LEWISTON, Maine — Of all the challenges that actors might have to tackle—perfecting accents, memorizing lines, learning how to tango or yodel or fight with swords—perhaps the most daunting is this: landing a job in the first place.
There are far more actors than there are roles for them, and the competition for an opening can be fierce.
When Ahmed Maher learned he would be playing the role of Musa in Lewiston's The Public Theatre production of “Pilgrims Musa & Sheri in the New World," he went, as he puts it, “insane.”
“I was sitting on the Staten Island ferry with my partner when I got the email,” he recalls. “I remember staring at my phone … She was screaming … It was just pure excitement and adrenaline.”
The play, according to The Public Theatre’s website, revolves around “Musa, a sweet-natured immigrant cabdriver and semi-practicing Muslim, and Sheri, a sassy American waitress.”
The two characters have to figure out whether they can have a relationship while navigating the cultural and social differences that push them apart.
Maher, who was born and raised in Egypt, was thrilled to get the role of Musa because he identified so closely with the character.
“It’s special, getting to represent your people in a show like this that is so authentically great,” Maher said. “It feels like a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.”
Want to learn more about this production? Watch our conversation above with Maher and actors Ian Eaton and Laura King-Otazo.