At the opening night of 'Stranger Things: The First Shadow' on Broadway, Alison Jaye talks about creating her version of Winona Ryder's character from 'Stranger Things.' Plus, she talks about perfecting the stage scream, calling it "vocal gymnastics."
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00:00What's going through your mind? Are there nerves? Is it excitement? A little bit of both?
00:03I honestly, I feel like a large sense of calm that I didn't expect to feel right now.
00:09I feel like we've worked so hard for so many months that now we just get to stand by each other's sides and like breathe it in and like just soak it up.
00:18Honestly, I'm so I just feel like I can't stop smiling. I feel great.
00:23Well, you're playing the young version of Winona Ryder's character in the show. How much influence did you take from the show versus wanting to craft and create your own character?
00:35I mean, endless. She created a it feels like a dictionary. It's like the exact it's the source material, right?
00:42It's exactly where you go to to build and create from the top the universe.
00:46That said, I watched so I mean, I've watched all of her films and I feel like even specifically watching her in Heather's felt like a big in for me in terms of just energy of Joyce and being in high school and what that's like.
01:00So I looked at that movie as like my my Bible in a way. And obviously, it's a different time period and she's a bit older.
01:07But still, there was there's endless wealth of knowledge to gain from her massive career.
01:12But there's also so much freedom because the show, I look at everything she's done and everything she's given all of us and kind of take the pieces that make sense for me in the show and then open a new door to what's possible for her at 17.
01:25Yeah.
01:26And there's so much that's incredible about this show. But I also wanted to ask, have you had any conversations with her or maybe anyone from the cast beforehand?
01:35I've I've yet I hope it's a yet I've yet to speak with her. But I was I was sharing the other day that earlier on in the process when I was beginning to create this character, I would journal a lot and kind of write down questions I have for her or like if I was to ask her these questions, what would she say?
01:51And I feel like maybe telepathy or something up there answered them and helped me feel closer to who she is.
01:58Yeah. Well, maybe we'll fingers crossed. We'll have that chance eventually. Yes.
02:04This show is also the special effects are insane and there's so much technicality behind it.
02:09What would you say was the most technically challenging scene for you to work through?
02:14You know, it's funny because with the massive amounts of technology, I feel like some of the hardest things to do were the were the numbers with all like 20 of us, 34 of us, like staging these large stage pictures.
02:26The first scene, picture day with our evolving stage, while the tech isn't as heavy there and there's no jump scares there and stuff like that.
02:33Stephen Daldry and Justin Martin have directed that scene within every inch of its life so much so that if you were to come back multiple times, you could focus on a different character and relive like a whole different story in the same stage picture.
02:45So I feel like moments like that, that scene took weeks, months, I mean, for them years to build and they brought it to us from London and I actually worked on the workshop three years ago.
02:56So I've watched it evolve throughout the years. And that's been that's been the coolest thing in the world.
03:01But also such a physically demanding role, too. You've got a lot of screams at certain points.
03:06I was very curious to know, how do you produce the perfect and healthy stage scream?
03:13It's a great question. I feel like I'm still trying to find the answer.
03:16But our incredible vocal coach, Liz Hayes, has helped me so has helped me ground myself in my voice, which has changed a lot of where it comes from.
03:24And I think for me, with this role being so vocally athletic and demanding, it requires like a large sense of self.
03:35So if my feet are not like on the ground and I don't feel stable, that voice cannot arise.
03:41So I feel like the more I am where my feet are, the voice kind of arises.
03:46Yeah, I love these. It's almost like vocal gymnastics.
03:48It feels like vocal gymnastics. It really does.
03:50And, you know, each day feels different depending on the level of tired you are, depending on what you've eaten, depending on your warm ups.
03:56But I'm big on meditation and warming up and it takes a while. Yeah.
04:00Well, congratulations and break a leg tonight.