It's been more than 15 years since Alison Jaye made her Broadway debut as a child actor, playing Louise in the 2008 revival of Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine's Sunday in the Park With George.

The BAFTA nominee, who later appeared as the young daughter Jane Banks in Disney's Mary Poppins, is currently back on Broadway playing a high school student in the New York premiere of the London hit Stranger Things: The First Shadow.

Based on an original story by the Duffer Brothers, Jack Thorne, and Kate Trefry, the new sci-fi drama at Broadway's Marquis Theatre is set in the world of the long-running hit Netflix series Stranger Things. Penned by Trefry with direction by Stephen Daldry and co-direction by Justin Martin, the play follows a young Henry Creel, who moves to Hawkings, Indiana, in 1959, encountering high school versions of Stranger Things characters Jim Hopper, Bob Newby, and Joyce Maldonado, the latter role created on screen by Winona Ryder and on Broadway by Jaye.

Although she hasn't appeared on the Main Stem in over a decade, the young artist has garnered more widespread acclaim through her work on screen. She gained recognition playing Julia Nicolo in the tenth season of Shameless and appeared alongside Sigourney Weaver and Elizabeth Banks in Call Jane. She recently starred in ABC’s High Potential and earned her BAFTA nomination for her performance as Alva in Horizon: Forbidden West.

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—Jaye shares how she blended the TV Joyce with her high school version, her admiration for actor Marin Ireland, and a touching memory of Stephen Sondheim.

Where did you train/study?
Alison Jaye: I truthfully believe that my training began with my first professional job, which was Stephen Sondheim’s Sunday in the Park With George at Roundabout’s Studio 54 when I was 10 years old. That company, the cast, and experience opened my eyes to just about everything. At such a young age, I was taken under the wing of these astonishing artists from London to New York and shown the true value of work ethic, diligence, craft, trust, creativity, and passion. A practical application of the craft that I got to watch shape shift every day in the rehearsal room to the stage to performance, time and time again. The most vivid of times for me, still. 

That show began my career as a child actress, which led me to more opportunities on Broadway working with phenomenal artists that continued to shape who I am while showing me the ropes. When they say, “life is your biggest teacher,” I thoroughly believe that to be true. It is all of our experience in the world that trains us and shapes us. I then continued my education in California at USC’s BFA Acting program  ,which had me in Los Angeles learning and working for the past 11 years. And now I am finally home, back on the stage in New York where it all began for me, learning new things every single day with our family over at Stranger Things: The First Shadow.

Was there a teacher who was particularly impactful/helpful? What made this instructor stand out?
I absolutely must give an honorable mention here to my directors, Stephen Daldry and Justin Martin. Not just directors, brilliant teachers and leaders. These two men have single-handedly changed who I am as an artist and as a performer. With young adults in the arts, or frankly, any career, I think the most impactful and vital people are those that empower you to look inwards, all the while celebrating the uniqueness of what you hold as an individual. When I began working on this project around three years ago, back in the workshop phase in Los Angeles, I was in a very different emotional place with who I was and what I believed were my limitations as an artist. We all have self-limiting beliefs, and this industry certainly can convolute the truth of what you may believe possible for yourself. And while I felt like I was in a period of emotional transition and searching for where I belonged in this industry, phasing out of a career as a child actress and carving out new space for my blooming voice as an adult, it was Stephen and Justin who took me under their wing and and celebrated me and my spirit, creating the most safe environment to explore character work and show up with all of me.

To recall one of the earliest days of working with Daldry in our rehearsal space in Los Angeles for the workshop, he said to me, “I want you to bring out every color of who you are.” As a young woman, to be celebrated by such legendary artists and encouraged to show up as your full self with all of your quirks is very rare. We are often told we are “too much,” and these men instead shined a mirror back at me and said, “Nothing is ever too much. It is your soul we are interested in.” What bigger gift is there for an artist?

