Contributor Sigi Foppen spoke on a video call with Acting Muscle student Wael Kreiker about his personal journey and his evolution as an actor.
Growing up in a war-torn country, it was hard to hold onto a vision of what life could be. But Wael Kreiker still enjoyed the simple pleasures. “As a kid growing up in Syria,” he says, “I loved to watch films and TV shows. It helped me feel connected to the larger world. I wondered how I could feel so much by just watching.”
In 2015 Wael fled from Syria to Germany. After a grueling, months-long journey, he landed in Schwerin and set about learning a new language and a new way of life. Eventually, he says, “I had to start thinking about work.” He didn’t consider that his love for American television might eventually motivate him to become an actor. “My mom says you should have a decent job and a steady income, and coming from a broken country, it was not really an option to go into arts.’’ After working for a time as a counselor in a refugee center in Schwerin, he decided to pursue another interest from his life back in Syria, where he used to program on the computer with his brother. In August 2018, he moved to Berlin to study programming and complete an Ausbildung. It was a big switch for him to move from Schwerin to a big city like Berlin. “I was aware that it would probably be difficult to make friends here,” he recalls. “Someone close to me asked what I was really passionate about: finding a hobby with people who have the same predilection might help he said.’’
Every time there was something new to learn. it was never enough.
Wael decided that hobby might be acting, and signed up for his a class at The Acting Muscle in late 2018. He came mainly with the idea of meeting new people, having fun, and maybe doing a little acting, but then got the hang of it. He got bit, as they say, by the acting bug. As he started taking more courses, a dream that had once seemed far away started to seem like something he could make into a reality. His teacher asked him to serve as an informal teaching assistant, which enabled him to repeat courses multiple times for free. He took the Core course three times. "Every time there was something new to learn. It was never enough.’’
In the Scene Study course and an early Ensemble project, he was able to perform in public and show off his skills to his friends. “They did not like it,’’ he says with a straight face, showing off his dry, self-deprecating humor. After six months of taking classes, Kreiker already wanted to apply to the prestigious acting program at Berlin’s Ernst Busch Hochschule. “I was told that I was not ready yet,” he says. "And they were right: I didn't understand classical pieces enough yet, and you definitely need that to qualify.’’ But he continued to work hard and remained focused on his goal, preparing contemporary and classical monologues in German, a language he had encountered for the first time in 2015. In January 2021 he prepared a video audition and was invited to the next round, a live audition in September. “My biggest goal now is to finish my programming studies,” Wael says. “It’s important that I can do something besides acting for now, because you don't earn tons of money, at least right away,” he adds with a wink. “When I am finished, there are still two full months that I can prepare myself for the Ernst Busch audition.’’
We make people feel something by saying things in a certain way. That is an action, but we do it unconsciously.
One of the most important things Kreiker says he learned in his studies at The Acting Muscle is playing actions. Instead of focusing on yourself, he says, playing actions make you focus on your scene partner, on what you have to do to make the other actor feel something. “This concept opened so many new doors for me,” Wael says. “We also do this in our daily live. We make people feel something by saying things in a certain way. That is an action, but we do it unconsciously.’'
In the end, Wael says he is not looking for fame or the Hollywood life. He respects the art of acting and appreciates how it has changed his perspective. He has experienced what it is like to have limited options. Now he says that new doors are opening for him all the time because of his desire to move forward and learn more. “When you get out there you want to discover everything: yourself, freedom — whatever that means for you — in all possible ways. I now have the power to choose, the power to be.”
Sigi Foppen is a journalist who concentrates on arts and culture with lots of passion. Originally from Amsterdam, she is now in Berlin looking for new challenges, new people, and the right peanut butter.