What Baking Can Do by Sara Bareilles
Micaela H.
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This piece by Sara Bareilles from my favorite musical, Waitress, follows the perspective of Jenna, who has just found out that she is pregnant with her abusive husband's child. Scared about what having the baby at this time means for her, Jenna turns once again to baking, her life passion that was passed down by her mother.
This song truly touches me in a deeper sense, because of my own relationship with my mother, who is my biggest role model. I can feel Jenna's fear and pain through her words, as well as the love that she feels toward her late mother.
In preparation for this piece, I scored the lyrics, workshopped it with my beloved choir teacher, and baked with my own mom. However, a more difficult part of this process was researching the different ways that being in an abusive relationship could affect someone. We live in a world where pregnancy has a lot of other connotations to it, and a wide variety of current events makes this piece that much more relevant. In Waitress, Jenna already feels trapped and desperate in her relationships and her job, and the fact that she's pregnant makes her feel that much more so. Baking is her outlet, just as music is mine, but at the beginning of the song she uses it as a symbolic exercise in order to avoid the actual issue at hand until she decides to address it.
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Music is my deepest passion and pulls me out of my most overwhelming moments. Immersing myself in song helps me deal with my anxiety, and refocuses my goals when I lose sight of what is truly important to me. The most beautiful thing about music and theatre to me is how creativity expresses emotions.