What was your process like trying to bring the Joyce of the series to the stage while making the character your own? Did you try to capture Winona Ryder's vocal inflections?
I love this question because while it may seem like there must be an unbelievable amount of external pressure to “nail” one of the most iconic characters in one of the largest IPs we have in the current streaming era, this process has been nothing short of utterly freeing. That “pressure” was nowhere to be found most days, especially while creating Joyce in the rehearsal space. Kate Trefry, our brilliant writer, has been writing for the series since season two, so to have her in the room daily over all these years of working, watching the script transition in so many ways, watching my character grow, and find her voice was thrilling. Kate was a key advocate for celebrating my specific voice as a young woman while also tying in the invisible thread of the series and making sure everything was in sync. The freedom felt is also because our show takes place 30 years prior to the TV show. So as my brilliant friend and co-star Burke Swanson, who plays Hopper, says, “It’s helpful to take three things from the TV show, from our characters and celebrate those things.” Things like certain mannerisms, vocal inflections, or even the way the character walks; those are all anchors. Those things were so helpful to have in my toolbox to connect to Winona and her work as Joyce in the TV show so many years prior. For me, a lot of the work I loved to do on this project to honor Joyce was a bit of an “outside in” process. I am moved by Ryder’s physicality and how she holds herself in the space and the way that energy is felt on screen. Even things like watching how she moves her jaw and the tension held there. For me, finding the physicality brought me toward her voice and helped me marry the worlds of young Joyce and the beloved Joyce on the series.

There are a lot of moving parts in Stranger Things. What has been the most memorable mishap or close call?
While all 34 cast members are working on stage every night inside one big magical machine, we then have endless more brilliant bodies and minds backstage making this thing flow smoothly. It truly takes a village, and we have the best, most hard-working crew on Broadway. We work hand in hand every day with technology, our other "co-star," and we are constantly negotiating the timing of the magic mixed with the choreography of the cast. Massive set pieces moving in and out all of the time, some being flown into the ceiling while others needing to physically be pushed by crew and cast. One of my favorite "mishaps" occurred early on in the production, when we had a show stop due to a technical issue. Later, in the second act, I have a line where I say that we have to pause the (scripted) show, and in this instance I said, "Ladies and gentleman, we had to pause the production again!" The audience erupted. It's those moments, where we are tasked with thinking on our feet to make the magic happen when the technical aspects glitch, that I love the most.

Do you have a favorite moment in the show for Joyce? What makes that part particularly special?
There is a scene we call “the house is open” in Act 2, where Joyce is frantically searching for Henry trying to put on the school play, The Dark of the Moon, with only four minutes to spare. It is pure chaos. So many of us are onstage at that point running around in a stunningly, chaotically choreographed way. This scene constantly feels like the Olympics for me out there. It is an amazing test of endurance, vocal clarity, and intention. Still now, with 100+ shows under our belt, I am learning something every night about how to lock into this moment with even more specificity and heart. And second to this, Kate Trefry wrote Hopper and Joyce a brilliant scene at the top of Act 2—it's the first scene you see the two of us in together in this act—that we call “Mexico.” It is without any technicality, where we negotiate our relationship, our dreams, and our fears about the future, all while paying homage to young love, replete with confusion, anger, frustration, and longing. To work this moment every night into a show that is so magical and larger than life, to lock into a scene where all we have is simply just one another trying to fight to see what is best in the other person, is just one example of the golden nuggets Kate has given us.

You played Louise in the 2008 revival of Sunday in the Park. Do you have a favorite memory of that experience, either working with the cast or Stephen Sondheim?
I have this visual/memory seared into my mind, of our final performance, where I recall holding my stage mother’s hand during the finale, the legendary Jessica Molaskey, and being unable to make sound while snot and tears were running down both of our faces. This was true of the full company onstage. The orchestra was playing with such heart, and it was almost like a moment of silence for this work, for this experience. Through tear-stained eyes, I remember looking out directly at Stephen Sondheim seeing him holding his heart with both hands, standing up in the first row, weeping. This is how much this show meant to all of us. It was one of the hardest goodbyes of my young life.

