There are many stories of love and loss, and many involving creativity as an avenue to explore grief and the strong emotions that death can elicit. But a story in which a secret life of a genius’ late brother as a graffiti artist is discovered is not one that is often told. With Sheffield Theatres’ latest production Dizzy doing just that, using a mix of creative movement and sound design to tell such a strong story, I sat down with its principal cast member Sera Mustafa, to discuss the show, bringing theatre to young audiences and telling difficult stories that are crucial for the world to hear.
Sera Mustafa trained at the BRIT School and LAMDA, graduating in 2022. During her time at the drama school, Mustafa gained multiple credits, including in The Comedy of Errors, New Labour, Prometheus and It’s True It’s True It’s True. She also played Sophie in the 2019 Southwark Playhouse production of What Was Left, directed by Matt Hassall. Skilled in multiple dialects, dance styles and various forms of stage combat, Mustafa stars in the upcoming Sheffield Theatres and Theatre Centre collaboration production Dizzy, making her Sheffield Theatres debut as fifteen-year-old maths genius Qamar.
Tell us a little bit about Dizzy – what is it about & what can audiences expect from this show?
Dizzy is about a fifteen-year-old girl, Qamar, and she has recently lost her brother Yasin, and she goes on a journey to find out what happened to him and how he died. Along the way, she ends up finding out that he was into the world of graffiti. He was a graffiti artist and he was into parkour, and she didn’t know any of that about him, and she ends up meeting his friend Stax, who’s also a graffiti artist – they call themselves writers actually, something I’ve learned, graffiti artists call themselves writers. She goes on this journey finding out what happened to him and, simultaneously, is kind of sucked into the Axis, where she can confront her grief and confront her feelings towards losing her brother. I don’t want to say the ending because I don’t want to ruin it, but it’s a really beautiful journey play – mentor meets mentee and how do they both help each other to confront their own problems. The new draft we’ve gotten is so beautiful and has a really lovely ending.
You play Qamar, a young mathematical genius who discovers graffiti after her brother’s death. How do you adapt yourself to play such an emotive role, & how have you shaped this character during the show’s development?
Well, I resonate a lot with Qamar in certain aspects. Qamar is a practicing Muslim, in the performance she wears a headscarf. My dad’s half of the family are all Muslim, and so I already have that inner connect with her. But also more that, I resonate with her as a character. She is a strong, independent, feisty young fifteen-year-old who doesn’t have any sense of danger or consequence. And she approaches this guy that she’s never met before with such bravery and I think she’s a really beautiful, brilliantly written character who needs to be on our stage and I think young girls need to see that representation. So I think when you’ve already got a part that’s written so well, [Mohamed-Zain Dada] has really written her in such a beautiful way, I think it’s quite easy! The only connect that I need to work on is the maths, because she’s a maths whiz and I’m not! I’m really interested in all of the quantum physics in it, the multiverse, wave theory, and she knows all of that! I think me and her have a sort of connect.
You spoke about how having that representation on stage is really important and how groundbreaking that can be. Alongside that, Dizzy boasts an “innovative soundscape” & the use of technology in its viewing experience. What does that look like, & how does it enhance the way audiences experience this show?
I think it’s really beautiful. I think because we are touring schools as well as venues, it means that we’ve had to go ‘what is the most stripped-back version of this play?’, if there was no lighting, which in schools there won’t be in the majority of cases, and if we’ve got limited space, how can we tell this story which is a bit sci-fi and a bit otherworldly, and it kind of taps into that mystical, magical realism element, how do you do that when you could be on a school stage with no lighting? I think sound is such an important part of this play. Mwen, our sound designer, they’re already working on a beautiful soundscape, and we hear the echo of Yasin and the echo of Qamar in the past, so that the audience who are sat there have 360º sound that encapsulates it. And on top of that, we’ve got a movement director [Yami Löfvenberg] working with us so that Brendan [Barclay] and I are doing our best jobs at telling the story just with our bodies, so I’m excited to see where it goes.
It’s fantastic that this show is going to tour schools as well, we often advocate for theatre in schools, so hearing that this show is going directly there is great from our point of view!
Yeah! This is the thing, if you’re wanting a story to touch people, change people and influence how people see the world, then there’s no better place to do that than directly going into schools and making these young people see the story. It’s sometimes difficult for young people to get into theatre, and if they don’t have friends who are into theatre, then they may never go to see a show, so this is opening that door for them.
