand, I was relieved and happy that I got in the flip of that, I thought, I'm now having to come into this process feeling a little bit like an underdog because I didn't realize, You know, I my perception off a drama school is triple threats, people whizzing around. So how was it like raising the money? Because it's not cheap or to a drama school, because there's not a lot of funding available when you do a postgraduate course.

spk_1:   30:11
Not only that, also, as as an international student, your tuition is higher and ah, a lot of ah, scholarships are not open for U. S O. I really had to, and I didn't have ah, a lot of money myself. So really, it was a gamble. Ah, some of my friends told me maybe you should work for two more years and saved them on. You know, I wanted to it next year, and I'm going to do it next year. And so I came up with this brochure. I designed a brochure, which is like a letter from me to potential donors with picked with photos and, you know, telling my story. Ah, how am I connected to to the stage and ah, the about my my scholarships that I got from from the acting school and what I want to achieve and my potential and everything. And I printed out if quite a few of those and I started to knock on, literally knock on doors. Rich people, Israel and ah, Charity fund your Yeah, and fastballs D it is. But I had no choice. And I sent it out to a lot of as much funds and and, um, and potential donors that I could think of, you know, it's, ah, networking job because you have people you can just buy them on the Internet. And then, ah, one day, while I was recording to I think how to train your dragon Yeah, it was in the middle of the session. I got a phone call from this amazing, um, person who just told me, and if I read your for sure and I got some. Ah, recommend recommendations about you from other friends of mine. And I have decided to grant you this in that amount of money. Well, I immediately started crying. Was in the middle of the session with the director for how to train your dragon. And it was the moment when I knew there was a chance I might actually do this. And they didn't give me all the the amount, But it was a fair amount that will help me

spk_0:   32:31
take you if in Yeah. Are you still in contact with that person?

spk_1:   32:36
Yeah, I am. Every now and then. Ah, I send them updates about what I'm up to on. And with this knowing this my parents is said, Okay, now we can go and get a loan for you. So I came together to get to the bank and got alone and together the loan, my savings and this amazing donation. I managed to do it.

spk_0:   33:02
So you moved to the UK on And what was the first day like

spk_1:   33:06
in the beginning was very rough. They're very tough. I felt like, first of all what? I'm listening to it when I'm in a class I'm I'm like two sentences behind the teacher because I'm ceo ah, processing what they said and translating it in my in my in my brain and I used to use a dictionary in my phone or just an actual dictionary or just going to go with I was idea

spk_0:   33:35
assistant u Z stop and

spk_1:   33:37
ask and then theatre route. Don't do that, E. I realized that I have to Just what I

spk_0:   33:46
did love about you through the whole process of being a drama school was the fact that you really took ownership and and I don't know, in a weird way, you kind of made it feel as if and on some cases when you were trying to get as much out of the class that, you know, you weren't afraid to sort of stop the class if you weren't sure you didn't want to sort of get left behind. And I really admire that to be able to go Hang on. I'm confused. You come, you go back a few steps because also, it clarifies it for everybody else. But I did. I admired how you weren't afraid to just go. Now I'm gonna I know. Explain it to me. I don't understand. And also it would use would use up time in the class. So I loved it. I thought if he keeps chatted, this'd great because you're only gonna send minutes left.

spk_1:   34:38
I think there are two sides to this. Ah, behavior one. I think it's because of the I guess I don't know, cultural gaps between the Middle East and Euro and Western Europe on and also maybe the age gap. Because I came nearly as, ah in third when I was 30 years old and I realized that teachers are not God and school is not the only thing. Life and acting is just a profession. And we're doing it for fun and you know, So I I got things into proportion. I think age brings you proportion. So that's their like the thing that there's all these other two attributes that gave me this ah power to that empowered me to raise my hand and stop the class and ask, can you explain that? But there is another side to it, which is, of course, to put the boundary and to know when it's enough and when I need to sit down and get back and try to realize it myself. And slowly by step by step, I found my golden golden path. I had a special permission to bring my phone in and tow. Have ah, a dictionary app open. And sometimes I recorded a class and then listen to it later on. Did

spk_0:   35:52
you enjoy drama school? Was it all you had hoped it would be?

