Acting

 Recent Credits

  • A Day, Cherry Arts Collective (Debs - English Language/American Premiere)
  • Into the Woods, Hangar Theatre
    (Baker's Wife)
  • Kinky Boots, Hangar Theatre
    (Trish - Regional Premiere)
  • George Kaplan, Cherry Arts Collective (E, E', E'')
  • What Happens Next,
    Cherry Arts Collective (Bella)
  • The Snow Queen, Cherry Arts Collective
    (title role)
  • White Rabbit Red Rabbit, Cherry Arts Collective
  • Hand to God, Kitchen Theatre Co (Margery)
  • Stage Kiss, Cider Mill Playhouse ​(SHE)
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Into The Woods (Baker's Wife), Hangar Theatre

" ​

As The Baker's Wife, Erica Steinhagen anchors the production. With a razor sharp comic timing and a strong singing voice, she moves easily from wisecracks to musing...  

-Syracuse.com

How It All Began

Erica began auditioning for and accepting jobs in professional theatre in 2002, while in graduate school for Opera Performance, doing an intensive independent study on acting for the operatic stage. This began a shift into roles of all kinds, starting with the leading (and only) female role in the delicious three-person Polly Pen opera Bed and Sofa and leading to dramatic classic plays, operetta, commedia dell’arte, and world-premiere contemporary comedies.

​During this time, Erica decided to dive head first into professional acting, diverging from her original, strictly operatic career path. This was both the most terrifying and most satisfying decision of her life. She has worked with some of the most brilliant, generous, and creative directors over the years, and from each she has been able to absorb and learn a tremendous amount. She has had the privilege of helping to develop no fewer than nine world-premiere pieces, from electronica operas and comedic musicals to ensemble dramedies and incredible two-person feminist absurdist dramas.
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One Hot Kitchen, Metropolis Opera Co, New York City, 2012 (Photo Cred: Kadeema BK Photography)
Erica premiered her one-woman cabaret Imagine My Surprise at the Hangar Theatre in 2012 and then reworked and revamped it for new audiences in 2017 at the Firehouse Stage in Binghamton, NY, and again for the Cherry Arts audiences in Ithaca.

In New York City, she had the honor of being a part of the The Metropolis Opera Company’s world premiere electronica opera One Hot Kitchen (2011).
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Imagine My Surprise, Hangar Theatre, 2012

Some of Erica's Favorites

  • Her recent run of Into the Woods at the Hangar Theatre playing The Baker's Wife– a longtime dream role
  • Dana in the world premiere of Ever So Humble by Tim Pinckney at the Hangar Theatre– truly a life-changing and deeply humbling experience
  • Ludmilla in Polly Pen's stunning opera Bed and Sofa
  • Melissa in the world premiere of The Drunken City by Adam Bock at the Kitchen Theatre Company
  • The Unfortunates, a one-woman play by prolific and award-winning playwright Aoise Stratford, featuring Erica portraying 18 characters
  • Bella in the gorgeous world premiere of What Happens Next by Saviana Stanescu at the Cherry
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Ever So Humble, The Hangar Theatre, 2011 (Photo Cred: Thomas Hoebel Photography)

Other Notable Roles

• Precious Nonsense (Josephine)
​
• Bed No Breakfast (Chance)

• Tony and the Soprano
  (Frances, a role written expressly for Erica)

• Cats (Jellylorum)

• Beauty and the Beast (Mrs. Potts)

• Several Gilbert and Sullivan operatic ingenues
• Nora (Christine Linde)

• The Servant of Two Masters (Smeraldina)

• The Sound of Music (Sister Margaretta)
​
• Dario Fo’s We Won’t Pay! We Won’t Pay!     (Margherita)

• The Drowsy Chaperone (Saucy Maid, Lady    Reporter, etc.)

• An 8-person version of My Fair Lady
Erica's voice can be heard all over the place on radio and TV spots. You can listen to her voiceover demo.
Erica is incredibly honored & excited to be a founding company member of The Cherry Artspace Collective.
Erica is a proud member of the
​Actors’ Equity Association, the labor union representing American actors.