I wanted to explore your own development & training a little bit, as you trained at the BRIT School & LAMDA in London. Tell us a bit about your time there and how that experience differs from non-performance schools
I moved to the BRIT School after being at a school that I really struggled with because it just wasn’t for me, and genuinely, the BRIT School changed my life. I always knew I was creative and wanted to go down a creative avenue, but when I was at BRIT, I was like ‘I’m finally in a place that I don’t feel so anxious all the time’ and I met some incredible people who are still my best friends. After BRIT School, I had a gap year where I was doing lots of theatre courses and I was doing a show at Ovalhouse, and then I got into LAMDA. LAMDA, of course, changed my life as well and I had an incredible time there. I was also there during Covid, so it was really tricky, but thankfully by the time it reached our third-year shows, we could have audiences in. I just feel really blessed and lucky to have been able to train at such amazing places, and that’s completely shaped who I am now.
Whilst you were at LAMDA, you built up an impressive portfolio, with thirteen roles during your time there, including in The Comedy of Errors, Uncle Vanya and Prometheus, to name a few. What role throughout your career has been your favourite or most significant to you & why?
That’s really hard! I think from the shows I did at LAMDA, it would have to be one of my third-year shows. I did We Anchor in Hope by Anna Jordan, and that whole production and the character I played [Pearl], even to this day, is my favourite and I think that play is so beautifully written and I really connected with the character, who was a young, twenty-year-old girl from South London, and I think I was 21 when I played that role, like ‘this is me!’. I also did a show called It’s True It’s True It’s True at LAMDA, and that was really poignant. It was about a court case that happened in the 1600s about a rape trial, and the text is verbatim, translated and transcribed from all those years ago, and that was so incredibly poignant. I think between those two, I would say are my most cherished roles.
You spoke a bit about the nature of It’s True It’s True It’s True and the content that involves, how do you deal with a show or a role that has such heavy and emotive content? What can you do to look after yourself and the people around you whilst doing that?
I think it’s really important to always check-in and check-out when you’re doing a heavy scene. You, as the actor, want to go there and it’s important for the piece to fully commit, but checking in with the other actor to see if they’re okay and you’re okay. Do you need five minutes? Our director for It’s True It’s True It’s True [Helena Lymbery] was so incredible, and she was constantly talking about how we look after ourselves and our audience, because you need to have a space where the audience aren’t leaving feeling like they need to go and cry. There needs to be some kind of release at the end, and that’s the same for rehearsals – if it’s been a heavy day, you need to have some kind of release, whether that’s playing a game or checking-in, or having a quick high-five with your team partner. I think it’s actually so important because otherwise, you’re just pushing through, pushing through, pushing through, and then you can end up really hurting yourself. It’s important to have those conversations.
Following on from that, a lot of the content of that show is quite triggering but you’ve got to tell the stories in the best way you can. Do you think that it is important that these stories are told?
100%, because I think we need to hear these stories because it’s happening in real life, so what would be the point in ignoring it? As long as you have a system where you’re doing it in a respectful manner and you’re giving the story absolute justice, and you’re able to create a safe space, then they absolutely have to be told. It would be such a shame if we stayed away from important subject matters just because we were scared to embrace it.
I agree. I think especially with new and young theatre makers, they can tend to shy away from it, and what you said is really important.
We’ve spoken a bit about your past roles, obviously about Dizzy as well, What are your plans following your time in Dizzy? Do you have any upcoming role announcements that you might want to share with Forge Press?
I don’t have any role announcements, hopefully this opens up more opportunities for me. It’s always weird with the industry because you work on something for months and you get so close to people and to the team, but then January comes and you don’t have a job! But I do a lot of writing as well, and I’m working on a play at the moment, in talks of pitching it further, so I’m definitely going to put a lot of focus into that when I’ve got free time again, and hopefully some more acting roles will come up as well.
What advice would you give to budding young performers who want to get into theatre, but aren’t necessarily studying something related or have much experience? How could they go about breaking into this industry?
Just do it! Feel the fear and do it anyway, even if you’re absolutely terrified and you have all these worries and insecurities, and something inside you telling you that you’re not good enough. I have all the time, all actors do, so just do it. Any little opportunity you get, just go for it. Every workshop, every acting class or writing course, a talk, a free show, a £5 ticket to a show, just go for it and don’t let yourself or anyone tell you that you shouldn’t. Break into the industry in any way that you can.
Sera Mustafa is starring as Qamar in the Sheffield Theatres & Theatre Centre Production Dizzy, playing at the Tanya Moiseiwitsch Playhouse from September 25th until October 12th