spk_1:   35:56
It was like a dream. This year was like a dream.

spk_0:   36:01
What was the highlights for you being a drum school? I suppose out of the drug which something we're gonna touch on. You created this incredible one man show which you've literally would issue taken on a world tour. When we do the shows at the end of the term, you having to do things which are not in your native language. So, for example, we did guys and dolls which you then after do an American accent. Then we did merrily which again was an American, which is probably I would imagine something that you used to do in.

spk_1:   36:33
I felt more closely. We're more comfortable with this dialect. But then when we did, Violet and I had to do the Southern a collection accent. That was quite a challenge. Let's say with the budge

spk_0:   36:51
that with the highlight, I really struggled through that process. Um, it wasn't I enjoyed it, but it was tough.

spk_1:   37:01
I'm I won't remember. I won't. I won't forget this moment on at rehearsal room when ah, I said this this sentence that you used to laugh with me about the whole says so right on the badge that was supposed to visit. And I said, Yeah, right on the barge and Charlie, restaurant robber director, She was like, Can anyone help him? I e thesis So thing she lost help

spk_0:   37:31
Because I'm terrible corpses. So if something goes wrong, I am literally my shoulders started Gore on every time we would approach that line. Just absolute news. It is still right on the booth. But that was a good show, right? I had such a It was a tough showed I think the the themes in the show sort of hit home a little to me, which is something, you know, I learned a lot about myself, too. In that show. This is about facial scars and or that sort of stuff. But I just thought that whole process was just wonderful. And it was such a great show in terms of showcase in everybody's ability.

spk_1:   38:15
Yeah, Z, it's a masterpiece, I think, like musically and the book and the story and the themes you know, and working with Charlie Western run was thing. We talked about it once that to be in order to be a director in a drama school, you also have to be a good teacher. You have to want to teach while you direct. And I think Charlie Western, uh, was amazing about

spk_0:   38:42
it's a graduation. Gradually, you were you worried about graduating because you said that you kind of enjoy being in educational set up being the student. So were you getting a bit of cold feet? Of

spk_1:   38:57
course I was terrified, cause it's not like in Tel Aviv that the theater's new me and I had, like, I didn't have my colorful excel table ready for hot between to juggle between shows. On the contrary, no one knew me. I'm in a foreign country speaking a foreign language. My accent is very specific, and ah, my looks are very specific.

spk_0:   39:24
But I remember that last few weeks and we did a sort of cast in session where a casting director basically told you what your custom would be. And I think they told me I was going to be a farmer. I e said I was absolutely mortified. And I thought, No, I'm gonna be playing the Phantom. I'm going to be at least in Phantom of the Opera. And she went, No, no, you're going to be a farmer. Ah, dealing with foot in mouth. And I thought, Oh, okay, um so Emma Dale or maybe some Welsh farm thing and I thought were there what has happened? Just spent 15,000 to graduate being a farmer just stayed in wheels and done that.

spk_1:   40:14
Don't forget that Susie Cattle if is casting director remaining for TV and between. And that's where they look for your your pure looks, you know, without putting on any customs and without the 33 30 meters that that separate the audience from the from the stage to me. She said that I'm that I'm a psychopath or a or a doctor or a lawyer.

spk_0:   40:40
What? So did you go without Were you happy with that? Did you think I I wouldn't mind doing those temper characters? Or did you? Were you hoping for something else? That's not to say that you know what she says is right. You know, you can always you know, it's not set in stone, but it give you, ah, realistic idea of what work could be coming your way.

