Ahmad

Mustaq Missouri was first introduced to theatre when he was in high school. He played a role in Peter Shaffer’s Royal Hunt of the Sun. During the next three years he acted in Eugene Ionesco’s The Chairs, Alfred Jarry’s Ubu Rex, Georg Buckner’s Woyzeck and Joe Orton’s Loot.

In Shanghai, his previous home base, Mustaq renewed his love for the stage. He acted in Timberlake Wertenbaker’s Our Country’s Good, Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, King Lear and Twelfth Night, Samuel Beckett’s Waiting for Godot and Catastrophe, Henrik Ibsen’s The Master Builder, Oscar Wilde’s The Importance of Being Earnest, Neil Simon’s The Odd Couple, Shelagh Stephenson’s The Memory of Water, Bertolt Brecht’s Caucasian Chalk Circle, Tom Stoppard’s The Real Inspector Hound, Frank McGuiness’s Someone Who’ll Watch Over Me, Noel Coward’s Hay Fever. Edgar Allan Poe’s Masque’rade, Macabre Tales from Poe and Richard O’Brien’s The Rocky Horror Picture Show.

Mustaq arrived in New Zealand in March 2014 and in June of that year made his debut theatrical performance in Prayas’s production of Charandas Chor – The Honest Thief. He was also one of the actors in a reading of Ahi Karunaharan’s play Tea, which was conducted under the guidance of the Auckland Theatre Company. He also acted in two short plays in the 2014 Short and Sweet Festival, The Possethsion and Crossbow Cat; the latter garnering both the Judge’s and People’s Choice Awards, with the addition of The Best Actor Award going to him.

Mustaq also took part in the 2015 Summer Shakespeare season of A Midsummer Night’s Dream, where he played the role of Egeus, under the direction of Michael Hurst. After which he acted in Chekhov Gone Wilde, a production by Theatrewhack. Following that he was in The Mourning After, the first Sri Lankan play in New Zealand, a co-production between Prayas and Agaram and written by Ahi Karunaharan.

He was also inThe Lesson, an absurdist play by Eugene Ionesco, under the direction of Matt Baker. In March 2016 he was in The Summer Shakespeare production of The Tempest at The Pop Up Globe, which was directed by Ben Henson. His most recent production was in Prayas’s production of Love n Stuff, where he played the lead role of Mansoor.