a conversation with THE CAKE's Jodie Weiss on creating a bitter-sweet character

Jodie Weiss in Stray Cat Theatre's The Cake
photo by John Groseclose

by Haddi Meyer

Gay Marriage has been a point of contention for pretty much forever, but Bekah Brunstetter’s play The Cake addresses the issue in a way that is a bit different than most. Brunstetter is most well known for her work on NBC’s This Is Us, where she is a writer and producer, and anyone who has seen that popular series knows that the show is a real emotional rollercoaster. Her work with The Cake isn’t any different. 

The play follows a woman named Della, whose sweet southern bakery life gets shaken when her deceased best friend's daughter whom she loves dearly, Jen, asks her to bake her a wedding cake. However, Jen's fiancé is actually a fiancée, and Della a devout christian has to reconcile possibly baking a cake for Jen’s wedding to Macy, and her beliefs.

 What makes this show unique however, is that it isn’t a love story for Jen and Macy, and it isn’t a story of massive change for Della. It is a humorous, tense, story of self evaluation, reconciliation, and love. 

In Stray Cat Theatre's production of the show, which runs through November 24th, Jodie Weiss plays Della and told me not just why this food-filled show is enjoyable and fun, but why it’s a must-watch for everyone who can see it. 

In the show, you play Della, a woman who is devoutly Christian, and who has to reconcile making a cake for a dear family friends gay wedding. She is a kind and loving woman but has beliefs that many people view as harmful. This is obviously reminiscent of many court cases surrounding bakeries in recent years. Why do you think it is important to tell a story about Della and people like her?

“Much like the playwright expresses, this is her story as a young female who grew up in the south in the bible belt and was raised with these values and beliefs but as an adult woman, she has now gone out in the world and experienced other things. It was really important to her and also to us as a company to tell that side of this story, because I think that, especially in the theatre world, we are all, for the most part, very liberal, very open minded until it comes to the right wing, or far right views. I think that people on the far left has just as much of a difficult time understanding the far right view as the far right has understanding the far left view. I consider myself very far left and it’s very challenging to figure out why people can’t understand that it’s just two people who love each other and of course you should make a cake for them or whatever. I think the way the playwright wrote the story, there is no clear villain. She expresses both sides of the issue and doesn’t, in any way that is particularly clear say ‘that persons wrong or that person’s right’.”

How do you personally relate to her? 

“I personally relate not a lot. She never became a mom even though she wanted to, I am a mom. I did do a lot of character research as far as being a baker. The whole month before we started rehearsal, I baked and decorated some cakes and then I had a friend who had worked with Stray Cat before come to my home, and she is a cake-maker and cake-decorator and she gave me some tutelage with that and that was super fun. I started to see how creative and how fun making cakes for people is because I would take them to work and it would just make people so happy! They we’re going ‘wow, I can’t believe you did this!’ and ‘oh, this is so cool!’ and I just started to relate to that part of Della, like how wonderful being a baker and making cakes for peoples special occasions and even their not special occasions are. That was kind of fun, that part of it. I do not relate to her views.”

When preparing for this role, where did you look for inspiration in your characterization of Della? 

“I kind of went for the cake making part of it. It was a skill that I thought was cool because first of all she has to decorate in the show so I had to look like I knew what the heck I was doing and second of all I just thought this would be a cool thing to experience to get into the mindspace of that. For me, I kept trying to think because I consider myself a fairly open minded person, it was very hard for me to relate to this whole thought of ‘Oh, I don’t believe in that I can’t support it.’ So, I had to think about what that would be for me and I came up with if it was my son, whom I love dearly, came to me and said I am joining this alt right skinhead group and I want you to make cookies for our initiation and that would be it. I would say ‘I love you, but no. I can’t support nazis and skinheads. I really had to think what would be that thing I draw the line for.”

How do we get to see Della struggle and grow on stage? 

“I think she has the furthest arc of anyone in the show. She kind of lives in this bubble of her own life. She went to New York only once we find out, and saw Wicked, but beyond that she hasn’t travelled a lot beyond her small little North Carolinian bubble. She was raised by the bible and she lives by that and her husband is kind of obviously a misogynist with a set hierarchy in their relationship. Although, we do find out when she was in college she had feelings for her roommate. Probably innocuous, and general [feelings] but at the same time she had this feeling of this creature is beautiful. We also find out, now that Jen has come back and said [will you bake my wedding cake] and she loves this girl like her own daughter and so she’s like, ‘how can I learn, how can I understand this about a girl that I love so much?’ and so she really tries. She tries to figure it out, to understand it from her point of view and she budges a little. She doesn’t budge all the way, but we really get to see her try to understand.”

What does she as a character have the ability to teach people?

“She can teach people to listen. To just try to listen to people with different viewpoints. Try to wear those other shoes for even a moment.”

What is the most important thing audiences can take away from The Cake?

“As my girlfriend put in her Facebook post, ‘let’s try not to be such twat waffles to each other shall we?’ Really, we’re all flawed and we all have these preconceived notions about others that are more than likely wrong. We all  carry that baggage we grew up with but that doesn’t mean can’t listen and try and deal with people in a loving way. Like like love first, try and love people before you assume they are whatever you assume. It’s just so important right now. We can all just try a little harder, to love a little bit more.”

CLICK HERE for more information on The Cake, which runs through November 24th