Interview: Ariel Shani of MEAN GIRLS at Theatre Under The Stars

Ariel Shani is part of the cast of MEAN GIRLS coming to the Houston Hobby Center from January 28th through February 9th. The show is a tour that Theatre Under the Stars is bringing in as part of their season. Ariel was raised in Israel and Canada but ended up going to the Tisch School of the Arts in New York City. BROADWAY WORLD writer Brett Cullum got to sit down and talk with this fascinating performer who brings a whole lot of her triple-threat talent to MEAN GIRLS. 

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Brett Cullum: So tell me about being Israeli and Canadian; that is an interesting mix to grow up in!  

Ariel Shani: I was born in Israel and grew up for twenty years in Israel. But my mom and her side of the family are in Canada. So I went back and forth a lot. Then I got into Tisch, and I moved to New York!  

So when I was 1st born, until four or five, when you start kindergarten, we were just going back and forth. We would go to Montreal for high holidays, for winter, break for summer for a longer time. Once I started grade school, it was more like two months. We would go [from Israel] to Montreal for two months, come back for school, and then winter break as well for four or five weeks. Everyone who finishes high school in Israel has to do the army mandatory. 

Brett Cullum: Oh, wow! Oh, my gosh! How did you end up wanting to go to Tisch?

Ariel Shani: I would visit New York with my grandmother and mother. There's no direct flight from Israel to Montreal so we would stop in New York nearly once or twice a year every year, and we would go and see shows. And so I just happened to know that NYU was there. I didn't know anyone that went there, but every time I read the playbills, it would say, like, New York University in their bio. So it was planted in my head, really young. When I graduated, I knew I had two years to think about it. And I wanted to be in New York. As long as I'm in New York, I will at least feel like I've done something. So I applied early decision, and I saved all my vacation days, and I flew to New York for five days, and I auditioned, and I got in. 

Brett Cullum: Now, does Tisch still do this? They are divided into different schools so that you can concentrate on musical theater, drama, or maybe Shakespeare. So you went and did musical theater?

 

Ariel Shani: When I auditioned almost six or seven years ago, they asked me if I only wanted to audition for the musical theater programs. They have eight different studios that they work with. Some of them are their own studios, like Meisner, Atlantic Theater, and Stella Adler, and they have an NYU conservatory attached, or you can audition. Or you could audition for all of them, and THEY will decide where they think you fit best. So I did that one because I just figured they watched me dance. They watched me sing, and they watched me do monologues. 

They decided to put me in Atlantic Theater, which focuses on a Meisner style but isn't exactly Meisner style. It's called “practical aesthetics,” and it's their own acting technique. So, I mean, I was pretty upset at first when I got that and wasn't in musical theater. I only saw myself doing that. But now, in hindsight, I can look back and say that that was probably the right decision because I was already a dancer. I was singing my whole life, and my acting probably needed that push. So I did Atlantic Theater for two years, and then I re-auditioned. I went into the new studio on Broadway from Atlantic Theater for the next 2 years.

Brett Cullum: Okay, I just jumped into your life and academics and have yet to ask about MEAN GIRLS. That's why we're here, and that is why you are here. It is running at the Hobby Center from January 28th through February 9th! So, it was a good long stay here in Houston for MEAN GIRLS. How long have you been on this particular tour?

Ariel Shani: I joined in October. The second year of the tour started in Toronto. They had a month in Toronto, and then they had a break, and I joined during that break. 

Brett Cullum: The break is when they blend new actors in. Is that when you get to learn it? What are you doing in the show? 

Ariel Shani: So I am in the ensemble. I always say I play “Sexy Cow!” That doesn't make sense unless you come to see the show, and then you will see it, and you'll go, “Oh! She’s that!” The character’s name is Caitlin Clawson. We all have names in the ensemble, and then I understudy Janice and all the adult women who one principal actor plays.

Brett Cullum: What is your favorite part of doing MEAN GIRLS?

Ariel Shani: Honestly, the dancing. I have done a lot throughout my career in different styles of dance, and MEAN GIRLS does a really, really great job of having so many different styles of dance that make sense with good music in it. So you get your traditional theater dancing, hip hop, and a little bit more of a “swagger,” kind of like a traditional male dance. You get tap. I get to use all of my tools, whereas I have not been able to do that in previous work. And honestly, the music's just great. There aren't many shows where I can confidently say I love all the music, but I really do love all the music and hearing the band, even during our mic checks. The music is so uplifting immediately.

Brett Cullum: What is the reaction like? What do you notice the audiences are made of? Mostly.

Ariel Shani: Honestly, a lot of teenage girls. A lot of teenage girls in pink come, and it's really endearing, honestly! It also divides up into a lot of teenage girls with their moms. The moms love it, too! Sometimes, teenage girls with their dads, who probably just wanted to take their little girls, end up loving it. 70 to 80% are die-hard MEAN GIRLS fans. Usually, by the end of the first big number, because it starts with Janice and Damien singing a little song that goes straight into our big number where we have a dance by the end of that song, there's like a pretty big reaction, usually, that's like we know where the reactions will be. There's usually a huge reaction when “The Plastics” come out because everybody knows Regina George. It's really exciting when the audience is that excited!

Brett Cullum: You had an unusual academic experience growing up because you were going back and forth between Israel and Canada. Do you get a sense of MEAN GIRLS? Did you have that in your schools? The vicious cliques and such? 