Do you have any dream stage roles and/or actors you would like to work with?
Endless dreams, endless roles I hope to take a stab at one day. I have always been someone who loves dark family dramas and stories that bring out all of the gunk we live through over time in this large web of life. One of the actresses that astounds me, and I dream to meet and work with in this capacity is Marin Ireland. Her work onstage is profoundly moving to me—her physicality and sense of self feels rare and singular in all of the work she does. My mother has been taking me to watch her perform in more shows than I can count. Marin is a magnet onstage, someone who is unabashedly herself and has a way of tearing words and sentences apart in each role that feels like a direct gut punch of expression. Her way with language touches me. There is a feralness to her artistic expression that is so inspiring for me as a woman. Her strength, vulnerability, and the way it filters through her instrument takes my breath away each and every time.

What advice would you give your younger self or anyone starting out?
Bring out your weird. To not push the things down that make you, you, to fit into any box. Especially as a woman and being a young girl in this industry growing up and finding my voice, it is easy to get caught up reading breakdowns and feeling you need to be more of this or less of this or different than who you are. Our job as actors is to give casting a window into who we are and what our voice and perspective lend and see if with the text provided, we reach them in collaboration. How can we put our best foot forward with our most honest self if we don’t dare to show them? You must be brave to let people hear your perspective and see who you really are, who you are becoming.

What do you wish you knew starting out that you know now?
That it is never too late to “become again.” To try on a new hat (metaphorically) and share that perspective as an artist. We all change so much through the years. I think it was a huge learning lesson for me, transitioning from a child actor to the actor I am now as an adult. Finding that voice can be tricky and convoluted. Saying goodbye to an old self and allowing a new one to come into focus while bringing all that experience with you. You have not “missed the boat” or “missed your chance for success.” There are so many seasons of life, those in which you may be feeling more confident and in your power, those that make you question every little step and decision. And with age I have begun to see time passing with or without a job as a teacher, as fodder for the work and as a crucial part of being an artist. To me, it is all about tenacity, sticking it out and staying the course. In not quitting, and digging deeper to find your voice and what makes your spirit move and what work moves you. There is no rush. The right things and people and projects will find you and you them if you are committed to the craft and to showing up as your honest, blooming, curious self.

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?
Stranger Things: The First Shadow has been the perfect example of how theatre can hold us up and show us new ways to dream in such trying times. Since the beginning of time, it has been storytelling that saves us, keeping our imagination running and opening new doors of the mind. An escape, if you will, when most needed. Thousands of people will take their seats every night and be transported to a new universe with new rules, allowing them to forget about the hardships of the day, the week, the month, the year, and become fully immersed in a story with beautiful, complicated lessons with new neighbors by their side experiencing the same thing in real time. The gift of live theatre is invaluable. Especially in trying times, there is nothing more important than community, and live theatre allows this rare negotiation between strangers to all buy into the same world together, a brand-new one, and dare to dream bigger. It’s like the world stops for a moment in these spaces. New conversations, perspectives, and dialogue is what good storytelling gives us—it is through all of this that change is inspired.

What is your proudest achievement as an actor?
Without a doubt, the relationships that I have built with other artists through each process and experience. The people I have taken with me past the journey of the project and then the sewing of the web of artists getting to know one another and sharing in new ideas over the years is the cherry on top for me. Moving back for this project from Los Angeles after 11 years, all I wanted was a deep sense of community that I didn’t have to let go of so quickly that can often happen in the film and TV world. I journaled about it daily and visualized what a strong community would look like—this precious gift we give each other with live theatre, each show being like a new family under a circus tent every night. And I got my wish this time. My pride comes from the people I get to stand next to every night. The artists that I am constantly learning from and growing alongside—what a gift we can give each other in this way. I am so proud of my ever-growing community and the people who have been mirrors to me to show me parts of myself that I didn’t know lived within me, then allowing me to toss that same gift back to them.

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Photos: Stranger Things: The First Shadow on Broadway

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