Nikki M. James Takes PEOPLE Behind the Scenes at Suffs as She Balances Motherhood with Broadway Preparations.Linh

The Tony Award winner pulls back the curtain on what life’s like doing eight shows a week

Nikki M. James is giving PEOPLE an exclusive look at her life backstage on Broadway.

The stage veteran — a Tony Award winner for for her role in The Book of Mormon — is currently treading the boards in Suffs, the hit musical penned by Shaina Taub about the unsung suffragists who fought for decades to get the 19th Amendment passed in 1920.

In the show, James portrays Ida B. Wells, the investigative journalist and educator who dedicated her career to exposing the violence, discrimination and racism directed towards African Americans. A pioneer in the civil rights movement, the activist was one of the founders of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) and leader of a prominent anti-lynching campaign. As a suffragist, she was a rare voice of color among the coalition, and one who spoke about the importance of enfranchisement as an opportunity to put people who would best serve the Black community in political positions.

It’s an inspiring legacy to live up to, alright, and one James easily does as she channels Wells’ courage, tenacity and uncompromising dedication to the cause each night. But what’s more impressive is that the actress does that eight shows a week, while parenting her daughter Isla, whom she welcomed with husband Derek Oosterman in 2022.

“Motherhood has been really impactful,” she told PEOPLE back in May, while celebrating her Tony nomination. “This show is really about reaching back and reaching forward; it’s about telling the story of our ancestors and then also indicting the audience to go out and change the world themselves. And as a mom now, I really feel like I’m telling this story for my daughter, to show her how to do just that.”

Juggling life as a working actress and a mom is something James does while leaning not just on her costars — whom she dubs “25 aunties who would lay down their lives for her” — but also the community of working moms on Broadway, like friend Patti Murin.

“They’ve all given me such invaluable advice and I couldn’t be more grateful to know they have my back,” James said. “You know, having my daughter really changed and brought into very sharp focus the kind of things that are worth leaving her and the weight that it places on my husband and my family and my friends that help me do this. It’s got to be worth it. And Suffs is.”

To discuss more about her experience each night in Suffs, James wrote an exclusive diary for PEOPLE, peeling back the curtain on how she preps for the show each evening.

Her routine, told in her own words, accompany photos taken by photographer Michael Kushner for The Dressing Room Project.