Brooklyn Boro

ROSEN’S REVIEW: Winnie Stack has the moves

Her one-woman show ‘@JennaFischer’ is a dance-fueled laugh riot

January 27, 2023 Evan Rosen
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There’s one more chance to catch the one-woman show from actress/comedian Winnie Stack at the Brooklyn Comedy Collective. On Tuesday, Stack will, for the last time on the BCC stage, recount her childhood obsession with the actress Jenna Fischer and her sexual awakening that followed.

It’s a show that takes you many places. Beginning in the present day office of Stack’s therapist, ‘Carol,’ we travel through a fictional courtroom where ‘Judge Bartholomew’ presides, a backyard conversation between a tree and a cat, as well as a newsroom reporting live on the status of her sexuality, just to name a few.

Stack, of course playing all these characters dexterously and absurdly, weaves us through the legend of her adolescent epiphany – realizing her interest in the secretary ‘Pam’ from The Office was something more than admiration. Often in conversation with an invisible off-stage voice (Andy Vega filled in for Will Braithwaite at this performance), Stack shines through showcasing her personality, comedic instincts and more than anything – her hilarious dance moves.

Stack jokes about her childhood with movement and silliness. Photo: Arin Sang-urai

“The only time the popular kids seem to like me, is when I’m dancing,” she muses during one of her asides. “Maybe that’s not a good thing.”

But for the audience it is, and Stack seems to know this – injecting more and more dance and movement into the plot. She is a natural performer and many of her musical vignettes are the most entertaining, including one particular reenactment of “grinding” at a middle school dance. If you come to this show, you better be ready to dance a bit yourself.

And in between the movement and the silliness, come moments of stillness and realness. We are privy to actual journal entries from Stack’s childhood, images and original artwork such as the pencil drawing titled “Three Soaking Wet Girls,” as well as a home video where she described her current interests as “books and Jenna Fischer.” Through these artifacts, we begin to see the young girl who doesn’t feel like she fits in, who so desperately wants to, and instead is forced to reconcile with the competing forces of being “normal” or being who she is.

She plans to take her show to a workshop in Los Angeles this coming March. Photo: Evan Mulling

It’s a deeply vulnerable story told with verve and imagination by one of Brooklyn’s quickly ascending young comic actresses. The show, which tells of her young beginnings, seems to be for Stack, just the beginning of a promising career in comedy and storytelling.

She plans to take her show on the road, for a workshop in Los Angeles this coming March, which will be directed by her sister, Emma. Stack also has hopes of a longer run at a larger theater at some point in the future. For updates, you can follow her on instagram @winniestack2.0.

Tickets are currently on sale at the Brooklyn Comedy Collective’s website.

Winnie Stack is represented by Phil Cassese at Stewart Talent Agency and Melissa Berger Brennan at CESD Talent Agency.

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