As the only Jewish cast member in Studio Theatre’s production of Bad Jews, Alex Mandell (Liam) brings a unique perspective to the proceedings. Mandell recently spoke with Artistic Apprentice Nathan Norcross about his personal experiences of family and faith and how they informed his work on the play.
NN: How does your family deal with conflict? Is it similar to the families of the play?
AM: I'm proud to say that I come from an extremely smart, opinionated family. I'm constantly in awe of my sisters, who seem to be absolutely fearless when entering in any kind of a debate. I'm definitely more of the mediator—I don't like conflict. Things can get fairly heated at times, but never to the point of passive aggressive isolation; we'll usually agree to disagree and move on. While certain members of my family may thrive in a heated conflict as much as Liam and Daphna, it never quite gets to the "grudge" level.
NN: How do you identify your cultural heritage? How—if at all—has it shaped your life? Is that similar to the rest of your family?
AM: I was raised Jewish. I grew up going to synagogue every Saturday, I went to a private Jewish day school until 7th grade, and I had a bar mitzvah when I was 13. To this day I proudly identify as Jewish, but I wouldn't say my cultural identity is defined by my Judaism. When I went to college and grew more independent from my parents and more distant from my childhood, I immersed myself fully in my training and had less contact with the Jewish traditions I grew up with. I never necessarily felt "less Jewish," I just didn't seek a community beyond the one I shared with my fellow actors. Now that I'm out of school, I find myself reconnecting with the same Jewish traditions voluntarily, and they often have a bit more meaning to me. My parents' immense pride in being Jewish and Zionism transferred to me at a young age and has never faltered.
NN: Are there aspects of your character’s beliefs that you identify with personally? Are there any particular ways you see the world differently from the character you portray?
AM: I absolutely respect Liam's decision to reject his Jewishness, in a sense, and declare himself an Atheist. While I've always proudly identified as being Jewish, I still struggle with the concept of organized religion in general—if there is a God (or gods) and how all of it came about in the first place. It doesn't necessarily keep me up at night, but I really enjoy grappling with the relationship between human nature and the need for organized religion. One of the things I love about Judaism is that the notion of uncertainty, the questioning of things, and the discussion that surrounds it is not only ubiquitous in the religion, but it is encouraged. I think certain key characteristics of Liam are actually a lot more Jewish than he would ever care to admit.