With a quiet strength and a focus on community, this Broadway star is carving out space for young artists to thrive.

Words by Brielle Diskin, Photography by Dio Anthony

WWhen Alison Jaye stepped on stage as a young Joyce Byers in Stranger Things: The First Shadow—the Broadway prequel to the hit Netflix series—I was hit. Confident, commanding, and surprisingly funny, she brought the kind of energy that rewires a room. But Jaye’s Joyce isn’t just a younger version of Winona Ryder’s character; she’s a fully realized teenage girl in 1959 Hawkins, powered by the restless ambition that often comes with small-town adolescence.

I saw the show on a Sunday, which felt fitting: Jaye made her Broadway debut at age ten in Stephen Sondheim’s Sunday in the Park with George. Now, she is not only a performer, but a leader — playing a teenage Joyce directing a school play, while offstage, guiding a cast of mostly first-time Broadway actors. In either role, Jaye takes it upon herself to set the right tone for everyone.

Brielle Diskin: Let’s warm up. What piece of pop culture would you say raised you?

Alison Jaye: Honestly… music. I grew up on a lot of my dad’s favorite musicians: Tom Petty, the Rolling Stones, the Grateful Dead. My mom went to Studio 54 as a teenager, so there was also a lot of disco in the house.

I see some early credits on your resume. You started acting when you were pretty young, correct?

Yes, kind of by accident actually. My parents wanted me to have an after-school activity I’d enjoy, so they brought me to a local community theater. The woman who ran it saw something in me and connected us with a manager. Not long after, I had my first audition—for Sunday in the Park with George on Broadway with Stephen Sondheim in the room. I had just turned ten.

Wait, you auditioned in front of Sondheim?

He was there at my callbacks. I didn’t know many songs yet, so I performed something from Into the Woods. I sang Sondheim for Sondheim. It was wild.

What a way to break into the business.

It really was! That was my first job, and it shaped my entire life. The cast were some of the most phenomenal people I’ve ever worked with. They raised me on stage and showed me what it means to be an artist and how to take care of each other in this industry.

What’s the biggest shift from being on Broadway then to now?

Responsibility. There are two young girls in Stranger Things who are about the age I was during Sunday in the Park with George, and I see myself in them. Our cast is 34 people, and 20 are making their Broadway debut. I want to help set the tone and show them what a healthy, collaborative process can feel like. I had that. Now I want to pay it forward.

Your version of Stranger Things’s Joyce really comes across as a natural leader. Were you like that in high school?

The show has actually helped me remember a lot about that time, which we often kind of bury. I’ve always been a leader, but more of a quiet one. I’ve always been more of a quiet leader. I’ve never tried to gather people around me; rather, I’ve just been in my lane, doing my thing, and whoever joins along the way is welcome. That’s the gem for me.

You’re playing a teenager in 1959. No phone, no social media. How did you tap into that era of girlhood?

I love this question! The costumes really helped. Our designer dressed me in pants to reflect how Joyce is more of a tomboy and she is actually the only girl in the show who wears pants. I appreciated it as a nod to her freedom. She’s different from the other girls. Even though she's stuck in a small town, she has so much hope to get out.

Did anything about it feel relatable?

All of it. The need to be seen. The humor as armor. The hope. That’s the beauty of Stranger Things, really. A bunch of outcasts finding solace in each other.

Did you ever direct a play like Joyce does in the show?

Oh my gosh no! I would have liked to—maybe in an alternate reality. I was a big theater and choir kid, and I remember every day I sat at my lockers, near the choir room with my four friends. That's where we felt super safe and comfortable. We would do bits in the hallway… you know, all the weird theater kid stuff.

You bring so much physical energy to the role. Do you have a pre-show ritual?

Absolutely. It takes me about an hour. I do a 20-minute vocal warm-up, use my nebulizer, do Pilates, meditate, and then right before curtain I do a two-minute plank with a pump-up song blasting.

A two-minute plank is so impressive! I too love pilates, do you have any recommendations for videos?

I’ve been using this app for months called Melissa Wood Health. I could not recommend it more.

I love Melissa Wood! It’s so great how your routine involves both the mental and the physical. Why is it important to you to have both of the buckets filled before you go out on stage?

For me, the mental and physical can’t be separate. I need to be aligned to show up as the best version of myself. For the audience, but also for my castmates. If my body feels strong but my mind is not in it, I feel off. So I treat them like one thing: same water, two buckets.