Chutzpah! Festival presents An Evening with Ari'el Stachel, November 9 and 10
Tony and Grammy Award–winning actor shares deeply personal, politically urgent, and darkly funny performance and conversation
SPONSORED POST BY Chutzpah! Festival
Ari’el Stachel. Photo by Gabrielle Mariella
The Chutzpah! Festival hosts An Evening with Ari’el Stachel, an intimate show about identity and resilience, at the Annex on November 9 and 10 at 7:30 pm.
In this original presentation, Tony Award–winning actor Ari’el Stachel draws from the themes and stories that define his critically acclaimed theatrical work. He invites audiences to witness an intimate blend of performance, storytelling, and conversation within the context of rising antisemitism and cultural division.
Throughout the evening, Stachel traces his lifelong struggle with OCD, the pressure to assimilate, and the identity fracture that began in the aftermath of 9/11. As a Middle Eastern Jewish teenager in America, Stachel quickly learned that safety often meant silence. He began hiding his father, denying parts of his heritage, and reshaping himself to fit into a culture that increasingly viewed his identity with suspicion. What began as self-protection became performance—until it all broke.
The piece also reflects on the aftermath of October 7, 2023, confronting the painful complexity of holding both Arab and Jewish identity in a world that increasingly demands division. The result is a deeply personal, politically urgent, and darkly funny exploration of what it means to reclaim wholeness—both onstage and off.
Ari'el Stachel
Audiences may recognize Stachel from the musical The Band’s Visit, television show Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, and Olivia Wilde’s film Don’t Worry Darling (Warner Bros.), as well as from his widely recognized Jewish advocacy work online and beyond.
Stachel was born to a Yemenite Israeli father and an Ashkenazi Jewish mother, raised in California, and trained in New York. After years of success playing roles that often flattened or erased his full identity, he set out to share a story only he could tell with Other.
In the acclaimed solo show, which premiered at Berkeley Repertory Theatre and made its New York debut Off-Broadway in 2025, Stachel merges his theatrical virtuosity with raw personal storytelling. He has performed Other at leading theatres across the U.S. and continues to resonate with diverse audiences.
Tickets to An Evening with Ari’el Stachel are available through the Chutzpah! Festival.
Post sponsored by Chutzpah! Festival.
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