Photo: Jenna Bainbridge | By Jennifer Meckles, 9News – KUSA-TV | Time flies – faster than a witch on her broom – when you’re having fun. And Jenna Bainbridge is having a blast these days. “I just passed my six-week mark on Broadway with ‘Wicked,’ and it’s wild how fast that happened,” the actress shared during a break between shows this week. “I feel like I just started, and suddenly we’re like, full on into the swing of it!”
Bainbridge, a Colorado native, stars in Broadway’s beloved musical “Wicked.” She plays Nessarose, the younger sister of the green witch Elphaba – but her storyline develops into a more complex character as the story progresses. Nessarose uses a wheelchair.
In the show’s decades-long history on Broadway, Bainbridge is the first actor who uses a wheelchair to play Nessarose. She is an ambulatory wheelchair user, meaning she uses mobility devices but doesn’t require them all the time.
“I became paralyzed very suddenly when I was 16 months old. I’m now partially paralyzed from the waist down,” Bainbridge said. “I use a wheelchair, but I also am able to walk and stand … so I live my life really as a mix of both wheelchair user and walking.”
In this history-making role, Bainbridge joins Marissa Bode – the actress playing Nessarose on screen in the film “Wicked,” released last year. Bode is also a wheelchair user.
“I think it is so important that disabled characters always need to be played by disabled actors because there is nothing like personal lived experience that can inform your storytelling better,” she said.
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Go here to read the full story:
https://www.msn.com/en-us/health/medical/colorado-actress-disability-advocate-makes-history-on-broadway-in-wicked/
Photo: Jenna Bainbridge in How to Succeed in Business …
Photo by Michael Emsinger for Phamaly Theater
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