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She’s acted alongside Arnold Schwarzenegger, Ke Huy Quan and Ariana DuBose. She’s appeared on stages across North America and has charmed her hometown audiences here in Winnipeg for years.
And yet, Stephanie Sy’s next project is the one that she holds most dear.
“If there was one thing I could do for the rest of my life, it would be this musical.”
The musical in question is Waitress, the four-time Tony Award-nominated production that will be running throughout January on the John Hirsch Mainstage at the Royal Manitoba Theatre Centre. Sy, who last sang in a musical in Winnipeg in 2018, stars as Jenna, a smalltown server who uses baking as a means to escape the reality of her controlling and abusive relationship, especially when she becomes unexpectedly pregnant.
The role of Jenna, made famous by the writer of Waitress, Grammy Award-winner Sara Bareilles, is one that musical theatre fans know well. Sy accepts that there might be pressures and expectations put on her performance by fans of the show, but she knows how to prepare for projects with strong, pre-existing ideas attached to them.
“I think there’s a lot I have to prepare as far as staying very true to what people imagine that person to be,” she explained to Nolan Kehler on Morning Light, “but also putting in as much of myself as I can. I mean, naturally, there’s no world where I do something that isn’t me because I am me. It just trying to be as honest as possible and focusing very much on story.”
Sy first became acquainted with the story of Waitress by singing one of the show’s most famous numbers, “What Baking Can Do”. She immediately fell in love with the rest of the music and has also taken in a full production of the work. “I’ve listened to the album 1000 million times, and I can still listen to it,” she gushes. “It’s very funny that I am still very much in love with the musical.”
Another facet of Sy’s love for the show is a nurturing one fueled by women. The show is almost-entirely female-run, from the original Broadway production to the RMTC’s version (directed by the Prairie Theatre Exchange’s Ann Hodges). This is especially important given the intimate partner violence that Jenna faces in the show.
“I don’t even have the words to describe how supportive everybody has been,” says Sy, who notes that the entire cast made a room agreement at the outset of making the show in order to create a safe space for everyone involved.
“There is an actual physiological, ancestral feeling of women around. It’s just been a very supportive, mutual kind of love and care and feeling around. The women in the cast are so talented and so hardworking and so caring, I really do feel every day overwhelmed with emotion, with how much I’m being cared and supported. And I do think that comes from a maternal feeling.”
“I’ve grown exponentially in the last four weeks, being able to do this show with these people,” Sy smiles. “I just am filled with love, and I’m always replenished with more love to give to people because of this.”
Previews for Waitress begin on January 7 with the first public performance taking place on January 9. The production runs until February 1. Tickets and more information can be found at royalmtc.ca.