BWW Interviews: Trista Dollison in SISTER ACT: Singing with Great Joy!

Every night for the next three weeks Trista Dollison dons a nun's habit and lights up the stage of Brunswick's Maine State Music Theatre with her sassy, soulful, exuberant portrayal of Deloris Van Cartier in Sister Act - the cabaret singer who teaches the joy of music to a sleepy convent of Philadelphia nuns. It's a part she seems born to play and one which reflects her overall love of singing.

"It's a great role, hands down!" she enthuses in the last days of rehearsal before the June 25th opening. "I had seen the show on Broadway twice and auditioned more than twice, so I am delighted to be here doing it now. It is one of those shows that rides on your back. She has such great songs and is in every scene. She is such a fierce and fabulous character! I love the fact that she starts off in a selfish world and evolves into being the hope for these sisters, and the sisters become the hope for her. The journey within the show is so beautiful: she realizes she is helping the nuns, and they realize they are helping her. She awakens something that is lost in the convent - a passion and joy."

The actress, who was trained as an operatic soprano, finds the Menken-Slater musical score "challenging and intricate with difficult harmonies. It has some very low points and then passages for high soprano, and fast tempi. It just keeps truckin' along." She also observes that anyone undertaking the role of Deloris has to contend with the memory of Whoopi Goldberg in the movie version. "But, Whoopi has always said, 'don't watch me; do your own Deloris,' and that is what I am trying to do. Donna Drake, [the director], has been amazing is helping us find so many things in the show. She isn't afraid to ask performers like Kingsley [Leggs, the original Curtis] what they have done before, but then she always has her own take."

Dollison, who played Lorell Robinson at MSMT in the 2013 season in Dreamgirls, is delighted to be back in Maine, "though it's been awfully cold this year," the Florida native confesses. "The people here are so welcoming. When the cast goes out around town, they are so friendly. I feel like Beyoncé," she laughs.

Dollison grew up in Florida, where she sang in chorus and at church early on and then went to a performing arts high school. "I saw my first opera when I was in ninth grade, and I was so in awe of the singers that I succumbed to the performing bug then and there. I started doing musicals in summer camps and community theatre. At sixteen I had a role in Little Shop of Horrors, which was so much fun!" After high school Dollison attended Florida Southern University as a voice major. She developed her classical soprano at the same time that she performed some musical theatre. "I felt as if I had two things going," she recalls. "I had planned to go on to graduate school for more opera training, but then I got a job with the tour of Lion King, and that sealed the deal. When you are in your early twenties and opportunity like that presents itself, it was too good to miss. So here I am at MSMT,"she concludes with a smile "because I turned left instead of right!"

She spent two and a half years with that tour, and it proved to be an invaluable seasoning experience. "When you are twenty, there are so many firsts. I left home for real (because at college I was only hours away); I learned to do things on my own. The tour members became my family. They are your consistency in a very non-consistent experience."

When Dollison left Lion King, she decided to try her luck in New York. "The actors who would join the tour would talk about their lives in the city, and I decided I wanted to try my chances. I wanted to chase the dream." Equity card in hand, she tendered her resignation with "tears," and over the consternation of her parents moved into a sublet of a friend's apartment and began auditioning. It only took her two months to land a role in Lion King on Broadway. Since that time she has appeared in Avenue Q, Dreamgirls, Hairspray, Stand Tall, Buddy Holly, and Little Shop of Horrors in New York and in regional theatres.

Quite a resume for only having been in New York for a few years! Asked if she feels there are enough opportunities for African-American artists in the theatre, Dollison replies: "There are quite a few ensemble parts, but not enough leading roles like Deloris. I find there are roles with show-stopping numbers, good supporting parts, but not necessarily interesting, well-rounded characters with a lot of heart, like here in Sister Act. In this show you have this saucy character who turns the convent world upside down, and everyone is so excited and happy!" Continuing this theme Dollison says her dream would be to play something like Eliza Doolittle in My Fair Lady, though she realizes color blind casting is rarely the reality in theatre. She thinks change will come through new writers, who create plays for black actors.

When she is not performing on stage, however, Dollison pursues another musical passion that is very much about diversity and outreach. She is a member of the select choral group, Broadway Inspirational Voices, a not-for-profit choir of some seventy singers and musicians from the New York theatre community. Led by Michael McElroy, this multi-ethnic, multi-denominational group seeks to provide outreach concerts, recordings, showcases, and workshops to children, teens, and young adult to further their cultural enrichment. Dollison calls the group "my spiritual family within the business. Michael writes music and conducts. We just performed a concert two weeks ago before I came here, and we have a second CD coming out soon called Great Joy 2. For me it is a way to give back because I find it so hard to imagine kids who don't have access to music," she says simply.

It's a way for Trista Dollison to share her own joy in singing, just as when she is onstage as Deloris she celebrates a character for whom music-making is an expression of her soul. "I hope the audience takes away from Sister Act the heart within the smiles. This comedy has many moments you don't expect, and I hope they will cry a little, too. It really is an emotional experience."

And a joyful one.

Photos courtesy MSMT, Cliff Kucine, photographer

Sister Act runs from June 25-July 11, 2015 at Maine State Music Theatre, Brunswick, ME. www.msmt.org

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