spk_1:   41:02
It touches a very interesting soft spot, I think in in the personality of actors or in the life of actress, because it's always the this, um, this battle between what you think you are and what you actually are or what you would like to be perceived as. And sometimes it takes guts to face reality and to know your weaknesses. And no, you looks and know your strengths. And if you want, you can strive to to Teoh Ah, you know, widen your horizons. But you have to face it. As a foreign actor in the UK Aiken definitely say that at some point I had to face the fact that I am not a potential Hamlet or that I am not a potential ah local Londoner because I'm not. I am the Arab. I'm the Middle Eastern. I'm the main Italian, maybe Spanish, maybe, but then why should we take you? Because we have tons of Spanish and Italians in in London. So I had to face this reality and the the faster you do that as a foreign actor, that better. Because once you realize what's your niche, what's your unique selling point? Yeah, then US parent, your USB, then this is when you start Teoh get jobs.

spk_0:   42:34
We need to sort of talk about knock, knock. Well, you could explain what not know quite

spk_1:   42:39
well. It started, like at Mount View. You have to do Ah, because it was an m a program. You have to do a final project and you have to research about something related to theater. And I've decided that my research has to be beneficial to me in other levels. Other than just ah, dissertation, I chose to research about how to create your own solo show. I wanted to graduate with a job opportunity. I wanted to find my inner voice. I wanted to right to my original piece and to generate work. Basically eso bearing though all those goals in mind, I started this process of this journey to write my own show. Anna rates and books about creative writing and about solo performances. And I went to interview directors and and solo performers and, um, to see shows. And I started looking for my my, uh, themes. But, um, what do I want to write about? And then there was this joke between my friend and I. I was she was dating a guy and I pretended to be this guy's mother on the phone over the phone when I was while I was talking to her to my friend and ah, that's how this character was born, this mother off mother of ah son. And this every time we will talk over the phone, I would improvise a little monologue of this mother, and through time, those monologues accumulated into a whole life story of this character, and she got a name and her son got a name, and and then I realized that this is this is what, ah, what I'm going to write about one day. While I was improvising one of those little monologues off this mother, I realized that I'm improvising a eulogy and to my son that my son died in the army, and that left me emotionally distressed. after this little improvised monologues. And that's the point when I realized that this is it. This is This story has just earned its its right to be told on stage to become a show. And from that point onwards, I would develop those little monologues with the help of my friend and off the two tours amount you and, um I knew that I want to use physical theatre and mine because these air ah, strengths of mine talking about unique selling point and I intertwined them into the into the performance. And I ended up with a 45 minutes presentation for the for the final project that mount you. And it was, ah, success. And then, um ah, I don't I don't remember. How did I get the idea of doing I think it was either you or if you are the friends together that told me that I have to take it outside of of Mount You and I did like a an evening, a performance at the pub, and you designed the first prototype off the off the image. And

spk_0:   45:37
I remember being there because I didn't do an m A. So I was free to watch everybody else. I did sit down on that afternoon and, you know, knock, knock the play. I had no preconceived ideas of notions of what it would be about more how good it would be. But when it finished, I was left. I think everybody in that room felt that this can't just be the resting place for this piece of theater. It needs to go on. But it's incredible to sort of chart the journey of this one man show on this play, which started off it would green in a black box. Then it went to essentially a pub, which just down the road

spk_1:   46:17
and then Camden Camden Theater in Camden, the the Etcetera Theater and then Adam or a festival fringe. Ah, whole run of a whole

spk_0:   46:26
month. So what was the feeling? Just like once you took it to the theater in Camden,

spk_1:   46:31
I got a few ah, four stars reviews, which was quite amazing for a start and with the and I didn't have a lot of I didn't have full houses or anything. Some of the performances were in front of two or three people. 50% of them were my friends So it was a rough run, but I got what I wanted out of this, which were the the reviews, um, I for that. Productive for that run for this run. I was working with a producer later on, when I when we wanted to go to the fringe, he sort of bailed on me and just disappeared. And I had to learn how to produce because I already signed a contract with an Edinburgh venue. But I didn't have a producer, so had to learn how to produce it. It's not only the marketing, it's everything else. You know, the logistics raising funds, making decisions, hiring ah, other artists to to get on board the design, the poster. In

spk_0:   47:36
hindsight, do you think that that was a sort of a blessing in disguise? The fact that probably had you not had the opposite well, had the producer not dropped out on left. You sort of in the lurch to try and pick up this production on your own. Do you think you would have maybe had these success on being able to take it on a world tour?

