Interview: Ninaad Vaidya And Jennifer Decker of DISGRACED at SHUNYA THEATRE

Disgraced is a Pulitzer Prize-winning play from Ayad Akhtar, and it will be playing at the MATCH from October 2nd through the 11th. SHUNYA THEATRE is presenting this piece and hopes to expand its audience with a play that addresses the universal theme of being an outsider in America. BROADWAY WORLD writer Brett Cullum got to speak to one of its stars, Ninaad Vaidya, as well as the director, Jennifer Decker. 

Brett Cullum: Can you give me an idea of what the story of Disgraced is?

Jennifer Decker: Basically, it's about a man who, after 9/11, hides his identity as a Muslim by changing his name so that he doesn't get discriminated against in his professional life. The story exposes his hiding, and then he has to come to terms with being an American, but a Muslim American. Other characters in the play also struggle with identity in some way. Every character in the play has their own struggle.

Ninaad Vaidya: I would agree with what Jennifer said. All of the characters have their own arc, which is not always the case in plays. Usually, you have only one or two characters that have a real character arc, but in this case, all five characters go through some sort of transformation over the course of the play. It's really well thought out and considered.

Brett Cullum: And who is your character?

Ninaad Vaidya: I play Amir, this Pakistani-American attorney who does what he needs to do to continue to have corporate success, or what he thinks he needs to do. He hides portions of himself or subdues portions of himself or his culture to succeed.

Brett Cullum: Have you ever felt that pressure personally? Has that ever affected you in any way?

Ninaad Vaidya: I think I'm pretty lucky in the sense that my parents immigrated here when I was very, very young from India. Their names are not easy to pronounce. I remember very distinctly one of the first times my dad came back from his engineering job. He was telling my mom the story about how his coworkers wanted to call him Christian. His name starts with a “Ch” and ends with an “n,” but it is not Christian. The name is Chiranthan, which means “eternal soul” in Sanskrit. He said, “No, that is not my name.” That kind of mentality—I remember hearing that as a 6- or 7-year-old. Holding onto your identity, or letting people understand who you really are, even from something as small as a name, was ingrained in me from that age. I absolutely experienced discrimination during the Gulf War here in the U.S. and after 9/11. We are very quick to “other” people when there's some sort of tragedy or strife, when we feel like we can push someone down.

Brett Cullum: The play features so many different identities that it is amazing to me. Who are some of the other characters?

Jennifer Decker: They all have different identities completely. There's a Jewish man, there's Amir, who's American, but his parents were from Pakistan. Then he's got his nephew, who came from Pakistan, and he has a white American wife. His colleague is a Black American woman. Each of the characters has their own specific struggles with identity. Then there's this dinner party scene where everybody starts showing what their real biases are that they've been hiding under civilized, elite-academia kind of behavior. These people who are above that, who are very liberal and above that kind of behavior, all start showing that they actually do have these biases. It only takes the wrong trigger for it to come out.

Brett Cullum: Ninaad, I know you have a long history with Shunya. Could you tell me a little bit about the company and its mission?

Ninaad Vaidya: The troupe started in 2002. I was not involved with the troupe at its inception, but I was actually just talking to the founder yesterday. He is an alumnus of UT Austin and grew up in the suburbs of Houston, much like me. South Asian, Indian, and Pakistani cultural arts are vibrant in those suburban communities, but they are separate from the heart of the arts in Houston, or at least they were 25 years ago. So when the troupe was started, the intent was to bring those South Asian stories into the heart of the city so that the city could experience them more readily. The stories Shunya was telling at that point were about first-generation South Asians. The common immigrant experience: What world do I fit in? Do I fit in the world that my parents came from? How do I fit into America? How do those things work together, or fight each other? And what is my place? Those were the types of stories Shunya was telling 25 years ago.

Brett Cullum: Jennifer, how did you get connected to Shunya?

Jennifer Decker: It was early on in both of our companies' time. I want to say it was 2004 or 2005. I met Sanjay, an actor I was assigned to direct at a festival. That's when I met him, and we just kept in touch. There have been times when I've connected with him, like when I rented him a space I controlled over the years. I guess Shunya took a long hiatus. They were trying to come back right before the pandemic, and then obviously that shut everybody down. Then he came to a show that I directed in the spring, and we talked. He then asked me to direct this. So we've known each other for a long time. We go way back.

Brett Cullum: Jennifer, you are known for founding your own theater company. Does directing Disgraced feel different from a Mildred's Umbrella production for you?

