Interview with Meirav Zur
Photo by Liat Eldar
1. What made you decide to write and perform such a personal account? I was creating and performing productions for years, and in parallel I was experiencing infertility and secondary infertility but never spoke about it with anyone. A few years ago I found myself ready to talk about it, but I didn’t know how. I utilised my theatre background and that was essentially how I was finally able to tell my closest friends about what I had been experiencing. I didn’t intend for that intimate gathering to ever become a show for the public, but my friends urged me to do so, and I saw how much they related to my story and shared some of those same “secret” experiences. Once I performed that first show and understood how audiences of strangers finally felt seen, I knew I had to keep going to share this story.
2. What type of emotions were you going through at the time?
All of the emotions! I was nervous if I’d even be able to make any of those experiences funny, or if I’d then perform and essentially relive everything again and break down on stage. I was excited about getting an opportunity to make people laugh. I felt challenged about this show being my first time performing solo. I felt a responsibility to tell this story because these experiences are still taboo. I was a bit scared people would think I was carelessly making fun of something so raw and loaded. There are many emotions and thoughts, I probably go through most of these before every show.
3. How were you able to overcome the obstacles in your journey? The biggest obstacles in the journey of this show are probably all of my own emotions and thoughts, like those stated previously. It’s actually quite similar to infertility. I think overcoming them means to just stay the course, stay on the journey, with as much humor as possible.
4. How are you doing in your life right now?
Good, thank you. I’m very thankful for everything, and I think this show has provided me with so many lessons, opportunities, and therapy than I ever expected.
5. What is the next step, personal and professional, for you?
Personally, I just want my family to be happy. And I want to excel at meditation. Professionally, I want to have this show seen by as many people as possible, and I’d love to pursue several of my other production ideas.
