Hani Taha becomes first actor from Pakistan to enter RADA's MA Theater Lab

      

In a major achievement, Pakistan's Hani Taha created history this year as she became the first person of any gender from Pakistan to be admitted to the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art’s MA Theater Lab.

The course runs from January to December with the graduation held the following year in July along with King’s College London - the award-giving authority for RADA.

RADA is the holy grail for actors and is lauded as the greatest acting academy in the world since its inception in 1904.

The academy accepts 28 BA students in Acting and just 18 in their MA with the total strength of students being just around 100 with technical art degrees as well.

RADA has seen the likes of Zia Mohyddin, Anthony Hopkins, Ralph Fiennes, Alan Rickman, Phoebe Waller-Bridge, Tom Hiddleston and Cynthia Erivo pursue their BA in Acting from the academy.

Hani is the first ever person from Pakistan to secure admission in the MA programme from RADA.

This year, Hani was amongst an even smaller class of 16 handpicked globally through a five-step audition and interview process led by the course leaders at RADA. She was also the only Muslim at RADA and historically the first Pakistani to be a student representative.

Journalist turned actor, Hani began her formal actor training at the National Academy of Performing Arts under the tutelage of Zia Mohyddin, who was a RADA alum.

 “I applied to RADA in Zia Sb’s memory on my husband’s insistence of how proud our great ustaad would be if I made it,” says Hani.

But her journey wasn’t as rosy as she had hoped. She was bullied and harassed at RADA and as the only Muslim, the experience was very isolating.

“I became an actor because as a journalist I felt I was preaching to the choir. I felt it was only through entertainment that you can reach the masses and change public perception of Pakistan, Pakistanis and Muslims in mainstream media.”

For both of her public performances, she chose her religious identity to craft deeply meaningful shows. Both performances were written by Hani, self-devised and self-directed.

For her summer show, she did a piece about being a Palestinian woman looking for a home as part of a larger ensemble show ‘Crossings’. For her final solo showcase in the winter, she did a sold-out original show titled ‘What a Muslim Woman Looks Like’, a funny take about a young Pakistani woman about to get married and move abroad.