From performing in community musical theatre productions, small-town born and raised Canadian actress with Guyanese and Jamaican roots, Vanessa Sears, 30, has made her Broadway debut in the new musical “New York, New York”. For her, it’s a dream come true.
“When you think of the biggest job you can get as a musical theatre artist most people would agree that Broadway is one of the first things that come to mind. I had auditioned for a few shows before and was in the top three but I never booked it. I had made peace with that. I told myself, ‘Well if it doesn’t happen, that’s okay. I am happy and successful in Toronto,’” Sears recently told Stabroek Weekend.
Although she had accepted that there was much outside of Broadway she could do, when she received the offer to be standby for the lead role in “New York, New York” directed by five-time Tony award winner Susan Stroman, Sears said, “It was a dream come true. I had to take it, if only not to have regrets. I started making frantic arrangements to move to New York. The whole experience has been phenomenal. To top it off I got to make my Broadway debut just a few weeks ago. This experience has exceeded my expectations in every way.”
The show opened on Broadway on 26th April and on 3rd May, she made her debut in the lead role of Francine Evans. She performed in both the afternoon matinee and the evening show that day.
“It was a moment I’ll never forget,” she enthused. “My sister, my mom and my boyfriend and one of my best friends flew to New York from Canada. I told them at about midnight the night before when I was informed I was going on. I didn’t expect them to actually be there, I just wanted them to know. It meant everything that they flew out to celebrate and support me.”
According to Sears, “New York, New York” is a new musical with some classic songs from the catalogue of John Kander and Fred Ebb, including the titular song “New York, New York”. It also features “And the World Goes Round” and “A Quiet Thing”.
“Kander, who wrote the music to ‘Cabaret’, ‘Chicago’ and now ‘New York, New York’ was in rehearsals with us. When I saw all the legendary names on that audition call, I told myself I have to do it. The part feels so appropriate for who I am and where I am in my life,” said Sears, who grew up in a small town, Deep River in Ontario. “It is very much a classic New York story where a small-town girl, Francine Evans from Philly, comes to New York and works to make her dream of becoming a singer a reality. That is my story. I have come to New York to pursue this big dream.”
Sears said her agent submitted a self-tape of two scenes and two songs from the show to the casting director. She was then called to New York and auditioned in person. A week later they offered her the standby for the lead.
Sears also assists in press events for the show and she was one of the performing guests last week at a gala for Family Equality. She was also a featured performer at friend and fellow Broadway star Jewelle Blackman’s cabaret at 54 Below, a notable performance venue. She has also performed at a gala for the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History, the Chita Rivera Awards, and New York City’s Fleet Week.
“While all of that is happening we are still rehearsing for ‘New York, New York’ and making sure we’re prepared to go on at a moment’s notice,” she noted.
Sears plans to be in New York for a while as she builds her career.
“I would like to get my name out there and get more opportunities in New York. I also love acting in film and television, and recently I’ve started exploring directing for the stage as well. Canada is my home and a big part of me wants to go back to direct a big musical in Toronto. That would bring me so much joy and fulfilment,” she stated.
Guyanese parentage
Sears was born to David Sears, originally from Georgetown, Guyana and Hayley Sears, nee Polack, from Kingston, Jamaica.
“I’m grateful to my mom and dad for always letting us know where we came from. As kids, when our Guyanese family visited we heard them talk with this different accent, and it got us asking more questions about our dad’s background and experience as an immigrant. It was great to have this connection. Now that I’m older I’m committed to visiting Guyana soon,” she said. “I want to go with my dad to see where he grew up. I want to know my family there and to claim that part of my heritage before it’s too late. I am proud to be Guyanese.”
The third of four siblings – two boys and two girls, Sears has visited Jamaica.
Though musical theatre was her first love, she applied to several universities to pursue a career in veterinary science and was accepted to all of them.
Because of her love for theatre, her mother encouraged her to audition for a few performing arts schools. Sears held the view, “That’s not something people do for a living.”
She knew no one from her hometown who studied theatre.
“I did community theatre as a kid and I love to sing. I love skits. Anytime we had an assignment in school I found a way to make it a musical presentation or to make it dramatic. However, I had no intention of pursuing the arts as a profession. My mother saw, understood and valued that theatre made me happy. The experiences in community productions of ‘Beauty and the Beast’ and a high school production of ‘My Fair Lady’ had a huge impact on me,” she said.
With her mother’s encouragement, at 18 years, she auditioned for a few schools. “I got into the prestigious musical theatre performance programme at Sheridan College, in Oakville, Ontario,” she said. “I felt like, ‘Okay, if people who do this professionally see something in me, I think I have to give it a shot’. I knew I loved it but I wasn’t confident enough in my own skills to feel I could make it as an actress. I didn’t know how the professional industry worked. We all know it is not a stable job. It is extremely competitive and there are a lot of barriers to success in the arts industry, especially as a performer and for people of colour – we are still fighting for representation and equality in a historically white industry. Being accepted into this extremely competitive programme really bolstered my confidence.”
Grateful to her mother for encouraging her, she said, “Both of my parents were very happy it was a bachelor degree programme because education is very important to them. My father is a firm believer in the power of education.”
She graduated from the four-year programme with high honours. By the time she graduated she had already booked an agent and landed her first professional gig with Mirvish Productions, a prestigious theatre company in Toronto.
“It was the Canadian premiere of the Broadway show ‘Kinky Boots’. It is based on a movie and the musical has a score by Grammy winner Cyndi Lauper. I was 21 at the time and not a lot of people get employed immediately upon graduating, let alone at such a high level,” she noted. “I was working with Tony Award winners and international superstars at my very first job. It opened many doors for me in Toronto.”
