Kayla Witoshynsky is the engine that propels ‘Ada’

In Ada and the Engine, Ada Byron Lovelace is a brilliant mathematician living in 19^th century England, a time and place that promises little for women except marriage, subjugation and babies.

She was a real person, the daughter of flamboyant poet Lord Byron, and like so many of playwright Lauren (Silent Sky, I Am You) Gunderson’s based-on-fact heroines, Ada’s struggles to be taken seriously are almost overwhelming. Until they aren’t.

The Powerstories Theatre production stars Kayla Witoshynsky, a St. Pete actress, who supports the Tampa theater company’s mission – telling stories about empowered women – but was thrilled to embrace Ada’s quirks as well as her dynamism and drive.

“For me, the most attractive part of this show is Lauren Gunderson’s writing,” explains the 28-year-old native of Punta Gorda. “I really appreciated from the beginning that yes, she is before her time, yes, she is empowered – but it’s not a grrl power show. It’s a human show. Which to me is much more interesting.”

Witoshynsky’s Ada maintains a working, platonic relationship with Charles Babbage (Ron Nummi), the inventor of a primitive “thinking machine” – in fact, the world’s first computer. She understandings it, sees its infinite potential and writes a workable program for it.

The scientific world, the government, Ada’s careworn mother and her eventual husband, Lord Lovelace, remain skeptical. But Ada, and Babbage, will not be swayed.

Witoshynsky imbues her character with a full palette of colors. “She says things that are wrong. She is bratty. She’s brash. She makes decisions that hurt people. And she’s not always right, because that’s not how life is. And I don’t think that’s really empowering in the end, to characterize a woman as just this gold and shiny thing that can do no wrong.”

All of Gunderson’s characters, in fact, are painted in colors and shades, not black and white. “That’s much more interesting to dive into because it’s real,” the actress says.

Witoshynsky and Ron Nummi in “Ada and the Engine.” Photo by James Moline.

Since her first major role, in the Innovocative Theatre production A Shayna Maidel in 2020, the strong-willed Witoshynsky has specialized in playing strong-willed characters – from the Off-Central’s Plot Points in Our Sexual Development to Juliet in Romeo+Juliet (Jobsite Theatre).

After portraying Lucy in Jobsite’s 2022 production of Dracula, Witoshynsky disappeared for two years.

She was traveling through Japan, Thailand and China, solo, studying martial arts, absorbing the culture, living in hostels and working just enough to pay her expenses. She spent time in an ashram and trained to become a yoga instructor.

“I learned so much as a person during that time,” Witoshynsky says. “But it did nothing but benefit my acting.”

Back in the bay, she returned to theater, her first love; Ada and the Engine is her “comeback” show. “It was daunting, not having to have memorized a script for two years,” Witoshynsky reveals, “and this being the wordiest of all of them. ‘Do I remember how to do this?’”

Still, “I love playing. But I’m never going to stop myself from being challenged from getting an opportunity, from working. I want to be able to achieve everything I can in this field. So if something seems daunting, it’s almost more the reason to do it.”

Witoshynsky is also a guitar-playing singer and songwriter; music is close to her heart. Although it’s a straight dramatic play, Ada and the Engine closes – after a nearly psychedelic dream sequence – with the titular character singing directly to the audience (the song, “Ada’s Vision,” is part of the play script).

It, too, came under Witoskynsky’s self-critical gaze. “I didn’t understand that song until there was an audience,” she explains. “Now, I can see how Lauren really respected Ada with that song. Because Ada wasn’t just a mathematician; she loved music.

“The song doesn’t make sense without an audience. Because the song is about the future. It’s about seeing the future, and about Ada realizing that the work she put in, that she never got to see to fruition, became everything. It became the modern world.

“Especially if I put my own dreams and desires overlaid onto Ada. Because seeing an audience in front of me is reflection of the things that I dream about; my own becoming. And so it moves me, and I understand it more.”

Witoshynsky is in the cast of the next Jobsite show, Ghost Brothers of Darkland County, opening Oct. 15. David M. Jenkins directs the drama-with-music, a collaboration between novelist Stephen King and rocker John Mellencamp.

Ghost Brothers is the company’s annual Halloween season production, but it’s not a horror story like Dracula or Frankenstein.

“David said it’s like an episode of The Twilight Zone,” the actress says. “It’s kind of kooky, it’s kind of strange, things happen that aren’t within the realms of reality.”

Five performances of Ada and the Engine remain (Thursday through Sunday), at Stageworks Theatre, 1120 E. Kennedy Blvd., Tampa. Find showtimes and tickets at this link.