Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Thalia Ranjbar. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Hi Thalia, thanks for joining us today. Can you open up about a risk you’ve taken – what it was like taking that risk, why you took the risk and how it turned out?
When I was in the third year of undergrad, I decided to make a major change in my academic and subsequently professional career. At the time I was enrolled in a Bachelor of Science in the School of Kinesiology and on the path to a career in Sports Medicine. For my entire upbringing I was extremely athletic, excelled in the sciences, and knew this career would please my parents- so it all seemed to make perfect sense. That said, I vividly remember the moment I realized this was not the path for me. I was taking a mandatory English class and noticed it was the first time I found myself really sitting forward and engaged in a class. I found myself looking forward to this class and put notably more effort into those assignments than any of my others. Consequently, I decided to switch my Bachelor of Science to a Bachelor of Arts which allowed me to take more English classes, Theatre Studies, and Dance. Though I still completed my degree in Kinesiology, I also earned a minor in English studies and ultimately ended up applying for graduate school at New York University. To my complete surprise and absolute delight, I was accepted into the “Graduate Musical Theatre Writing Program,” moved to New York, and started my career as a professional artist. While I have a long way to go and always more to learn, I am so glad I took the risk and changed the trajectory of my life.
Thalia, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?
My name is Thalia Ranjbar and I am a Canadian- Persian- Salvadoran theatre artist. I primarily work as a director, choreographer, and librettist but also have a great passion for teaching. As a director I have a special interest in new works, particularly pieces of theatre that centre culture, womanhood, and challenge societal constructs. I find it exciting and necessary to work on theatre that provokes critical thinking and invites audiences to find their own connection to the piece. I believe the best pieces of theatre achieve both.
While I was not an active member of the dance or theatre scene as a child, I was lucky enough to grow up with a mother who filled our home with music and arts. Throughout my high school career I was actually a pretty serious athlete, and it was a career ending injury that diverted my path into the arts full-time. After I underwent reconstructive surgery on my knee, I dealt with a lot of depression and grief for my basketball career. It wasn’t until my best friend, Sarah McMillan, took me under her wing as a dance student when I was able to look at this situation from a different perspective. A lot of the training in my rehab program mirrored strength, flexibility, and stability exercises you would find in a dance class. From this moment on, my relationship to the arts completely shifted. I was already a fan of music/theatre/arts/etc, and was very loosely part of a theatre ensemble, but following my injury I started to invest myself in a more focused and impassioned way. I was also fortunate enough to have a teacher and mentor that took a chance on me and ultimately shaped who I am as an artist. Merlene Samuel- Cephas was the owner and director of an organization called Spotlight Theatre Company, where I tried my hand for the first time as an actress, dancer, teacher, and eventually director and choreographer. As her student, I quickly learned skills of storytelling, performing from a place of authenticity, and to think about the “why?” Why do we tell the stories we do? And why now? She also taught me the importance of creating community and the beauty of bringing people together. Theatre, inherently does these things which is what makes it such an incredible art-form. On a fundamental level it requires skillful collaboration and the merging of many creative minds to achieve the final product. Further, it welcomes in an audience as the final collaborators of the show. The opportunity to meet, learn from, and create with people is one of the things I treasure most about this career.
As a director, I try to make a concerted effort to work in and create spaces full of diverse perspectives and experiences. I want to work on theatre that moves beyond tokenism and ensures that there is specificity and authenticity baked into the DNA of the story. When we are thoughtful about these things, I think it lends itself to a more empathetic and open work space. I believe as a leader one of my strong suits is to create spaces where actors, students, collaborators, etc, feel safe and encouraged to take risks. To play. Offer insights. Then I believe it is the job of a director to focus and guide these ideas into the overall vision of the piece to ultimately craft a coherent and compelling story. I attribute these values to Merlene and watching her lead for so many years. I would say this is one of the things I am most proud of in my work. I hope to continue to apply the lessons she taught and emulate the values she instilled in me.
What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?
As I stated earlier, my athletic career was a massive part of my life for a long time. I spent countless hours in practice, training, playing in tournaments, and when I wasn’t at basketball- I was probably still thinking about it. I had the mind of an athlete and a deeply competitive spirit. While this upbringing taught me a lot of super valuable lessons about work ethic, handling rejection, teamwork, and confidence, it also inevitably breeds a mentality of “eat or be eaten.” And it is no one specific person or coach’s fault, it’s the nature of competitive sport. Everything is in pursuit of a win. A championship. A title. I was told from the time I was extremely young “you have to be so good that a coach will cut his own daughter before letting you go, be the first person to the baseline when the coach calls you in, don’t show weakness.” As athletes we are taught to be tough because it was all about being the best. Being the best means you take home the gold. And that’s what I was after.
All of that said, after I got injured and found myself pursuing the arts, I had to reframe how I looked at pretty much everything. I quickly learned that this highly competitive attitude would not serve me in this world. While there are certainly people who perpetuate this type of mentality in the arts, I found myself surrounded by people who believe there is room for everybody at the table. The idea of “winning and losing” and “being the best” does not actually make sense in the context of something so subjective. Art is about being. It’s about exploration and connection. It’s taking ideas, turning them on their head, and seeing what sticks. These things take time and care and patience. And vulnerability. I remember a conversation I had with Robert Lee, now the Associate Chair of the Graduate Musical Theatre Writing Department, where he told me my sensitive side was what made my writing meaningful. I didn’t have to be “tough” or choke back my tears anymore. He encouraged me to lean into all the things I was feeling, questioning, and curious about. The moment I started to lean into my vulnerability as a person and artist, my writing grew to a new level.
Though it can be hard to combat the internalized ticking time clock that tells us we aren’t “succeeding fast enough”, we have to remember that the idea of beating one another to Broadway is absurd. Though I am grateful for the work ethic and determination I developed as an athlete, when I find my competitive spirit creeping forward again I remember to ask myself why I am an artist. Why do I love theatre? Why do I write? Why do I teach? And I think of my friends, colleagues, and mentors and how they would respond, because I believe I would be hard pressed to find an artist who replies “it’s for the gold medal.”
For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?
For me, it truly comes back to the collaborative nature of the creative work and the collective feeling of pride at the end of a process. Specifically, I feel incredibly grateful for my writing partners and the work we do together. I work the closest with my friend and colleague, Kat Cartusciello, ever since we met in September of 2022. Together we have been writing a musical called “Nima and the Jen” for almost four years (and counting). There is nothing like the feeling of creating this world together, building characters, or bouncing ideas off of one another after the third or fourth cup of cold brew at our favourite coffee shop. We have taken the show apart and put it back together countless times at this point, and though it is not without frustration at times, our joy and passion for the project has never faltered. Every time we reach the end of a new draft, it is absolutely priceless to celebrate in one another’s tireless and painstaking efforts to find just the right words, music, and angle to tell our story.
Also, our process goes beyond the days we are writing words on the page. Kat and I agree that the quality of our work also relies on us going out into the world to see other people’s theatre, travel, and expand our cultural horizons. On a personal level, being able to write this show that is so steeped in Persian culture and exploring that with Kat has been a uniquely rewarding aspect of our partnership. Though Kat is not Persian herself, she has taken immense efforts to educate herself, learn the language, eat Persian food with me, study traditional Persian music, and more. It is not lost on me how lucky I am to have a collaborator that is so willing to go down this path with me, I will forever be grateful to her.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://thaliaranjbar.com
- Instagram: @tranjbar15
Image Credits
Val Nova Photography, J.Zang Photography, Kaylee Larose Photography, Broadway Podcast Network