Elizabeth A. Davis Didn’t Plan Pregnancy on Broadway After Miscarriage

Elizabeth A. Davis Open Broadway’s 1776 She was seven months pregnant when she gave birth last week.

Davis, 41 years old, portrays Founding Father Thomas Jefferson in this revival. It is a groundbreaking take on the musical that features performers who identify themselves as female, transgender and non-binary.

Davis told PEOPLE that he never imagined being in this situation. “I had two.” [miscarriages] In 2021. “That’s why it was so shocking that I found out that I was actually pregnant.”

Tony Award nominee, her husband, and TV and film director. Jordan Richard — who share 5-year-old son Josiah — began trying for another baby when the theater industry The crowd went silent and completely virtual. COVID-19 pandemic. Davis was also pregnant, but she did not survive to full term.

“I realized I was entering a world that very few people knew existed. It was a place of great pain. So … It was an ocean deep,” she says. “It was almost a privilege to be able to enter that world. Artists are alchemists. We are alchemists because we can feel the pain and empathize with it. Then we turn that pain into meaning.

Davis was a singer, songwriter and musician who began to channel her emotional pain into her art. Richard was also a partner in the creation of a short film titled For You — an impromptu venture during a pre-planned trip to Italy in hopes to provide comfort to others who endured or would experience the same private pain.

As 1776 While she performed out of town at Boston’s American Repertory Theater, Richard wasn’t likely to try again for another child. Davis, however, had a vision that was bigger than she.

“I knew that there would be a pregnant actress on stage portraying the role of Thomas Jefferson, who was the lover famously responsible for the birth of the Declaration. [of Independence]She explains that ‘that was exactly what the show was trying to convey’.

Instantly, the role of Founding Father took on a new meaning. “Historically, [his wife] Davis says Martha had a miscarriage at home while Davis was in Philadelphia writing the Declaration. “There are so many layers of complexity on top of each other that the pregnancy just seems … to make it feel like the most unbelievably delicious creative meal I’ve ever been able to partake in.”

“I consider this miraculous,” she says. “I feel as though I don’t control the story right now. It’s so liberating. It’s a gift and you don’t always have to take credit for it.

Davis and Richard are expecting a baby girl Jan. 1, 2023. The Broadway actress hopes to continue performing in the role. 1776 Until Christmas. Davis is a member of a transgender, female-only company. He feels a sense “peace”

“There’s just this feeling of understanding what I’m going through,” she says. Josiah, her son, has been backstage during Mommy’s hair and makeup. “I had him in my wig chair. They provided me with a place at the banquet. [American Repertory Theater]He would be impressed by my wig, so I would take him up to me at intermission in my costume and wig. [to] play ball, play dinosaurs.”

The former Once Actress is one of a number of Broadway moms who prove that it’s possible to be both a mother and a star. performer and a parent simultaneously It is possible.

She says, “I feel an extraordinary burden of responsibility.” “I made a decision to make a 2020 decision to say: When it comes to the end my life, I don’t want to resent theater that I so deeply loved. It is a loss that I regret.

She hopes to prove that being pregnant is not a “disability.” “It doesn’t mean that I’m now disabled from telling stories. I hope my presence on stage will reflect that there is a new dimension.

Davis found it fulfilling to be creative while creating a new lifestyle. She was also able to do this when she was pregnant. King Lear).

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