Sonya Balsara

last november ♠️♣️

Lost an Aladdin, but gained a soul mate 🩵

📷:

Today marks 3 years of playing Jasmine full time on Broadway which means one thousand and something shows aka one thousand and something different ways of making these words and songs make sense like it’s the first time I’m saying them.
Maybe I’m close to my ten thousand hours, but the beauty is you never actually feel like you’ve quite mastered it. It’s the pursuit of mastery that keeps you coming back, finding new ways to notice what’s right in front of you and returning to the reasons you arrived here to begin with.
I’ve opened up my script again and found notes tucked away from my work sessions during auditions. At that time, I was fully invested while not knowing if I’d ever get the chance to say the words again (ha), but there were little signs everywhere telling me to keep faith 🩵

back to my Parsi and Hindu roots ~
closed out 2025 filled to the brim with family love- Celebrating my cousins wedding, witnessing a private sarod performance, crossing Mumbai streets with as little fear as possible, seeing the Bombay high court where my grandmother practiced law, visiting the banganga tank where I had this in explicable sense of my grandparents- only to discover this was where their ashes were spread by my papa and auntie 💌

One last time tonight with 🥲
Starring on broadway opposite an Indian American actor is something I never knew would happen in my career. To bow together and see desi families - and to do it with someone as silly, honest, and delightful as you are is quite simply a dream come true.
you’ve made me break on stage every day this week so let’s keep it up for this final carpet ride💫💫

francophone summer

pour toujours !!!!!!

some really good things 🍓🌸🌸

secretly flew across the world to sing for the grand announcement of Disney Abu Dhabi. this was a once in a lifetime moment and I feel soooo over the moon and stars lucky 💫

Everyday I’m learning to master the art of the long run. Some days it looks like grounding myself in the foundations of my technique, or practicing new approaches to scene work, sometimes it’s letting it alllll go and surrendering completely, and sometimes it’s like moving my body through thick waters- but even in that feeling, I can find something new if I choose to pay attention. Making something new when it simply isn’t is a huge challenge and gift to the creative mind- you are forced to continue learning.
And zooming out from all of this, my Jasmine has morphed with me through the seasons of my life. She’s become my home base in matters of the mind and heart. When we have our fearless understudies/standbys/swings on, she feels and behaves in new cadences. Sometimes I feel so deeply myself on stage, so at home- and then other times, I have completely left Sonya at the door and I am in the skin of an imaginary person, looking at the world with different eyes.
It’s the small things make the big things. And though the long run is often tedious, I learn to savor every little moment.
And not a single moment goes by where I’m not grateful for my dream team and .fabris.5 I love you guys
Photos by the brilliant
And mucho love to for all you do

A day doesn’t go by when I don’t realize how lucky I am and that I have the capacity to make someone else’s life a little bit better. For me this can look like volunteering or when I’m strapped for time, making thoughtful donations to orgs that do impactful work.
I think it’s so freaking cool that Broadway shows team up with to do just this. And that my fam at takes such care to organize, deliver beautiful speeches (it’s helped me get over some public speaking anxiety), and prepare donation items.
It’s also a really lovely reminder that change happens one step at a time and that we’re pretty powerful when we organize together 🤎