Chicago actor Martin Hanna said the high point of his life in the theater world was when he was a student at Niles North High School in Skokie learning from theater director Timothy Ortmann.
“In the professional business of acting you are marketed for your skin color and your hair color,” said Hanna, who was born in Iraq but grew up in Skokie. “The best and most challenging stuff I did was in high school because Tim never treated me as anyone different or treated us as high school students. He gave me my voice. He was a parent to me. He was a mentor. I was a young brown boy who was just learning English, just trying to fit in. He also taught me almost everything that I knew about acting.”
Now Hanna is helping Ortmann inspire a new generation of Niles North students. They visited the Goodman Theatre in Chicago on Oct. 26 to see Hanna perform in “Yasmina’s Necklace,” a play written by fellow Niles North alumna Rohina Malik.
“This has been an amazing experience,” Hanna said. “I hope I can make any high school student, let alone a high school student of color, feel like they can do this.”
Hanna plays the role of Amir, an Iraqi doctor seen only in flashbacks with the title character. He decides to stay in Iraq, sacrificing his life and freedom, but encourages Yasmina to flee to America where she struggles with her past and an arranged marriage.
“It’s the first play I read in English that really told an Iraqi story in a respectful way,” Hanna said. “Yasmina’s not a victim. She’s a very strong character. She’s a normal character dealing with getting married and trying to find the one. I don’t feel like I’m the token Iraqi.”
That respect is important to Hanna in real life, who says he’s struggled with finding roles he feels he can relate to.
“When I first moved into the city a friend of mine told me about a theater that was casting for an Iraqi role,” he said. “Of course I played a terrorist.”
Malik, who lives in Skokie, says she was actively trying to change those stereotypes when she wrote “Yasmina’s Necklace.”
“One of the things for me that’s really frustrating is the representation of Muslims in television and media,” she said. “Muslims aren’t really characters and if they are, they’re villains. They’re never regular people. They can’t just be a mom, a daughter, a student, a doctor. That adds to the stereotyping. One of the things that has driven me as a writer is to tell stories from the Muslim community. We’re just people.”
“Yasmina’s Necklace” made its world premiere last year at Berwyn’s 16th Street Theater and while most of the original cast is also in the Goodman production, Hanna is one of the new additions.
“It’s been a wild ride,” he said. “The cast has been together for a while so they kind of have this chemistry. I was afraid of going into that because I’m the new guy and what if I don’t fit in? But it’s amazing. Everyone’s been amazing.”
Malik said she’s really enjoyed working with Hanna.
“His family is from Iraq, so he definitely brings something authentic and beautiful to the production,” she said. “He’s an incredible actor. He’s lived the refugee experience and I could feel that in his audition. I was just blown away. It’s so special that both Martin and I come from Niles North and were impacted by Tim Ortmann. He’s changed so many people’s lives.”
Having her work on stage at the Goodman is particularly meaningful to Malik, who saw her very first show there. She’s thrilled that more young people will get that experience seeing her play.
“When I was that age, my teacher took me to church basements to see theater and to the Goodman,” she said. “It’s very important to the education of young students to be exposed to every kind of theater.”
