From City College to the New York Stage

In March 2020, Sharlene Cruz rode the subway from Harlem to the West Village for one of her last rehearsals before the premiere of a play she had invested her body and soul in. On the way, she got a call saying that the play she had been rehearsing for eight months would be suspended, and her life as an actress was put on hold for over a year.  The premiere of Sanctuary City, by the Pulitzer Prize winner Martyna Majok, was postponed for a month and later suspended indefinitely because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“I wish I was one of the people who were baking bread, or learning a new language,” said Cruz. “I was just sad.”

However, on September 8, the New York Theatre Workshop production, directed by Rebecca Frecknall, returned to the stage at the Lucille Lortel Theatre in the West Village.

The play tells the story of two young immigrant friends in Newark, New Jersey, exploring all their options to stay together in the United States legally. The production, and Cruz’s performance, in particular, received praise from the New York Times and the New Yorker Magazine.

“She makes G’s face a guarded puzzle, and then, at moments of rare ease or high emotion, lets it open, revealing entire hidden, unspoken worlds,” said New Yorker’s Vinson Cunninghan about Cruz’s performance as G (for Girl). 

Cruz, a daughter of Dominican immigrants and a City College of New York (CCNY) graduate, spent her childhood between West Harlem and her parents’ hometown of La Vega in the Dominican Republic. “All my best childhood memories are from my time in the Dominican Republic,” said Cruz. 

While she began to act in the fourth grade, she shied away from it in college. “Being an actor isn’t sustainable, it doesn’t make a lot of money,” Cruz said she thought at the time. “It didn’t seem like the best thing, and my parents are immigrants, so I thought ‘I have to do the right thing and get a real job.’” She decided to pursue political science. 

After one year at John Jay College, Cruz felt lost. She continued to act in local productions, and that reminded her of what she loved. “I didn’t know why I was not doing the thing that really brought me joy,” she said. She transferred to her neighborhood’s own CCNY to study theater.  

Cruz is thankful for her time at CCNY. She believes the college offers an all-around approach to theater, which is different from what she would get in an acting-focused conservatory. “They allowed me space to grow on my own,” said Cruz. “I was able to meet people that didn’t have their blinders on just for acting. It felt like a full experience.” 

At CCNY, Cruz impressed her professors with her sensitivity to acting. Cruz’s performance as Anya in the production of Cherry Orchard by Anton Checkov left the director and professor David Willinger blown away. 

“One might say that she was the quintessential Anya,” said Willinger. “With her sensitivity, her manifest empathy for others, her vision for a better life and world, she truly inhabited that part.” 

Cruz graduated from CCNY in 2017, but despite her experience, she thought she needed more training to refine her craft. She enrolled in a class in Brooklyn focused on the technique developed by the legendary American teacher and actor, Sanford Meisner. 

Cruz commuted twice a week from her home in Harlem to the studio. She learned to improve her technique and made connections which led her to sign with the Paradigm Talent Agency. With Paradigm’s help, she launched her journey and in one year auditioned 120 times, without getting any roles. 

Even with all the rejection, and working seven different jobs to pay her bills, Cruz did not feel discouraged. “2018? Amazing! I was living the life I wanted to live,” said Cruz. “I was living my dream.” 

Finally, at the end of 2018. Cruz landed the role of one of the witches in the Red Bull Theater production of Macbeth. From there, she went on to act in the Cherry Lane Theater’s The Climb. These first two roles came as a surprise to Cruz, who had only auditioned for TV and film at this point. “It’s just so funny that my first two jobs were theater,” said Cruz. “I’m really glad that it was because it taught me a lot about what kind of actor I am.”

The playwright of her latest work, Sanctuary City, saw Cruz perform at the Cherry Lane, and a few months later, Cruz received a call from her agent saying that Majok wanted her to read for G in a Sanctuary City staged-reading. “I read the script, and immediately I was with puffy eyes and sobbing,” said Cruz. “I was like, ‘I need to do this!’” 

During the reading of the play, Cruz wanted to give her best in case it made it to the stage. Months later she heard the play was set to premiere in the spring of 2020.

Cruz learned that she was cast in Sanctuary City without even auditioning for it. “They ended up giving it to me, which was amazing, just fantastic.”

She began an intensive rehearsal process. The first half of the play had 80 short scenes that required quick transitions. It was like an endurance test for the actors, and it required a physical therapist working to help them. 

With the work almost done, they felt ready for the public, and then COVID-19 hit. During the year and a half away from the stage, Cruz felt like her world was paralyzed. At times, Cruz thought she would never come back to perform in Sanctuary City, but after the vaccination rollout and the reopening of cultural events in New York, Cruz received an email in late June saying the play would finally return in early September. Rehearsals resumed on August 24, with only two weeks to rehearse before the premiere. 

“Luckily me and Jasai [Chase-Owens, who plays B] were open and willing to meet up and try to get back in our bodies,” said Cruz. “So, when we walked in the first day of rehearsal we were able to jump into it.”

Between COVID-19 and the intensive experience with Sanctuary City, Cruz thinks whatever comes next in her career won’t match what she has experienced with this play. “It feels like such a big part of my life now,” said Cruz. “I don’t think I will ever be able to play a part that’s so complex and so beautiful that feels so close to me.”