半岛体育

Charity Ang茅l Dawson lives up to her name. To wit, she regularly makes food for the cast of & Juliet: 鈥淪aturday night on Broadway, we will hang after the show,鈥� she tells 半岛体育. 鈥淪o I made some vegan brisket sliders for the cast.鈥� She then chuckles with pleasure. 鈥淥h gosh, they love that. I prioritize it because I enjoy it and I love to feed people that I care about.鈥� It is that maternal energy and innate positivity that Dawson has been infusing into her roles lately, and one that鈥檚 made her a favorite for Broadway fans.

Dawson currently plays Nurse Angelique, mother figure and confidante for Juliet, in the hit Max Martin jukebox musical & Juliet. She took over that role in January. That same month, the Waitress pro-shot was released on demand, which featured Dawson in the role of Becky opposite Sara Bareilles as Jenna. Angelique and Becky share a similar DNA鈥攖hey both provide some tough love to the more soft-hearted main characters and they both sing killer power ballads (鈥淔鈥搃ng Perfect鈥� for the former and 鈥淚 Didn鈥檛 Plan It鈥� for the latter).

And crucially, both characters have no problems admitting their flaws鈥攖hey may have made mistakes but they are unashamed about it. Or as Dawson sums it up, 鈥淟ook around. No saints here, baby," she says. "We're all just trying to make it. I am drawn to things like that鈥攖he complexities of our human experience. Like, who's the good guy, who's the bad guy? It's just life.鈥�

But back to those vegan brisket sliders. When she鈥檚 not on the stage, Dawson runs her own vegan soul food business called Who Tryna Get A Plate?!. It was a venture she started during the pandemic and has since kept up with. In fact, 鈥淚鈥檓 gonna cook when we get off this call,鈥� says Dawson.

Dawson鈥檚 love of performance and food grew simultaneously. She did musical theatre as a teenager at Valley Youth Theatre in Phoenix, Arizona (she and Emma Stone even did a show together). Then, when it came time to decide on a career, she debated between culinary school and acting. 鈥淲hen I was growing up, I used to want to have a restaurant,鈥� she recalls. 鈥淚 didn't know that Broadway was a career, or that acting was something I could do for a career.鈥�

But that soon changed when she went to New York for the first time for a Mesa Community College trip and attended her first Broadway show. Dawson then auditioned for and got into the American Musical and Dramatic Academy and since then, has won over audiences with her bombastic high notes and loving personality as Mamma Morton in Chicago, Wanda in Mrs. Doubtfire, the scene-stealing Nurse Norma in Waitress and later Becky in the same musical.

Though Dawson is also interested in leading a musical (she鈥檚 done workshops of an Ella Fitzgerald bio-musical where she played the legendary jazz singer), to her any character is an opportunity to make an impression.

鈥淚 played Nurse Norma, I loved that. I loved creating Nurse Norma,鈥� she enthuses of the role she originated in Waitress, an OBGYN nurse with a keen eye and a love for pie. 鈥淚t鈥檚 a supporting, featured ensemble role. But I got to have a blast doing that. And it left such an impression on people. And now Nurse Norma is her own thing. So you can take whatever role you have, and really dive in and make it a full-bodied person.鈥�

Acting took her away from cooking for a while. Then during the pandemic, that old dream of owning a restaurant peaked its head out. 鈥淚 was at home, just cooking and playing around with recipes. It was kind of a therapeutic thing for me,鈥� recalls Dawson, who鈥檚 a pescatarian. 鈥淎nd my friends would try the food. And they were like, 鈥榊ou need to sell this.鈥� And the more I did it, the more feedback I got. Then I realized, 鈥極h, I'm just tapping into the old passion that I had, that's now being reborn.鈥�

Dawson started cooking for small dinner parties, as well as taking orders and delivering to customers. But she has dreams of growing it. She鈥檚 currently waiting on approval to move into a commercial kitchen, which will allow her to scale up her operations鈥攈er future dreams for the business include doing pop-up dining experiences, selling her vegan biscuits to local grocery stores, and eventually opening up a restaurant.

For Dawson, the cooking feeds the acting, and vice versa. 鈥淭hey are both very creative,鈥� says Dawson. 鈥淐reating something vegan, out of nothing鈥攍ike making a vegan brisket out of a bag of flour鈥攊t brings me joy. To go from this five pound bag of flour to this vegan meaty brisket and people going, 鈥榃ait a minute, I'm a meat eater, but this is brisket.鈥� I feel just as good as I do when I give a great performance. So it's feeding and serving me in a lot of ways.鈥�

This care doesn鈥檛 just manifest itself as food. Dawson let 半岛体育 into her dressing room backstage at & Juliet, which has become something of a community space. On the wall is a whiteboard where Melanie La Barrie, the original Nurse Angelique, wrote a message to Dawson: 鈥淵ou are the only Angelique.鈥� Dawson also has a puzzle station, for anyone to come and play when they鈥檙e not onstage. Folks regularly lounge on the recliner near her make-up table.

Dawson admits she鈥檚 an empath and 鈥渁n introvert in an extroverted field.鈥� So it鈥檚 important for her, especially when the wider world is so tumultuous and filled with negativity, to be in an environment where she is able to spread positivity and joy鈥攚hether that鈥檚 making mushrooms taste like fried chicken or belting out 鈥淔鈥搃ng Perfect鈥� on the stage of the Stephen Sondheim Theatre.

鈥淲hat I can do is get on stage and tell this beautiful story. And share light and love and hope with everyone that I possibly can鈥t's looking at what I can possibly do, and that's bring this balm and bring this salve to people's hearts.鈥�

Below, go backstage with Charity Ang茅l Dawson as she gets into character for & Juliet.

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Photos: Charity Ang茅l Dawson Prepares For & Juliet

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