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Towards a Rich Theater?

Ghost Players’ married artistic directors debate the merits of wealth, and ethnic diversity
By Ashley Steed

Vivi Thai as Desdemona (all photos courtesy Ghost Players)

What would you do if someone said you couldn’t play certain roles because you had a thick accent? Start your own company to prove them wrong is one response. That’s exactly what Japanese actor Ko Zushi and his American wife (and director) Stephanie Alkazian Zushi did. (Alkazian is of Armenian-Russian descent).

The pair started Ghost Players Theatre Company in 2009 after graduating from California State University, Northridge. Originally from Miyazaki, Japan, Zushi was studying engineering and physics when he decided to move to LA nine years ago to study film. He took an acting class and something clicked. “I just couldn’t stop,” he says. “I always wanted to study acting but there is no [acting] major in [my town in] Japan,” says the 30-year-old.

Unlike Zushi, Alkazian has a mother who is a stage director, so she was brought up in the theater. “It’s the only thing I know,” laughs the 28-year-old. “I was on her hip [during rehearsals].”

The pair is among a flurry of spouses/partners running theaters in the LA area – such as their mentors David Melville and Melissa Chalsma at Independent Shakespeare Company; Geoff Elliott and Julia Rodriguez-Elliott at Pasadena’s A Noise Within; Charles Duncombe and Frederique Michel at Santa Monica’s City Garage; and Lissa Reynolds and James Reynolds at South Pasadena’s Fremont Centre Theatre. Like the Zushis, The Reynolds are a mixed-race couple (he’s black, she’s Caucasian). This certainly informs the kinds of productions performed at the Fremont, just as the racial diversity in leadership has trickled into casting choices made in Ghost Players’ latest production, Othello Revisited. (See Bill Raden’s Stage Raw review.)

Zushi and Alkazian have differing views on matters of principle, ranging from how to edit a Shakespearian text to the best financial model for their theater. So far their dialectic has resulted in an intriguing fusion of ideas, but not without its tensions.

The relatively new company has been growing slowly over the past five years, with their previous two shows (12 Angry Men and Closer) receiving “GO’s” from LA Weekly. “We’ve chosen very carefully the plays,” explains Alkazian. “And so far LA Weekly has liked it.”

They decided to set Othello in a post-apocalyptic world. Alkazian is directing the production, Zushi plays Iago.

Before rehearsals began, they were deep into cutting and re-writing, to modernize parts of the play. The process was “argumentative,” reveals Alkazian.

Ko Zushi as Iago

“We don’t get into normal marriage fights, we get into analytical fights over text.”

She admits that editing the play has been difficult, because with the loss of words comes the loss of images. So they’ve snipped some of the redundant imagery in order to have Iago and Othello getting to the point more efficiently.

Explains Alkazian, “We’ve played around with cutting and adding things back in, then maybe taking it out again. What we’ve discovered with this version of the story that we’ve created is that the audience actually understands the story better and understands what the characters’ motivations are. For instance, with Roderigo, the audience will sympathize with him more. I found myself saying, ‘He’s the true hero, he’s the one who’s really in love with Desdemona.’”

Michael Tunstill as Othello, with Vivi Thai

“Iago is my dream role,” says Zushi. “It’s such a heavy role and it intimidates me. . . He’s the only famous [Shakespearean] villain that doesn’t die.”

Rather than limiting Iago to being merely a sociopath, Zushi is channeling Iago’s dark wit. He has an understated charisma, thus turning Iago into the kind of guy you love to hate.

Joining us at the interview and making it difficult to concentrate is the couple’s one-year-old daughter, Kiki. She, like her mother, is being brought up in the theater. “The cast loves it when she’s at rehearsals,” says Alkazian, as Kiki sits on Zushi’s lap. Alkazian adds, “The assistant stage manager also gets to serve as a babysitter.”

“It’s really hard to be mom and director at the same time,” she confesses. Alkazian likes raising their daughter within the company. “It gives children something extra.” At least that’s how it was for her growing up in the theater. She says that her daughter’s presence in the room also softens her as a director (for better or for worse).

Racism lies at Othello’s core, and the casting of the production contains racial diversity. Was this done purposefully?

“It’s not intentional,” says Alkazian, “but I tend to do that. [Non-traditional casting] started with 12 Angry Men. We had so many women audition, and so I cast them as men.”

