When Jasmine Jean Sim appeared on my screen for our interview, she had just emerged from wig preparation for Village Theatre’s Ragtime. I immediately complimented her hair, only to discover it was actually her own hair, still sweaty from being tucked underneath a wig. Ah, the glamour of show business!
Sim is currently portraying Emma Goldman, the outspoken anarchist, feminist and labor activist who helped shake up America at the turn of the 20th century. It’s a fitting role in Ragtime, a sweeping musical that I like to describe as the Gilded Age set to music. The show explores immigration, racism, wealth, inequality and the American Dream, with enough political turmoil to make today’s headlines seem like a revival production.
I had recently attended my first Village Theatre production in Issaquah, and Ragtime certainly made an impression. What particularly fascinated me was its connection to Tintypes, the musical revue my high school had produced years ago. Both feature Emma Goldman and explore a changing America through music and historical personalities.
Sim immediately recognized the connection.
“We were just joking about how Emma Goldman actually appears in like a number of things,” she laughed, pointing out that Goldman even makes a brief appearance in Stephen Sondheim’s Assassins.
While Tintypes presents American history through musical vignettes, Ragtime weaves those same historical tensions into an emotional story involving three families whose lives intersect. Goldman becomes an important voice for revolution, workers’ rights and social change.
For Sim, portraying such a formidable historical figure has been both an education and an inspiration.
“She is such a fascinating person,” Sim explained. “It’s a real privilege to have gotten the opportunity to play her just to research her.”
What surprised her most wasn’t necessarily Goldman’s political radicalism, although her advocacy for birth control and opposition to the military draft were certainly revolutionary for the time. It was discovering the woman behind the fiery speeches.
Goldman believed that everyone deserved not only food, shelter and employment but also the opportunity to enjoy life’s luxuries. Even more surprising was learning that the legendary public speaker had once struggled with tremendous anxiety.
“She was incredibly nervous,” Sim recalled of Goldman’s early speaking career. “It made her anxious.”
For an actress whose character commands crowds with passionate speeches, that revelation was especially meaningful.
“Through her fear, she was able to realize the responsibility she had,” Sim said. “The discomfort didn’t matter when it came to what she truly believed.”
One of Sim’s most electrifying moments comes during Goldman’s speech at Union Square, where she inspires workers to rise up and demand change. Onstage, Kooper Campbell’s Younger Brother becomes captivated by her revolutionary message.
But apparently, the revolution has also begun spreading into the audience.
“The other day, halfway through, I hear people in the audience making vocalizations, cheering,” Sim recalled. “I heard someone yell ‘strike’ quietly because I think they were a little insecure.”
She laughed at the irony of trying to inspire a theatrical uprising among an audience trained to sit politely and avoid interrupting the performance.
Still, the emotional energy is real.
Before that scene, Sim often watches Yusef D Seevers as Coalhouse Walker Jr. perform “Wheels of a Dream” with Jayden Dominique as Sarah. Their hopeful vision of a better future becomes the emotional fuel for Goldman’s revolutionary message.
“Just watching his joy and his passion gets me really riled up beforehand, too,” she said.
Sim also praised Campbell’s portrayal of Younger Brother, a character whose growing frustration with injustice eventually pushes him toward radical action.
“He is both able to access his anger and frustration,” she explained, noting how Campbell captures the emotional struggle that leads to his character’s increasingly explosive choices.
And speaking of explosive, it’s impossible to ignore how contemporary Ragtime feels.
Although the story takes place more than a century ago, its themes of racism, immigration, reproductive rights, economic inequality and political unrest could easily belong to 2026.
Sim finds that connection both inspiring and troubling.
“I think the entire show feels contemporary to me in a way that is very disappointing and disheartening,” she admitted.
Yet playing Goldman gives her a way to channel those feelings into something productive.
“Every time I’m speaking as her, I’m speaking directly to the audience,” she explained. “This is not the America he came for, but there is hope.”
That determination helps Sim navigate a musical that can be emotionally overwhelming.
“Because she has to be powerful and her intention is always forward, it does at least keep me upright emotionally.”
Of course, Sim’s talents extend well beyond political revolution.
