Drama Queens, a five-star arts journal focusing on female artists

Rebecca Codas talks the talk, walks the walk, and sings the song.

She offers her phenominal voice – not only as entertainment – but for those whose “voice” is often ignored by traditional theatre/television/film. Codes makes use of what some might call privilege and blends it with that other part of her – the plus-size, queer, Jewish, and female part.

Rebecca is the rep of the unrepresented in the world of story-telling. 

We sat with her and explored her musical style and its roots.

What difficulties did/do you face now in your career?

I’ve always been a plus size person and while it’s such a small part of who I am, physical appearance plays a big part in how one’s cast. The average size of an American woman today (according to Forbes) is a size 16, but if you look at all of the media we consume you’d never know it. Fat people are conspicuously missing from so many narratives even today. And when they do exist, they’re often played by straight-sized actors in fat suits. (the most recent example of this is Renée Zelwegger in the highly anticipated new show The Thing About Pam, but there are countless more) In the rare times where we get an actual fat leading actor, it’s usually only in cases where the entirely storyline exists around their size (Dumpling, Hairspray, This Is Us). We don’t get to see fat people just existing in the world, dealing with issues that *surprise* have nothing to do with their size or how the world perceives them because of it. There have been exceptions to this rule (Melissa McCarthy’s brilliant film-work, Bonnie Milligan’s meteoric rise on the stage) but we have so much more work to do. 

What’s harder; being from another country or being a woman?

I definitely notice a bigger difference between my cis-male friends and myself than between my American friends and myself. 

What’s your “style” as in: what type of music do you like to sing and what is your creative process?

Oof. That’s a hard one. You’d laugh if you could see my Apple Music library. From musical cast recordings to Britney Spears’ entire catalogue, U2’s The Joshua Tree followed by Frank Ocean’s Blond. I love to sing it all (especially in the car, just ask my dog!) If I had to narrow down what I would want to sing more long term, I look to vocalists like Adele, Yebba, H.E.R., Lizzo, women who tell their own stories with their music and really feature their own distinct voices. When it comes to musicals, I have a couple of secret dream roles but the real dream would be to originate my own. Looking at past work we are of course forever indebted to and I have endless love for Stephen Sondheim for what he’s done for the genre, and I love love love the work of composers like Bill Finn, Shaina Taub, Pasek & Paul, and Michael R. Jackson. There are so many exciting new musical theatre composers that emerge on the daily and to work with a new writer would be a dream come true. 

My creative process differs depending on the project, but in terms of acting it was definitely honed over the past few years with my time as a student at The William Esper Studio here in New York. I studied the Meisner acting technique under the incredible Jennifer Monaco who helped me completely reshape and reimagine how I approach my work. Instead of looking at every role as an entirely new person that we must  lose ourselves completely to inhabit, we were taught to ask ourselves “who is this version of me?” and go from there. My approach to the world as Rebecca will –in all likelihoods– differ from the character I’m being asked to play. But there’s usually more in common than one would think, buried beneath. Using the tools from my time at the studio, I find a way to discover parts of that character that already exist within myself. Then I determine which parts are far enough away from me to require extra crafting to make myself believe as the character does. None of it is falsified or fake, nor am I developing amnesia and forgetting who I am. Because I spent so much time discovering what matters to me (both unconsciously and consciously) at the studio, I’m able to use that knowledge to make what’s important to this version of me matter too. 

Pair that introspective process with a healthy vocal-warm up, and some Alexander Technique exercises and I am ready to go!

What is your ultimate goal now? (producer, recording artist, etc…)

This question makes me think of how they open the Screen Actor’s Guild awards. Every year they pan around the audience, stopping on a famous person for them to say: “I’m [insert famous actor] and I’m an actor.” That’s the dream, that’s the goal. I want to tell stories and discover new parts of myself that I didn’t even know were there. I want to explore new worlds and delve deeper into ones that already exist. I want to play and make mistakes and do it all again the next night in an entirely different way. What could possibly be better than that?

What’s next?

I have a lot of exciting projects on the horizon. There are quite a few readings I’ve been asked to be a part of, and I intend to continue my cabaret series with Broadway’s Madeline Benson (nee Smith) here in New York!