Q&A: SU alum Rosie Benton talks role in ‘Stranger Things: The First Shadow’
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Rosie Benton left her audition in summer 2024 for Broadway’s “Stranger Things: The First Shadow” and went back to work feeling good about it. Then, she received a call. The producers wanted her to perform one more scene in front of them.
She spent the next few hours working and practicing her lines before going back the next day. Again, she felt good. Then, it was “radio silence” for two months.
In August 2024, Benton officially got the role of Virginia Creel. Ever since, Benton — who graduated from Syracuse University in 2001 — has played Virginia in the Broadway show, which is set in 1959. The play is based on the Netflix Original “Stranger Things” and follows Virginia’s son, Henry Creel, on his journey from Dr. Martin Brenner’s lab to becoming the villain of the series, Vecna.
The stage show has won multiple Tony Awards and accumulated over 1,500 performances since beginning in March 2025, many of which Benton has acted in. With cast members shuffling through the years, Benton has been a cast member the entire way — and will remain there until its last show on Jan. 3, 2027.
The Daily Orange spoke with Benton about her SU journey and acting in “Stranger Things: The First Shadow.”
The D.O.: What did you do at Syracuse that prepared you to start your acting career and take on this role?
Benton: Syracuse has one of the best BFA programs for acting in the country. It’s always on top lists, and it really feels like a conservatory. You’re doing voice work. You’re doing body work. You’re doing scene study. You’re in plays. You get to shadow or even understudy the professional actors at Syracuse Stage. It is a really good program, and I feel like even though I went to grad school at NYU, Syracuse was the same training, just at a different age.
The D.O.: What do you think early exposure at SU helped you with when you were entering the professional industry?
Benton: The fact that you’re part of a professional building means you instantly feel this need and want to step up to that level, even as a freshman. You see professional actors going around. There’s professional shows being put on, and, actually, my first professional job was back at Syracuse Stage right out of grad school.
The D.O.: What was your path after graduation to where you are now? Was it challenging to break into that professional industry?
Benton: Yes, very challenging. It still is challenging, and I’ve been doing it for 20 years. When I graduated, I went right to the city. At the time, it was much different because you would look for auditions in the paper. You would have a service that you called. You would get headshots. You would go out on auditions. You would cold call, cold send your resume to people. I think success partially is just the blind belief that you’re capable of that, and that’s what Syracuse taught me.
I decided to apply to grad school because I felt like I was more castable if I was a little bit older, because I’m tall and people don’t have good imaginations.
The D.O.: What was your reaction when you realized you got your role with “Stranger Things”?
Benton: Mostly I thought, “A guaranteed year on Broadway is rare as a non-musical theater actor.” So I was so excited, and I couldn’t believe it. Even when I got the audition, I was like, “Oh my God, ‘Stranger Things’ is coming to Broadway. How are they gonna do this?”
And I don’t think I realized what the play was until we were in tech, and all of a sudden the monster came out of the wall, and I was like, “Oh, this is serious.” Because reading it, you can’t grasp the size of it.
The D.O.: Did you do any preparation to improve your portrayal of that character?
Benton: My husband and I binge-watched the whole series again, just to get a sense of it. I wanted to make sure I knew what was going on. She’s just in that one scene, and I did watch it a bunch. But then I wanted to take it on as my own, especially since you can’t get much from that one little scene.
So what I did was watch a couple other movies and read some books and did some research of that era, the late-1950s, and tried to get some ideas of who this woman was based on the war and what was happening with women at the time.
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The D.O.: What is your favorite scene from the play that you’re a part of?
Benton: I love the spider scene because the way the scene unfolds is naturally easy. People ask me all the time, “What’s it like when there’s literally spiders coming at you?” It’s not hard to be acting; it’s terrifying. But also the relationship with Henry is very complicated, and what happens in the scene is very complicated. And then you throw some gigantic spiders and him becoming a spider, and it’s the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever done as an actor.
The D.O.: Was there anything particularly challenging when the show first started?
Benton: I wanted to be liked as a character. I wanted to really make her complicated enough that people wouldn’t think she was a terrible mom and a villain. And then I realized that wasn’t really my job. It’s not very good storytelling if you try and be everything. So I’ve just been sticking to the text, sticking to the direction. And there has to be a reason why the audience relates to Henry, why he gets so angry at her. So I just took that responsibility off my shoulders.
The D.O.: You’ve been part of the play for its entire runtime. What does that mean to you?
Benton: It’s a really lucky place to be. It gets deeper and deeper and deeper, and then all of a sudden I get a new Victor (Creel) or a new Henry. I get new actors all around me, and you still have all the depth of connection from the previous actor that you worked with, but you get new things that you didn’t even realize.
When you’re doing a play for this long, it’s nice to have new voices. Every time an understudy goes on, I always watch or listen to the play. I love hearing the different voices, and you realize that the play exists on its own.
The D.O.: What are you going to take most from this role as you continue your acting career?
Benton: Even though I’m in my 40s, and I’ve been doing this for 20 years, a job like this really teaches you what you’re capable of in terms of longevity, in terms of keeping your voice and body in shape for this long period of time. And also doing something every night and not getting bored or complacent, I’ve been proud of myself for that.
Also, there’s emotional places that I have to go. The Victors and the Virginias and the Chief (James) Hoppers and the Principal (Robert) Newbys, everybody’s got a lot of trauma. And for a while, I had to dig deep to get there, and now it feels like second nature. I can start a scene and just drop into it and feel like I’m connected, and I’ve never had that before.
The D.O.: Where are you planning to take your career from here?
Benton: I’ve been doing guest stars on TV and theater; that’s been my career so far. What I would love to do is a bit of TV next year, be home with my kids more, not work at night. But I love doing theater, and I’m sure it’s something I will do for the rest of my life. So I don’t know if I will sign a year contract to do a play, but maybe next summer or next fall.
Editor’s note: Some questions and answers have been edited for clarity and brevity.