Seattle theater audiences have seen her work at Seattle Rep, ACT Theatre, the 5th Avenue Theatre and other local stages. I first remember seeing her years ago in Syracuse at Showtunes Theatre Company, and I particularly admired her performance in The Wild Party, which she described as one of her favorite productions.
Then there were her six years at Seattle’s Can Can Culinary Cabaret, where she mastered the art of connecting with audiences through burlesque, music, comedy and theatrical spectacle.
Having just attended Can Can’s Zombie Cheerleaders From Hell, I naturally had to ask whether she might return.
Not anytime soon, apparently.
“I think for now, I am kind of back doing theater,” she explained.
But she credits Can Can with teaching her invaluable lessons about storytelling, musical interpretation and the importance of theatrical joy.
“Sometimes we put on plays like Ragtime that are so deep and connected and personal that they’re difficult to watch or be a part of,” she said. “And sometimes we also see the value in something that is light and fun and made for pure joy.”
It’s an interesting contrast: one moment entertaining audiences through the deliciously outrageous world of cabaret, the next calling for workers to rise up against capitalism. That’s quite a range, although both occasionally involve getting people out of their seats.
Sim’s work in Ragtime also extends beyond Emma Goldman. Like many members of the ensemble, she portrays several characters throughout the evening, including an Irish immigrant, a clerk and a social worker.
Some characters have only a single line, presenting an entirely different acting challenge.
“How do I make this character different than the other character just in this one line?” she asked. “Also, how does this one line serve the story that’s happening right now?”
With constant costume changes and overlapping stories, the production demands tremendous energy and versatility.
“You always feel connected and charged,” she explained.
That ensemble experience also reflects what Sim loves about Seattle’s theater community.
Having graduated from Cornish College of the Arts in 2015, she has built her professional career in the Pacific Northwest and credits the region’s artists with helping shape her identity.
“We are not lacking in artists or the ability to make theater,” she said. “We are always lacking in funding, which is, of course, the big frustration.”
Despite those challenges, she remains optimistic about the resilience of local theater.
“We are a tenacious theater scene that even through COVID didn’t go anywhere,” she said.
I couldn’t resist asking what Emma Goldman might think if she could see America today.
Sim didn’t hesitate.
“I think that she would be disappointed to see how much the same issues she fought are still being fought today.”
From reproductive freedom to racism and labor protections, Sim believes Goldman would recognize many of the same battles she fought more than a century ago.
“If we do not acknowledge our past, we will change nothing and learn nothing,” she observed.
But what would Sim ask Goldman herself?
Her answer was unexpectedly personal.
“How can you stay positive and forward moving?”
For Sim, that’s the question facing many people struggling with today’s political and social uncertainty. How do we remain hopeful when progress feels painfully slow?
“How do we not give in to the darkness?” she wondered.
She imagines Goldman’s advice would be simple: speak up, get involved and do something meaningful within your community.
As our conversation wound down, I asked Sim to imagine telling her younger self, fresh out of training and beginning her Seattle career, that one day she would be standing on Village Theatre’s stage portraying Emma Goldman in Ragtime.
“I think she would be thrilled,” Sim said. “And I think that she would be proud and surprised.”
She reflected on the insecurity that so many young performers experience, constantly questioning their abilities and wondering whether they truly belong.
Today, she has developed a stronger sense of confidence and recognizes the value she brings to a production.
“I wish that for all actors,” she said, acknowledging how performers often become their own harshest critics.
Then she delivered perhaps my favorite line of our conversation.
“And I know that future me is looking at me right now going, girl, you have no idea.”
There’s something wonderfully appropriate about that sentiment coming from an actress playing Emma Goldman. Both women, in very different ways, have learned that finding your voice requires courage, conviction and occasionally making a little noise.
And while Ragtime reminds us that America still has plenty of unfinished business, Jasmine Jean Sim reminds us that art can help keep the conversation alive.
After all, a revolution doesn’t always begin with a protest.
Sometimes it begins with a woman onstage shouting “Strike!”—and an audience member brave enough to whisper it back.
Village Theatre’s Ragtime continues at the Everett Performing Arts Center October 24–November 15, 2026.
