At Home With – Kecia Lewis

“I really feel like with the form of work we do as artists, we are actually giving ourselves — we’re giving our physique and voice and spirit,” stated Kecia Lewis, who lately gained a Tony Award for her efficiency because the tough-minded however inspirational piano trainer Miss Liza Jane within the musical “Hell’s Kitchen.”

What with all that giving on the theater, Ms. Lewis was available in the market for a spot that did the giving — “that made me really feel welcome once I was simply being nonetheless” — when she began in search of residences in Manhattan for the run of her “Hell’s Kitchen” contract.

“It needed to really feel peaceable, as a result of I’ve to have the ability to pray,” stated Ms. Lewis, 59, a local New Yorker now based mostly in Atlanta. “I’ve stayed in locations the place it was not peaceable, and I’ve moved out. If it looks like there’s an vitality that’s frenetic or chaotic, I’m like, ‘No, not for me.’”

She was 18 when she obtained her first function on Broadway, within the authentic manufacturing of “Dreamgirls,” and has since appeared in quite a few exhibits, amongst them “As soon as on This Island” and “Chicago.” Final spring, she got here north for a few “Hell’s Kitchen” workshops. On one go to, she stayed at an Airbnb in New Jersey, after which an Airbnb in Queens.

“However as soon as we knew we had been going to Broadway, I wished to seek out one thing within the metropolis,” Ms. Lewis stated. Not too near Midtown, however not as far as to make for a burdensome commute to the stage door.

Kecia Lewis stands in a doorway in her condo.