INTERVIEW: A ‘Sister Act’ debut, two years in the making
Photo: Nicole Vanessa Ortiz stars in Sister Act at Paper Mill Playhouse. Photo courtesy of Jeremy Daniel / Provided by The Press Room with permission.
For Nicole Vanessa Ortiz — a singer, songwriter and storyteller — the wait for her debut in Sister Act at the Paper Mill Playhouse has been a long time coming. The performer, who plays the central role of Deloris Van Cartier in the musical, first auditioned for the role more than two years ago, in those halcyon days before the world starting talking about a pandemic. Throughout the ensuing months, she waited patiently for her Paper Mill debut, and now she’s finally gracing the stage at the theater in Millburn, New Jersey. Performances continue through Sunday, June 26.
“It was actually in 2020, and the auditions I believe were in the month of January,” Ortiz said in a recent phone interview. “True story, prior to 2020, I had gotten sick at the end of 2019, and I had a lot of lingering symptoms from an upper respiratory infection that I had toward the end of that year. It sort of dissipated afterward, and then literally a day and a half before my audition — I remember it like it was yesterday, my audition was on Jan. 9, 2020 — I had a fever.”
Looking back on this lingering sickness reminds Ortiz of the health crisis to come. She almost called out of that audition because of the fever; she didn’t want to infect anyone else. The audition went on, with Ortiz keeping her distance in the large room, and she remembers singing “Take Me to Heaven” and “Fabulous, Baby!”
“By God’s grace, it went well,” she said. “I was able to phonate, but I felt a little bit not like myself because for an audition like Deloris Van Cartier, I probably would have had on heels and the whole nine. And I wasn’t able to wear heels because my body was fatigued. My head was pounding, and everything was out of sorts except for my voice, thank God. And so I remember on audition #1, I finished both songs, and everyone at the table looked at me. They were like, ‘What do you sound like when you’re not sick?’ I was like, ‘Healthy.’ We all had a really nice laugh together.”
Sister Act, of course, is the successful musical based on the hit Whoopi Goldberg movie from the 1990s, according to press notes. The character of Deloris Van Cartier witnesses a murder and needs go into hiding, so she ends up seeking anonymous refuge in a convent. Hilarity ensues when her free spirit clashes with the reserved nature of the nuns.
“I got an email at the end of that day saying that they were interested to see me again for the last callback, and the following week I didn’t have a fever,” Ortiz said. “I was still dealing with a couple other things, and I went in for my last callback that following week. And I went over some of the scenes from Act II, and I got to perform in front of the creative team of the Paper Mill Playhouse. That’s always intimidating because the first audition is just a couple of people at a table, and then when you go to that last callback, it’s all these people at a table with cameras. You try to ignore it and just treat it like any other audition.”
After this callback, Ortiz received that exciting email confirming that she had landed the role at the Paper Mill Playhouse. She called the experience of hearing this news surreal, with everything spinning in her life. In many ways, that email was the culmination of a long dedication to the arts. Ortiz has been interested in singing ever since she was a child growing up in New Jersey, according to her official biography. Her early influences were Whitney Houston, Aretha Franklin, Chaka Khan, Luther Vandross and Celine Dion. She studied musical theater, but also diversified her musical output by learning gospel, blues, jazz and other forms of music.
“At the time, although being a native of New Jersey, the only familiar understanding that I had about theater in Jersey was what I was exposed to during high school because I attended Arts High School of Performing Arts out of Newark, New Jersey, so I was a part of a lot of youth programs out of the New Jersey Performing Arts Center,” she said. “I also did a lot of community theater at the Newark Symphony Hall.”
When she booked Sister Act, she didn’t realize how storied the Paper Mill Playhouse is — with its critically acclaimed productions, Broadway transfers and Tony-winning success. This theater in the heart of New Jersey is a tried-and-true creator of the arts, and Ortiz was now part of the family.
“Everyone was super-happy for me, and it shifted my energy,” Ortiz said about the experience. “I was like, oh wait, this is bigger than I thought. It was the innocent naivete of not knowing about how extreme this was, and we got started with Sister Act in March of that year. We knocked out all of Act I during the first week of rehearsals, but then the next thing you know, we were closed down by the end of that week. I believe our last day in rehearsals was March 13, and we thought we were going to be on break for two weeks after everything got figured out. But then two weeks turned into two years, and it’s crazy to see how everything just came back full circle after two years and some change.”
She added: “And now we’re about a week and a half away from closing, and it’s a little bittersweet because it’s such a special, special show and a special company. I’m taking it in everyday. I’m just really grateful for the position I’m in.”
By John Soltes / Publisher / John@HollywoodSoapbox.com
Sister Act, starring Nicole Vanessa Ortiz, continues through Sunday, June 26 at the Paper Mill Playhouse in Millburn, New Jersey. Click here for more information and tickets.
