Rising Stars: Meet Becca Ayers

Hi Becca, we’re thrilled to have a chance to learn your story today. So, before we get into specifics, maybe you can briefly walk us through how you got to where you are today. 
I grew up in Columbia, MO. The summer before my sophomore year, my family moved to Orange County, CA, and I attended the Orange County High School of the Arts. I went back to Missouri to go to Stephens women’s college and got my BFA in theater. I moved to Kansas City for a brief time and got a gig that would lead to a role cast out of NYC. I was understudying a New York actress in a show that came to Wichita by the name of “Silver Dollar” and the writer, who was also from New York, saw me sing at a promotional event one day when the woman I was understudying wasn’t feeling well. This writer (Mary Bracken-Phillips) said she had a friend (Julianne Boyd) who was directing “Cabaret” at Barrington Stage Company and wanted a young, fresh Sally Bowles. I flew to New York and got it! So, I moved to NYC knowing that I had a job to start in a month! That show got picked up at the Cambridge Theater Company in Massachusetts and ended up being a six-month gig. I also got my first agent out of that show! I landed my first Broadway show, “Avenue Q”, and continued to perform in five more Broadway shows, the last of which was the all-female/trans/non-binary revival of “1776” at the Roundabout.

At age 40, things really started slowing down for me, so I started writing pilots, in hopes to get more things with women (and more diversity in general) on the screen that aren’t just invisible moms and witches… I’ve written five pilots, so far, and am still searching for a literary agent.

Tonight, I have a gig with some friends of our original songs in the village at a venue called Carrol Place. It’s great to keep busy with my own projects when I am not working, and I’m grateful that auditions are finally starting to pick up again!

I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
As I mentioned before, it’s not easy aging as a woman in this business, but I’m grateful (as in the case of “1776”) that more opportunities are opening up for people of all genders and races. In 2016, I had colorectal cancer, and I was understudying in “Dear Evan Hansen” off-Broadway. This was before Broadway’s big reckoning, and I had come from that old school frame of thought where one is not allowed to be sick, so I hid it from the powers-that-be. That was a tough time, especially since my only run-through on stage and in costume (for both characters, simultaneously) was, also, my first day of chemo.

Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
I am most proud of an amazing show I was in called “Sarah, Plain in Tall”, in which I played the titular character. It was written by Laurence O’Keefe and Nell Benjamin and started out at Theatreworks USA. We performed the ninety-minute version off-Broadway at the Lucille Lortel, and it was such a hit – such a beautiful story – that we expanded it to a full length at the O’Neill Festival and then at Dallas Theater Center. Sadly, it never made it to Broadway, but it was certainly good enough to. I’ve been fortunate to be able to understudy (and go on) a lot on Broadway, and hope to have a leading role someday. I’m climbing the rungs very slowly, as in “1776” (wherein I played the Scottish guy; Col. Thomas McKean) was the first role on Broadway that I was lucky enough to originate. I also written tons of songs on guitar and uke that can all be found here: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/4oVpNoI5clPX2L750zhfbN?si=4f30978c79d84e1b. I have the good fortune of performing a few of those songs tonight at a show conceived by Jewels Nation entitled “Go, Love”

Is there anything else you’d like to share with our readers?
If performing is something that interests you try to keep in mind that everyone’s path is different. It’s not necessarily like climbing the corporate ladder. There can be exciting work followed by long dry spells. I have found that the trick is to find things that sustain you during those downtimes. What allows you to express yourself creativity? Can you turn that into work? If not, at least you’re still honing your craft! Enjoy the ride!