spk_1:   47:57
It's a beautiful way to to put it as you said Ah, blessing in disguise. Yeah, it was because that's that's what that was when I started to own my one man show. And ah, that's how I had control. From that point onwards, I had control over, you know, the big the next step. Where do I want to take it? Why? Don't want to get what we want to gain out of it. Um, and yep, I would now, like after Edinburgh, Animal was what Adama changed my life. Basically, I went on this one month without ah with barely enough money, and I was just It was just me a suitcase, a few props on contract with the venue. And, um, I was lucky. I was I was just It was just about going out out of the flow of the room that I rented every day putting on putting out the posters, talking to people, pitching it to every possible person that I meet. And then after the first night, um, in the morning after the first night, I read, I woke up to to read a five Stars review That was the beginning of a snowball, because this review brought in more crowd and also more reviewers, and they also gave it five stars, which brought brought more reviewers and more crowds. And at the end, Ah, I was invited to Ah, a ceremony Teoh to be to get the to get an award from the three weeks Ah, Anambra Post. And I didn't know how did they hear about my show? And then I met a woman whom I remembered from the first my first evening in Adam Bro when I was just going around talking to people and I went to this pub and I just put myself inside a into fourth myself into a table with other people that I didn't know and just chatted with him. And I told this woman about this show, and that's how she knew about it, learned about it and came to see it and put it on to to be, um ah, to be nominated and then finally got an award. And from now from there from that point, I started getting bookings from all over the world. Did that

spk_0:   50:16
play itself change from the early days at Mom? Few.

spk_1:   50:21
Yeah, it did change. The main thing that I had to change was adding 15 more minutes at least because it was 45 minutes presentation. And for a festival for a friend show, the minimum is is an hour. Ah, to be accepted for festivals and stuff, you need an hour. So I had to add 15 more minutes. It means to write more scenes and, ah, part of adding more scenes. I did change a few scenes and deleted one and added another one and changed. Ah, the beginning and the end. I kind of, um I played around with it a little tweaked, tweaked it a little bit more on. At some point, I'd stop changing it because it got to a state where it works. Ah, I might have had a few words here or there, Um, but

spk_0:   51:09
that's interesting with this sort of Brandon of the show as well. When you look at the because all shows now, ah, sold on the image, the marketing, it's a you know, it's big business, and it's a big element of any show, play or concert that anybody is gonna put on it. It's interesting when you look at the very early sort of marketing that you did and then obviously when said producer dropped out. You pretty much had carte blanche to do whatever you wanted with it. But interestingly, the image of the show hasn't changed since. It's the same

spk_1:   51:40
yet because, you know, you don't you don't You don't change a winning horse. And at I think you the first drafts of it if the first ah, no evolutionary steps of the image. I was really trying to to get an image that will that will tell parts of the story and stuff like that. You know, we have this thistle lock hole. I

spk_0:   52:02
don't know how long you're

spk_1:   52:03
locked. Yeah, or the keyhole Or a mother and a son Or, you know, the the ta the holes of a great bullet holes. But then you actually pushed as as my graphic designer. You pushed to the direction off putting myself in the image and yeah, making it. Ah, making the image tell about the event as a show as a performance and not so much to be getting down to the detail. What? The show is out,

