PUPPET-SLAM artist interview: Leila Ghaznavi

La MaMa Puppet Slam 2013

November 15, 2013 @ 7pm

First Floor Theatre

Curator: Jane Catherine Shaw

A one-night only puppetry-slam, featuring contemporary short-form puppet and object theatre. These super short works make their point fast and furious, and bring artists and audiences together for an evening of puppetry mash up fun.

Tickets: https://web.ovationtix.com/trs/pe.c/9821585

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We asked La MaMa Puppet Slam participant Leila Ghaznavi to take on The Proust Questionnaire, the basis for Inside the Actors Studio's '10 questions.' 

Call this Inside the Puppet Studio -or- The Puppet Questionnaire.

Leila Ghaznavi is multi-disciplinary theatre artist and founder of Pantea Productions.

Q: What is your favorite virtue?

Honesty and Courage.. sorry that's two


Q: Respond to this Proust quote. 

"The need to be loved; more precisely, the need to be caressed and spoiled much more than the need to be admired."

I agree with the caressed, not sure about the spoiled. I could handle not being admired if I was loved by those important to me.

Q: What do you regard as the lowest depth of misery? 

The absence of peace with one's self.


Q: What is your idea of earthly happiness?

To have all the resources I need to create art, to be loved and to love, to be secure in my future and my income.


Q: Where would you like to live?

San Francisco!

Q: To what faults do you feel most indulgent?

Procrastination and procrastinating and wait... what's over there... I'll get back to this question...


Q: Who are your favorite composers?

Bach, Elgar, and Brahms


Q: Who are your favorite painters?

Van Gogh



Q: What are you favorite names?

Darius, Arya


Q: What is the natural talent you’d most like to be gifted with?

Creativity


Q:What is the quality you most admire in a man?

A strong sense of self and purpose and protectiveness... crap that's three. I'm not good with numbers.


Q: What is the quality you most admire in a woman?
Courage and assertiveness coupled with tenderness and caring.


Q: What is your favorite occupation?

Day dreaming, creating and performing.


Q: Who would you have liked to be?

A better version of myself.


Q: Your most marked characteristic?

Play


Q: What do you most value in your friends?

Loyalty


Q: What is your principle defect?

Shyness and being reserved


Q: What would you like to be? Relevant Proust quote: 

"Myself – as those whom I admire would like me to be."

See above. Myself as I know I can be but have not yet achieved. Sorry Proust I don't trust the opinions of others.


Q: Who are your favorite prose writers?

Dun know.


Q: Who are your favorite poets?

Rumi, Emma Lazarus


Q: Who are your favorite heroes in fiction?

Indiana Jones!


Q: Who are your heroes in real life?

Hal Lasco


Q: Who are your favorite heroines in fiction?

Hermoine? Maybe?


Q: Who are your favorite heroines of history?

Maybe Queen Victoria, a mother with hutzpuh to run a country when all others said it couldn't be done.


Q: Who are your favorite heroines in real life?

Those who accomplish much when given little.


Q: What is it you most dislike?

My personal failures


Q: What natural gift would you most like to possess?

To be indomitable


Q: What is your present state of mind?

Ponderous!


Q: What is your motto?

To do more good than I do harm to those around me.