After originating the role of Ginny Potter in both the Canadian and North American touring productions of Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, Trish Lindstrom is currently making her Broadway debut in the same role at the Lyric Theatre.

It's a record-breaking time for the Tony-winning play, which has been breaking box-office records ever since the arrival of Tom Felton, who is making his own Broadway debut in the role of Draco Malfoy that he played in the Harry Potter films. The current New York company also features John Skelley as Harry Potter, Emmet Smith as Albus Potter, Aidan Close as Scorpius Malfoy, Rachel Christopher as Hermione Granger, Daniel Fredrick as Ron Weasley, Janae Hammond as Rose Granger-Weasley, and Kristen Martin as Delphi Diggory.

Lindstrom has also been seen in New York in Mother Night and If Sand Were Stone, while her additional theatrical credits include Girl in the Toronto production of Once, the Toronto staging of Life After, and the tour of Summer. She also spent six seasons at the Stratford Festival and five seasons at the Shaw Festival.

In the interview below for the Playbill series How Did I Get Here—spotlighting not only actors, but directors, designers, musicians, and others who work on and off the stage to create the magic that is live theatre—Lindstrom shares her lengthy journey with Harry Potter, her admiration for stage managers, and the satisfaction she receives coaching other actors.

Where did you train/study?
Trish Lindstrom: The National Theatre School in Montreal.

I know you've played Ginny previously in Canada and on tour. How did you originally get involved with the play?
I first met John Tiffany [director/co-creator of Cursed Child with Steven Hoggett and Jack Thorne] doing his production of Once in Toronto in 2016.

In passing, he sparkled with delight about the new play he was workshopping, a story that would take place where the seventh book in the Harry Potter series left off. A few years later, I auditioned for the role of Delphi for Broadway year two. After a supremely mediocre audition—that and being "too old for Delphi, too young for Ginny"—I put the dream of working again with this extraordinary team on the shelf.... I eventually booked Ginny in the Toronto production, which began rehearsing spring 2022 [hired in 2019, Covid-postponed till 2022]. The tour started rehearsals a year after Toronto closed, bringing back the original creative team to cut the running time by 35 minutes and make major staging adjustments for the tour.

How do you think your performance has changed or developed since you first started playing the part?
Good question. Roughly 900 shows in, it can be challenging to see the forest for the trees, but there are a few ways in which I've felt a palpable shift.

First, if behavior is determined by those around us, the nuances of the character are heavily influenced by those in the scene. Since 2022, I've built Ginny with three distinctly different Harrys (seven, including understudies). Though the story must remain consistent, there are inevitable shifts of tone and status, depending on A: the night and B: the actor playing Harry.

Secondly, I’m not pushing as hard to convince audiences of my power/strength/resilience as Ginny and trusting that, though she’s not a firecracker in a blue ponytail, I share more of Ginny’s characteristics than I first thought.

Do you have a favorite moment in the show for her—what makes that part particularly special?
I love our first entrance on Platform 9 and 3/4. Our brilliant associate director, Des Kennedy, offered that this scene should be "festive," relieving us of any heavy foreshadowing of what's to come.

I also appreciate the Map Room scene. It’s short, but a lot happens. Ginny is afforded a moment to confront a childhood bully.... I also enjoy hearing new elements in Draco's post-duel speech, which is a cathartic turning point for their relationship. Though Ginny doesn’t necessarily have a lot of text, her power rests in her keen observance…. A challenge for a “doer” like myself. Ginny takes the high road and is much less reactive than I am, so it’s a hearty challenge to trust that just breathing and listening and standing on my own to feet is enough.

What does it mean to you to be making your Broadway debut with this show?
In my career, I’ve had the chance to work with some of the world’s finest directors, actors, designers, stage managers, and crew. That’s what I’m most interested in. And if those people happen to be on Broadway, sign me up!

It’s definitely a luxury to live and work in one of my all-time favorite cities and bring to life a project that I've held in my chest since 2019. I well up nearly every night during second bow, when the house lamps are raised to illuminate an audience we've only heard the whole night. It's also why I sign Playbills at stage door: connecting with people who have been on the journey with us is a keen reminder that we're part of a collective fleeting experience that, like a cloud, is repeated but never duplicated.

Excluding Harry Potter, do you have a favorite theatrical experience? What made that show/role so memorable for you?
In my final year of high school, I got to play Helen Keller in The Miracle Worker at The Stratford Festival [in Canada]. It was a life-changing experience for many reasons, but what I remember most was being convinced that director Jeannette Lambermont could read my mind. Like magic, she inadvertently taught me that acting wasn't about lying or fooling an audience into believing we were thinking the thoughts we were thinking, acting was about actually thinking those thoughts. I was never permitted to do a physical action without a true thought/intent to motivate it. An "intention boot camp" of sorts.

Do you have any dream stage roles and/or actors you would like to work with?
I love working, and I try to treat every role as a dream role. And I get such a charge from becoming other people and would love to work with Christopher Guest (I dearly miss singing/musicals), Dot in Sunday in the Park, anything by Jeanine Tesory, I’ll never forget seeing Denise Gough in Duncan Macmillan's People, Places and Things at St. Ann's Warehouse—a raw, volcanic, heart challenge, that's a role I'd love to play. And Rosalind. And Paulina. And and and….

Tell me about a time you almost gave up but didn’t.
After playing Sally Bowles at Stratford to mixed reviews in 2008, I didn't get cast in the following season. I said, "I'm done” and abruptly took myself to rural Uganda for nine weeks to seek another calling and get my head out of my ass. I eventually returned to Canada and jumped back in with new eyes.

What do you consider your big break?
I turned 12 onstage in my first pro gig at Toronto's famed Young People's Theatre. It was a new musical called That Scatterbrain Book. I rode the subway downturn without a chaperone and discovered Churrasco Chicken at the St. Lawrence Market. It was a stupendous six weeks.

Is there a person or people you most respect in your field and why?
I admire and respect stage managers a great deal. Not only do they have to know the show inside-out and backwards to be able to call cues, but they have to dance an impossible dance of communicating with all departments to keep everybody safe and content.

Tell me about a job/opportunity you really wanted but didn’t get. How did you get over that disappointment?
Oh, so many. And it breaks my heart a little every time. As soon as an audition comes, the character has inevitably started to take root in me somewhere. So not getting a role can feel like a little death. After letting myself grieve for a spell, I try to remember that whomever gets the role is meant to get the role. I don't tend to believe in mistakes or should've-beens in this business. If I did, chances are I would've quit acting long ago.

What advice would you give your younger self or anyone starting out?
Have patience. This too shall pass. When the mind wants to spiral, return to the material (script/score). That's all we've got. The rest is just our ego out to sabotage.

What do you wish you knew starting out that you know now?
We can't control what happens, but we can control how we react to it.

In such difficult times in this country and around the world, how do you think theatre can play a positive role, either for yourself and/or the community at large?
It’s a question I often ask myself and still don’t quite have an answer…. I recently read that an act of true love is being present with another. I try to be with every interaction I have with another, onstage and off. I think presence is contagious and can effect change, however small.

What is your proudest achievement as an actor?
When I coach actors, I get a satisfaction that is beyond applause and offers a deep sense of purpose. I believe that knowledge and insight are meant to be shared.

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Photos: New Photos of Tom Felton in Harry Potter and the Cursed Child on Broadway

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