spk_0:   52:36
e. I think it's very difficult with the poster to try and show all the themes. And I think you hit this sort of first stumbling block that a lot of people, they want to try and pack as much in because they want everybody to know. And I think when we came to do the final poster, it was a way of Let's strip that away. Who are people seeing? They're seeing you. So let's put you on the poster. But then somehow let's change your appearance to fit the themes it's putting you on the poster on, then somehow changing your appearance in certain places to adapt to the story that's going on. And then we had that cool little sort of shadow of you is the Soldier, which tells the story. It's a little bit, sort of absolute is abstract, but as an image, it's very visual and very it's striking

spk_1:   53:26
and and it does, Doc, it does. Um, you know that it does engage with the show because the show itself is mostly abstract. So I think what's strong? I'm looking at it right now because, as you can see it in the camera, it's just behind me on the wall, and I think it tells you most of all it gives you an environment and feeling, and it gives you just a little hint. Ah, clue that this this shadow of a soldier of saluting that's just a clue. A hint. But the main thing is an environment. Um, and a feeling. So that's the strength of it, I think. Did

spk_0:   54:03
you take it straight to New York after a Deborah Orr? Did you? I

spk_1:   54:07
had I had two runs in the West End. I can I can put it.

spk_0:   54:11
Oh, yeah. So she doesn

spk_1:   54:12
t v one. Ah, First of all, after just before Adam bra, I was acting at the production of La Strada, the Western production of Les Strada, which, after a UK tour we directed by Sally Cookson, by the way and ah, after a UK to we had, ah, six weeks run at the the other palace and that's when I got to know, um, people from there

spk_0:   54:40
was a point in the mirrors who,

spk_1:   54:42
exactly both nosy was there to seize his. He was the artistic director of the book of the the other palace, and I suggested, like I asked him if I could get ah, a night or two at down downstairs at the the smaller venue, and he agreed And that was an amazing an opportunity, which then brought me Ah, longer run. The actor sent earthy, Tristin based theater, uh, two weeks running the Tristen based theater. So most of them are very are central, you know, Central London venues on that really helped to put the show up there on, um, add some important lines to the C V of the show.

spk_0:   55:31
So did you after these sort of west and run Did you know about the all about Solo festival

spk_1:   55:38
United Solar Festival? I got to know it from a friend, a New York friend who came to who's living in London now. She came to study at Thesis Entra School of Speech and Drama to do their masters, and she heard about knock, knock about my show when she came to watch it. And then she approached me and she said, How we actually want to do the same. A winner, right? A one woman show I want to meet you want to know how you did it, And, uh, when I get it inspired and we met and I gave her my my my advice and ah, we became friends. And then she told me about the United solo festival. By the way, her show, Giant Animals, Her show is, um, has won a few awards that the number as well, and at the United Solar Festival as well. Anyway, she told me about this festival and I applied. I was a late comer, a light supplier applicants, but I got in. It was a very different experience than the Edinburgh Festival because it's in in Broadway, basically, and you're surrounded by shows which are way, way, way bigger than yours. And it's not like an Ediborah When when the whole city becomes ah Theatre venue for a whole month, it's a city. It's a nonstop city, you know. It's New York and you've got you have, ah, one stage in one venue on the 42nd Street and you have

spk_0:   57:01
already showed You do.

spk_1:   57:02
I did only one night. It wasn't easy to bring audience in, but I got to feel like, ah, about 1/2 half of ah half of ah house and to get a nice four stars review from a New York reviewer, you know, and I got to add this line to the C V and I got and I actually used this week that I was spending in New York to to me make connections and to arrange some meetings into two ah network with with other artists and with other industry people, like directors and producers and, uh, designers and marketing people. And, um so it was an amazing opportunity, and that led me to another Ah, run in the USA. There was supposed to be happening in 20 days, but it's not gonna happen. We postponed it to another to the next year was

spk_0:   58:00
like taking knock, knock back to Israel. You took it to Tel Aviv? Jerusalem?