Jennifer Decker: Not really. The plays we do at Mildred's Umbrella are written by women, but we try to pick universal plays that appeal to people. It doesn't have to be only about women. Sometimes there is a play that isn't by a woman that I want to do, and so whenever I get to direct for someone else, I get to explore a different kind of play. But it's a really good script. It's strong. The cast is amazing. Everybody is really good. It's a lot the same. I don't have to do literally everything like I do for Mildred's Umbrella, so that's a different thing. I have done a little bit above and beyond as a director for this on the production side, but that's what it is in a small company. People just have to wear a lot of hats.

Brett Cullum: Ninaad, you had taken a break from acting before this production. Tell me a little bit about how you got into acting and what brought you back to this.

Ninaad Vaidya: Arts were always important in my family, but they were always considered a hobby, which is pretty common for many South Asian families. I started acting when I was maybe 7 years old. I went to an elementary school where the second graders were mentors for the first graders, which was a very weird concept, but I did a one-person performance of Little Red Riding Hood to a group of first graders, and I was hooked. Just seeing the joy in these kids' faces for this story, I got addicted to storytelling from that point. I did theater at my temple, and then in my high school and college as a side thing, until I joined the corporate world and worked in consulting, telecom and software for almost 20 years before I came back to the arts.

Brett Cullum: And you have some ties to film as well?

Ninaad Vaidya: The majority of what I do now is film and TV work. Acting is acting. From that standpoint, it's the same, but the subtlety is different, obviously. There's nothing like a theater production—the camaraderie of working with a cast and with a director and creating the story together. Getting to do it for a full, in our case, two weekends, and for many productions, much longer, is an unmatched experience. I'm just happy to be doing it again.

Brett Cullum: When was the last time you were on stage?

Ninaad Vaidya: The last time I was on stage was 2005.

Brett Cullum: Wow. That's a long break.

Jennifer Decker: He's really good.

Brett Cullum: Going back to Shunya, the group's core mission is to bring South Asian voices to Houston. This show, obviously, is going to connect to a much broader audience.

Ninaad Vaidya: I think this story talks to the broader immigrant experience. A lot of what many people are experiencing now is about identity. What is identity? And what does assimilation mean? Who are we assimilating for? Whose acceptance and approval are we seeking through assimilation? What do we gain or lose through that process? And if we do all of the “right” things and we're still considered other, then what?

Brett Cullum: You're playing somebody of a different background than your own. Did you do any research to get into this mindset?

Ninaad Vaidya: Fortunately, with a Pakistani American and an Indian American, there's a lot of overlap. We look pretty similar, first off. But the challenges of being a Muslim American versus my background, which is Hindu American, are different. Hindus are typically, in American culture, considered less threatening than Muslim Americans. The work that I did was talking to Muslim American friends about their experience and having lived through some of it myself through mistaken identity, of just people not knowing what is what. It wasn't that far of a stretch to play a Pakistani American versus an Indian American.

Brett Cullum: Jennifer, who else is in the cast?

Jennifer Decker: Adina Opalek, who's recently been seen in Winter Solstice at the Rec Room; Christian Tannous, who works all over Houston and has worked with Mildred's Umbrella a couple of times; Caprice Carter, who was recently in The Bluest Eye over at the Ensemble; and Kiram Hamid, who is new to me, but he also does a lot of film.

Brett Cullum: These are like some of my favorite actors working in Houston. It sounds like an exciting new venture for Shunya.

Jennifer Decker: We're trying to branch out a little with the marketing to try to get a more mainstream crowd, because I think their normal demographic tends to be mostly Indian. They're hoping that we can get a more universal crowd to this one. It won a Pulitzer, and the author is coming in and doing a speech engagement.

Ninaad Vaidya: October 5th at the Alley.

Brett Cullum: That's amazing. So, it's Ayad Akhtar, and he's going to be at the Alley on October 5th? This is like an odd serendipity for you.  Well, Disgraced runs at the MATCH Friday, October 2nd, through October 11th. It sounds like it has universal appeal, and it's certainly something I'm very intrigued to see.

Jennifer Decker: This one I didn't pick, but I will tell you, it is an amazing script. The actors are all incredible, and it's an exciting and brutal play. I totally recommend it. I would choose a script like this.

Brett Cullum: Well, you're associated with it, you're directing it, so there you are. I would see it just to see your work. And to see Ninaad come back to acting after 21 years! Well, on the stage anyway. Definitely break legs. I hope it reaches a wide audience, because it definitely sounds like it has universal appeal. Thank you both!  

Ninaad Vaidya: Thank you so much, Brett.