In the summer of 2022, I had the honor of playing Evelyn Nesbit in Ragtime at South Eastern Summer Theatre Institute. A program I’ve been involved in for many years. It was directed by Joe Barros, music directed by Andrew Austin, choreographed by Bakari King and associate directed by Peter Williams. Preparing for this role was very special for me because Evelyn Nesbit was a real figure who lived and impacted the world. I prepared for this role by reading Evelyn Nesbit’s memoir, Tragic Beauty. Reading her memoir helped inform me to portray her as historically accurate as I could, because even though her story is portrayed as very light hearted in the musical, she lived such a difficult life of exploitation, constantly having to be in survival mode.

I had a unique approach to this role, because I did not let the romanticization of vaudeville get in the way of portraying that she was a victim in her life. Evelyn Nesbit was a vaudeville star of the early 1900s who was repeatedly exploited and abused by older men in order to make money as a model to provide for her family. She grew up in poverty and sadly, her story ended in her being stuck in the situation of testifying for her lover after he had just shot her ex. Portraying the true psychological effects that these events can have on a person, even in a scene where things are seemingly happy, was very important to me during my process. I was also nominated in the Broadway World South Carolina Regional Awards for Best Supporting Actress in a musical for my role of Evelyn.