By Stacey Dresner

West Hartford native Sydney Weiser got the chance to walk the boards in Playhouse on Park’s production of “Indecent” last month.

Weiser, who was an understudy for several roles, took over the role of Chana in the play when another actress became ill. Weiser continued in that role – and a few other parts – until the show ended late last month.

Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Paula Vogel’s “Indecent” tells the story of the controversial 1923 Broadway debut of Sholem Asch’s “God of Vengeance,” a 1907 play about a forbidden lesbian romance which was very controversial at the time.

“Indecent” follows the path of the artists who risked their careers in order to perform it. It pays tribute to the Yiddish, immigrant families, Jews, theater makers, and the women, specifically the queer women, who are erased from historical narratives. The production, which ran from January 25 through February 26, was directed by Kelly O’Donnell, with music direction by Alexander Sovronsky and choreography by Katie Stevinson-Nollet.

West Hartford Magazine spoke to Weiser during the last week of the play’s run at Playhouse on Park.

“My role on this project has been the ‘swing,’ which means I understudy all of the female tracks. In this show, there are three female actor tracks and all of the women in the show play at least four characters,” Weiser explained. “When one of the actresses had to go out for a couple of performances, I stepped into the role of Hana, so I cover four women. That actually means that there’s 20 parts that are all different people. And there’s no such thing as a small character in the show there. It’s super intense. There’s tons of text and everyone has different transitions and choreography.”

“The play is about Jewish lesbian prostitutes, and sanctimonious, hypocritical people who are also deeply religious,” Weiser added. “As a Jewish person who is also a queer person, it’s incredible to see the intersection of these two identities that are tremendously important to me. And in such a loving and tender way that it’s a real celebration of Jewish culture. When I’m on that stage, I feel so connected to my family and my ancestors.”

Weiser, 24, grew up in West Hartford, the daughter of Dr. Jeffrey and Carolyn Weiser.  She attended the Solomon Schechter Day School, William H. Hall High School and the Greater Hartford Academy of the Arts. She later attended Marymount Manhattan College in New York City, where she double majored in musical theater and directing. When she graduated in 2021, she was valedictorian of her class and received the Gold Key for excellence in musical theater.

Weiser has been in front of West Hartford audiences many times before. Her mother, Carolyn Weiser was the director of the Mandell Jewish Community Center’s children and teen theater program for many years, and Sydney appeared in all of the productions.

“My first show there was Pippin, when I was in the second grade. There was one kid role in the high school production,” she recalled.  “We did Alice in Wonderland, Footloose, Legally Blonde Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat.”

Did she know back then that she wanted to be a performer?

“I think I got the bug, as they say, pretty young,” Weiser said. “But there were times when I was like, ‘what if I become a cantor? What if I become a doctor?’ But this has been a pretty clear path for me.”

That path led her to spend half of her school days at the Academy of the Arts.

“I was in the musical theater department. So we were getting ballet, jazz, tap,  voice lessons and acting classes. And that was phenomenal, because that meant I would go to my first five periods of the day at Hall High School, where I got all my academics in, and then, during the lunch period, I would drive or take the bus over to  the  Academy and then have all my arts classes in the afternoon.”

Since college, Weiser’s roles have included Sandy in The Spongebob Musical and Columbia in The Rocky Horror Show, both at  The Barn Theatre; and Ella in Windywoo and Her Naughty Naughty Pets  at the Legacy Legacy Theatre.

Last May, Weiser was invited back to Marymount as a guest director of “I’m Living in a Wonderland,” a play by Marymount student Antonia Sentebale.

“That’s  technically like [being] adjunct faculty, which was absolutely wild. I was very honored to be invited back to my alma mater,” Weiser said.

“Since I graduated I’ve been working pretty consistently  at various regional theaters, which means I’m hopping all over the country, from Michigan to North Carolina to Maine to New Hampshire.”

Since graduating she has been based back home in West Hartford, traveling to audition in cities like New York and Chicago, and making her own video audition self tapes to send to casting agents. Auditioning “requires a lot of resilience. There’s so much rejection and uncertainty and it requires a lot of flexibility and openness to whatever is going to happen.”

“My goal is to be a working actor to make my livelihood in theater,” Weiser continued. “And if I were on Broadway, that would be absolutely incredible. You know, that’s the dream. But I think what I’d love for people to understand is that there’s good theater in so many places.”

MAIN PHOTO: COURTESY SYDNEY WEISER