spk_1:   58:07
Yep. Live in Jerusalem. I knew what I you moved back to Israel after four years in the UK, Um, I knew that I knew that this show wasn't meant for Israelis to watch. It was created for, um, foreign people all over the world, um, to tell them the story of Israel from my point of view and, ah, to make it as universal as possible about mothers and sons and army and conscription and bereavement and and, ah, life. And I was Yeah, I was afraid to take it to Israel because I didn't know how will the audience perceiving there don't forget also, that people don't speak English. In Israel, people mostly speak Hebrew, especially the theater goers, you know, which are old people. They don't speak English, and if they do, it's not enough to watch a show on. I didn't want to translate it into Hebrew, so I did three performances only for English speakers. I managed to find, Ah, nice amount of English speakers in Jerusalem in Tel Aviv, and it thes were three very, um, successful performances that the audience was very welcoming and supportive. But I'm not sure I'm going to do it again because it was a very It's a tough thing to put on a performance in a venue in a rented venue. You have to deal with selling the tickets and with split in the box, and it's ah, it's a real hassle for this one. Our on stage. Ah, I more. I prefer the deals when I when I sell the show to a company when I sell the show with an organization, or when a theater, when I have a deal with a theater for a run longer than one evening, because then for civil there's less pressure on me to sell the tickets. And, um, I feel like it's more beneficial and I enjoy that bear better.

spk_0:   1:0:20
So what's next for knock? Knock?

spk_1:   1:0:22
Yeah, After New York, I been have been to Hong Kong and have been to Turkey and Malta. Turkey was an amazing experience, a unique experience because it's mostly a Muslim country and I'm a Jewish guy from Israel, and it was good. Quite an interesting and two nights, Um, which were amazing. You know, I I I came to know. I don't know if I can describe it to you. How can you understand How can you compare it to something? But as the Jewish Israeli guys standing on the stage when in front of me over 200 you know, Muslim people, you know, ladies with wearing hijabs and everything. And we were able to put everything aside and talk about a universal theme about motherhood and about Children going to war and about peace and about life. And we had this. I always try and strive to make a both show post your discussion after every performance because I think that's part of the thing. Part of the mission of being a solo performer to converse with the audience to see. You know, theater is there to create, to engage ah dia a dialogue to to start a conversation and it's, ah, the best opportunity to do it When, when it's hot just after the event. Um, that was an amazing experience. And then after Turkey, I went to Malta. The next performance is going to be in in ah, the U. S. A. In South Carolina and Michigan. That's gonna be next April.

spk_0:   1:2:00
Obviously. Now we have sort of living the realities of the Corona virus, and I don't know what it's like out there with you, but I kept indoors self isolating, sort of on lock down spending, um not totally enforced eso a lot of theatres up and down the country National Theater. The old Vic, the Royal Court on Output in Viera shows online. Have you thought of doing the same?

spk_1:   1:2:31
I was actually just a few days ago, I was approached by ah website like a theater website, um, theater reviews website and one who suggested who asked me. If I am willing, I'll be willing to put it online to ST to be, too for people to stream it. And my answer was my answer was was, um no, not yet. I'm not ready to do that yet. Ah, that was, like, two weeks ago. And things are changing. Things changed. I don't know. I was still hoping to, you know, because I have those bookings for next year in in the USA and then in Canada as well. A two weeks run in a theatre in Toronto. But now I don't know what's gonna happen. I don't know. I hope it will. In a year from now. I don't know. We'll see about I'm nothing to rush to to put it online. Um, because I know the video and I know the show, and I know that it's more effective when it's live. I would like to add, like if you want to get a message out there to artists who are now listening that, um, I think the message that I'm bringing with knock knock as a foreigner and as as an actor, is to always strive to generate your own job under always tried to create job opportunities for yourself and create create pieces, and especially now, when we roles forced to stay at home and all the theaters are shut. This is the time to do it. Sit down and create something. Open the camera. Open the the computer, take a notebook or stand in front of the mirror. I don't know in whatever way you see fit and create something.