Stephanie Bissonnette, a dance teacher and chorographer best known for her performance as Dawn Schweitzer in the Broadway musical Mean Girls, died Saturday following a long battle with brain cancer. She was 32.
“Our hearts are broken as the Mean Girls community mourns the loss of Stephanie Bissonnette,” the production said in social media posts (see below). “Our original Dawn Sweitzer, Stephanie was part of our company from our first performance to our last.
“She filled our theater with her laughter and friendship, inspired us with her fighting spirit and bravery, and graced our stage with the fiercest talent Broadway has ever known,” the post continues. “Our thoughts and prayers are with Stephanie’s family, friends, and the entire Mean Girls community during this time. We will miss her profoundly and encourage everyone to do something they love today in Stephanie’s honor.”
Bissonnette had only recently begun performing with Mean Girls in 2018 when she was diagnosed in 2019 with medulloblastoma, a rare brain cancer. After undergoing treatment, she returned to the show and resumed performing.
Bissonnette graduated from Point Park University’s Conservatory of the Performing Arts, and after school performed with Royal Caribbean, eventually moving to New York to teach and and choreograph. She auditioned for Mean Girls when the production was still in development, and eventually secured the role of Dawn Schweitzer.
Other credits included choreography for The Muny, Riverside Theatre, Shakespeare Theatre Company, and Seven Angels Theatre. She also appeared in music videos including Keith Urban’s “Never Comin’ Down.”
She also was included in the documentary Ensemble, which chronicled Broadway dancers during the time of the 2020 Covid theater shutdown. The documentary is available to stream on Broadway on Demand.
Information on survivors was not immediately available.
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