Sears did not attend her graduation ceremony from Sheridan College because she was working. “It was bittersweet because being employed and practising our craft is the goal. I didn’t walk across the stage at convocation but I was proud to graduate with high honours and to be a graduate from the programme who was already on a major stage in the country,” she added.
World of work
“I’m hardworking, dedicated to my craft and I’m always hustling. My tenacity has led me to work with some of the best directors and choreographers in Canada. I’ve worked on some of the most beautiful stages in Ontario and I’ve been lucky to be recognised with many awards for my work. I’ve had a wide breadth of experience over the years. I don’t take that for granted,” she stated.
“I’ve done film, television and movies but theatre and live performance are unlike any other profession. Being on camera is different from being live with an audience. Musical theatre especially is such a unique art form to tell a story and impact people. The beauty of musical theatre is that it expresses something in a heightened way. I am a big believer in the actual physical vibration that takes place in the theatre. You really can’t capture in words when 50 people, 5,000 people or 15,000 people are all witnessing one event live and going on a journey together. It is so powerful, so visceral, whether it be pure entertainment, politically charged or tragic.”
Conscious of the messages being sent out in her performances, she said, “It is important to me to do work I can stand behind. Free speech is important and we should all be able to express our opinions but I would like the art that I commit to, to be aligned with my values. I’m interested in being a good human and a good member of society and challenging people and making them aware of what’s going on in the world.
“A big part of why I love what I do is that theatre has the power to impact change by connecting with people and healing hearts. People come to stage doors to tell us of the profound impact the shows had on their daily lives.”
‘Kinky Boots’, the first show she performed in, in Toronto was about acceptance, self-love and celebrating differences with glitter, confetti and pop songs. “That show allowed people to see themselves on stage, to celebrate themselves, and to accept others too,” she noted.
After ‘Kinky Boots’, Sears worked with another theatre in downtown Toronto, playing the role of Dorothy in the ‘Wizard of Oz’. “I sang ‘Somewhere Over the Rainbow’ and a bunch of other really iconic songs. That was great for my career in terms of a starring role,” she said.
She has worked at the Shaw Festival and the Stratford Festival, both of which are well-respected repertory theatres where performers are in more than one show at the same time. Some of Canada’s best actors have worked at these festivals and they gave Sears the opportunity to form relationships, gain mentors and learn from veterans of theatre.
Sears also did two shows, ‘Passing Strange’ and ‘Caroline, Or Change’ with Obsidian Theatre, a Black theatre company in Toronto. Both shows focused on the Black experience.
“To be surrounded by so many people who look like me and who are dedicated to telling these stories is really incredible. I had the privilege of playing the daughter of Jully Black in ‘Caroline, Or Change’. It was an absolute privilege to sing with the lead because she has so much experience as a Juno Award-winning R&B singer. We both took home our first individual Dora Awards for our work in that show,” she recalled.
Plays
Last year in Toronto Sears focused on plays. Well known as a musical theatre artist in the performance industry, she wanted audiences to see another side of her work. She performed in ‘King Lear’ in which she played the role of Regan, one of the king’s three daughters.
“King Lear is one of my favourite Shakespeare plays. Our Lear, Tom McCamus, is also an icon of the theatre scene. It was inspiring to watch him work and see his understanding of Shakespeare and it was a privilege to share a stage with him,” she said. “We did that show in rep with the world premiere of a new Canadian play by Erin Shields, ‘Queen Goneril’, a contemporary play set in Shakespearean time which explores the story of Lear’s daughters. All of the actors played the same role in both shows.”
TV and movies
During the pandemic, theatre artists were unable to gather. The entire sector took a hit. Since Sears was not allowed to do live performances she auditioned for film and television in which filming was done from a safe distance along with other safety protocols in place.
She auditioned and secured some small parts on television. “Film and television are things I would like to pursue some more. I had some small parts on some Netflix series and some comedy shows on television that were really cool,” she said.
She booked a starring role in 2020 in the romantic comedy movie, ‘Too Close for Christmas’, with American actor Chad Michael Murray and actress Jessica Lowndes.
“It was my first movie. I second guessed myself because I didn’t study film at school but it was a good experience watching people at the top of their game, working,” she said. It was a Lifetime movie and can be found on Amazon Prime and other streaming channels.
Her next starring role was as Kallie in the Hallmark movie ‘14 Love Letters’. “We got to shoot on a farm and we were surrounded by animals, goats and horses and a gorgeous setting in the summertime,” she said.
She has since had several auditions for other movies and has done some other Hallmark films. Last year she was the lead in the Christmas movie, ‘Sappy Holiday’, which is about a big city New York girl, an aspiring chef, who fell in love with a maple farmer. “It was so funny to me because I grew up in Deep River and went to maple farms growing up. We did pancake lunches and learned how to tap the trees for sap. While we were filming, I was like, this feels like home. I was able to reflect on where I came from and where I had gotten to,” she said.
With the experiences she has gained, Sears has begun to pursue training as a director in Toronto. “I’m very passionate about being an effective leader, to bring about change, create powerful stories and art, so I began to study directing. It is demanding but exciting as I explore different sides of myself to see what I can offer,” Sears said.
She recently applied and was selected for an independent study programme in directing through the National Theatre School of Canada.
Music and art being entrenched in Caribbean culture is among the reasons she is keen on developing a closer relationship with the region where, “The music is so much a part of daily life. Musical theatre as an art form is trying to catch up to that. We have calypso and reggae musicals being workshopped, people are investigating this sound in a different way. I’m excited to be part of the team of artists to bring those things together.”