Catherine Leong as Emilia, with Zushi and Andrea Judd (Bianca)

Similarly, in Ghost Players’ Othello, Alkazian has changed many of the male characters to women, not uncommon in modern Shakespeare productions, but doing so definitely changes the dynamic of what a woman’s role is in the world of the play. For instance, Emilia is not just Desdemona’s lady-in-waiting, but is instead her bodyguard. Thus, women have more autonomy in this version, but they’re still not on equal footing with the men who undo them.

As for the ethnic diversity, Alkazian says the post-apocalyptic setting opens it up.

“They’re not at war with the Ottoman Turks, they’re at war with the enemy and the enemy is everyone. Everyone is at war with each other,” she explains.

There is still the tendency for singular ethnicities to band together as a “tribe,” which can play well in Othello.

Alkazian agrees, “There’s a lot of distrust among the characters. The diversity helps a lot [to underscore] that.”

Alkazian wants her group of actors to go to extremes in this production. During one rehearsal, she is speaking with actor Monte Van Vleet, who plays Barbantio, about the scene where he reacts to Desdemona marrying Othello. The Caucasian actor himself has a mixed-race daughter; her mother is of Asian descent. Alkazian asks him how he would feel if she brought home someone of a different race and he said, “Well I brought home someone of a different race, so [finding it abhorrent] is a bit of a stretch for me.” She told him “to go to the extreme. The idea of bringing [someone] home [who] is absolutely disgusting to you.”

Othello and Iago

This concept of “the other” is stressed here, and “the other” can be anything — making the diverse casting that much more potent.

The actors playing both Emilia and Desdemona (Catherine Leong and Vivi Thai) are half Asian. “I didn’t intentionally do this,” explains Alkazian, “they both just had great auditions.” This makes for a serendipitous and interesting reading of the play where a half-Asian Emilia is married to a Japanese Iago (thus forming their own tribe). It also adds to the bond between Emilia and Desdemona.

Alkazian laughs, “Another reason why we had to change Turk to ‘enemy,’ is because our Ludovico is Russian-Turk.” She adds, “and I’m Armenian-Russian. So there have been a few jokes in rehearsal about that.”

“It doesn’t really matter if you change [the specific ethnicities],” Zushi jumps in. “As long as there’s alienation and segregation.”

Although it seems the couple make for great artistic partners, their differences in philosophy are apparent, especially when it comes to money and taking the company to the next level.

Zushi fundamentally believes in minimalism, partly as an aesthetic and partly from financial expedience.

“I’m influenced by David Mamet,” he says. Mamet encouraged actors to create their own work. “That’s part of the reason why I don’t know much about getting funds from the city [or grants]. If you want to create something, you just have to pay for it yourself. You’ve just got to do it yourself if you want to create.”

“That’s nice and all but I’d like a budget for my set,” quips Alkazian. “Everything we earn goes to her,” she says, pointing to Kiki, “and to the company.”

“We’re really old fashioned,” explains Zushi as he bounces Kiki on his knee. “If you don’t create something that pleases the audience, even if it’s a tragedy, they won’t come back to see your shows.”

And if they don’t like it? “We welcome people to throw rotten tomatoes.”

“We thought about having a clown sell tomatoes,” remarks Alkazian. Then, with a sigh, she says to her husband, “Budget theater is good and all, but eventually you have to step up to the next level.”

Zushi doesn’t relent, arguing back, “If you can please an audience with a bare stage, you can’t really stand by that [philosophy]. A set should never overpower the performance.” He later adds, “The set and props should exist to support the performance.”

Iago and Emilia

It’s clear that money is a bone of contention for the partnership, with Alkazian wanting to increase funds to build the company, whereas Zushi is less optimistic about finances growing. However, that doesn’t seem to concern him. He firmly believes in a do-it-yourself approach the theater making.

“I think you [as an artist] should always be honest,” he insists. “You stop being honest if you have more money.” The debate is ended there. For now.

What makes Zushi most excited about their production Othello Revisited is the simplicity of the bare stage and of having the relationship between the actors and the audience at the forefront.

“The actors are the ones responsible for everything on stage,” he elaborates. “I’d like for us to keep the work ethic and the focus on the relationship between the actor and audience.” He pauses for a moment, “Theater is a communal art.”

Changing an anonymous quote from real leaders to actors, Zushi states, “Actors should be ordinary people, with extraordinary determination.”

This young duo definitely has determination. Alkazian adds, “We’re not afraid to push it. Theater won’t progress if it’s not pushed.”