Ariel Shani: Well, yes and no, because when I started, I did grades one through six in an Israeli school. We don't have football cheerleaders! Yet there's always going to be a popular and not popular group situation! There will always be a mean girl. However, I never received the American side of it until I went to an American international school from middle school onward until my senior year. So everything was in English. I had SATS and AP classes. Then, I could pick out the science lab kids, the math kids, the cheerleaders, and the people who play soccer and football. So that's where I saw it more than in Israeli schools. And then definitely in theater school. There are cliques in theater school for college.

Brett Cullum: That is fascinating to me. I mean, theater kids? They are already on the Island of Misfit toys. How do they have cliques? Was it like the kids who could sing versus those who couldn't sing?

Ariel Shani: The dancers, the dancers all stuck together! And then it was like the theater kids that really LOVE theater. And then, surprisingly, there are always the theater kids who don't like musical theater. They don't listen to theater or care about what musicals are out right now and then. It's the kids who are drama-focused and very serious actors. There are little divisions and groups over there, and I would just kind of string along in between them because I loved all of the things.

Brett Cullum: It's great to be well-rounded. I think that if you can do all of it as you said! I'm glad you got to focus on your acting because it sounds like you had a strong base in dance and singing. Obviously, those are your two passions, and then you've got thrown into this. Aside from MEAN GIRLS, do you have a show you have done that you loved? 

Ariel Shani: I did YOUNG FRANKENSTEIN closely to this tour, and it was in a tiny, tiny theater on the top of a mountain in Cripple Creek, Colorado, which is close to Colorado Springs, but also kind of far away from everything. It was the hardest experience of my life because you don't think about the elevation before you go up and do it. Still, we were just tapping our little hearts out for a tiny, tiny town where people had to drive up the mountain to come to see us, and everyone was just so happy to be there, so happy to see it. There was so much dancing, there was so much singing in it. It's also so stupid! It's such a stupid, funny show. So I would say that one is a close second, and the town owns the entire company and donkeys. So there were donkeys roaming the streets, and honestly, that was a great time, too.

Brett Cullum: This is incredible. What is your life? I want to have your life. Israel, Canada, NYU, donkeys, and MEAN GIRLS! Okay. I noticed in your bio you're married. How does that work? How can you be married and be on tour? Is that like the roughest thing in the world?

Ariel Shani: I will say that my upbringing lends itself to this because we would do long distance, and we would get used to time differences and being away from each other when I would go visit home more often than I think the normal person would. So, I was prepared to manage all of this. 

I think, at first, it was a little bit of a shock to my very American wife, Anastasia, who I love so much! She was not used to me going back and code-switching and culture-switching. The first two years were a little rough, but then we got that handled. This felt a little bit easier. My wife is also in the arts! She is getting her MFA in dramaturgy, so she is going to be, in my opinion, a very sought-after dramaturg! She is working very furiously with different companies right now, and she has to write her thesis. So she is so busy in her own little world. But it's so connected to my world. It feels comforting to be able to talk at the end of the day, and we have that time to understand each other completely because we're both in the arts. 

Brett Cullum: How long have you been together?

Ariel Shani: We've been together for 6 years.

Brett Cullum: How did you meet?

Ariel Shani: We were both night shift workers at STEPS ON BROADWAY, the dance studio in New York. We were both cleaning the studios. She was my manager first, and then I became a manager with her. We were both dancers and very good friends at the time, and neither of us was out. She didn't think she was gay, and I didn't know I was gay, and then we both fell in love, and we're like, I guess we're both gay. And then here we are.

I got married right before this contract started, and it was just like the timing was right. The universe just put it at the right time because my wedding was supposed to be two weeks later in Israel, and that got canceled because of the war; obviously, had that been the case, I would not have been able to accept this contract. 

Brett Cullum: Well, that's the other thing I want to ask you about. Obviously, the war. How is that impacting you here? Is your family still in Israel? 

Ariel Shani: Yes, I'm the only one in the United States. Currently, my mom's extended family is in Canada. I mean, it impacts my daily life. It's something that I think about all the time. Anytime I look at the news, and anytime there's something big. I'll check in with my friends and my family. I think that is the biggest way it impacted me. It's very hard to explain what that means. It is an identity, part of your identity. That affects everything you do. I am the 1st Middle Eastern, the 1st Israeli to be on this national tour! To me, that's a big deal. I have had kids from Israel, like musical theater is not a huge thing there, and I've had kids reach out to me when I booked this tour from Israel, being like, I can't believe you did that. I dream of leaving and coming to New York and booking this kind of work. So, that's the biggest thing. You just gotta move on with your day. You put it somewhere and go, “Okay, this is happening, and then you gotta keep on going.”

Brett Cullum: You represent so much, Ariel. It is amazing when I look at you and all these different things that you've got going on just behind this. And then here you are in MEAN GIRLS! It's really amazing. I know how you juggle all of this all the time. 

Ariel Shani: You get used to it; you get used to it.

Brett Cullum: Yeah, no. And that's amazing. So what's next for you after this? 

Ariel Shani: I hope to do this tour until this tour is over. We're going through the summer, and I love tour life. My wife talks as if she is expecting me to book another tour, and so I said, “Great!” I put that into the universe. I hope to book another tour. My goal one day is to book Broadway to live in my apartment with my wife and my dog and live a semi-normal life, but I very much am a person of spontaneity, and so I love life on the road. So, if I were doing that for another 10 years, I'd be happy with that, too.

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