Actress Jenny Wanasek has been working in Milwaukee theaters for many years. She trained at UWM during the days of the professional acting program, and has graced the stages of most of the professional theaters in town. Wanasek has played roles that run the gamut from Emily Dickinson in The Belle of Amherst to Aunt Sponge in James and the Giant Peach.
She’s also been a regular with Milwaukee Chamber Theatre, acting in (among others), Lost in Yonkers, The Immigrant, and Mrs. Warren’s Profession. Now she is tackling the role of Sonia in the Christopher Durang comedy, Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike, which just opened at the Broadway Theatre Center.
After years in the theater, she says this play is an opportunity to give back to Milwaukee's theater community and hopefully influence younger performers. "Now, being the middle-aged actress in the play... I have this sense that I, too, get to pass something on," she says. "I hope that I can set a good example and be an inspiration to them somehow."
Wanasek has performed in theaters throughout the Milwaukee area, and believes the city offers a unique theatrical community unlike those you find in other cities.
"Actors who work in other places in the country let us know here in Milwaukee just how special our community is in terms of how we have so many people who are so dedicated to telling the story of the play rather than putting themselves forward," says Wasanek. "And that makes a huge difference in the feeling in the room, in your ability to craft a story. And then it hones the skills of the actors who are doing it so that they get better and better each time instead of cheaper and cheaper."
This originally aired August 13, 2016. Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike is in its final weekend.
