Today we’d like to introduce you to Stacy Castiglione.
Stacy, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?
Ok, buckle up. I have a LOT of stories. I spent my early childhood in a small town outside of Houston. My first performance was a living-room production of Peter Pan. I played Peter (of course), and my 2-year-old brother was relegated to the role of Tinkerbell (complete with long johns for his costume and a Tinker Toy for his wand). I spent my childhood in a local youth theatre program as well as our town’s community theatre, where I was a staple for a number of years.
Then my father, who had been a pilot for Eastern Airlines, moved us all to Singapore after the downfall of the company in the late 80s. While he flew for Singapore Airlines, I attended all four years of high school at the Singapore American School. I got to travel to places people have never even heard of (I got to live in the Dani village in Irian Jaya for a week with my classmates over Chinese New Year…you know…regular stuff), and still pursued theatre, dance, and choir. I was cast (and in hindsight a VERY bad idea) in a production of The King and I at the Victoria Theatre in Singapore. This was the first production of the musical in SouthEast Asia since the King of Thailand had banned the show, saying it put the country in a bad light.
And yes. I am white. I was cast as a Thai dancer in the “Small House of Uncle Thomas” segment in Asia! Man, things have changed.
I finished high school and moved to Florida to attend Florida State University to major in Theatre with an emphasis in Musical Theatre. About six months in, my family moved back to the States, and shortly thereafter, my mother (who was 49 at the time) had a massive stroke, rendering her completely disabled. I continued my studies and worked hard to be cast in shows.
One time, after not making it into the ensemble of Brigadoon, I decided to ask one of the professors who was working on the show for feedback. When I asked what I needed to work on, her response was, “You dance like you’re fat.” Wow. That’s theatre training in the 90s for you.
So, I decided that I was not going to let one person dictate how the path of my life would proceed. After graduation, I moved directly to London and got a job on the House Team at the Shaftesbury Theatre where the production of RENT was running. To say that that show has made a huge impact on my life is an understatement. While in London, I was cast in an Off-West End production of The King and I. Yup….here we go again. It was an incredible experience, and again, in hindsight, I know that I should NEVER EVER be cast in that show ever again.
When I came back to the States again, it was back to Florida to save money to move to NY, and that’s when I met Thomas. Thomas was an animal trainer for film and television who worked for the company that did the animal show at Universal Studios, where I was working as a VIP Tour Guide. He had recently quit as a lion trainer for Seigfried and Roy (that’s ANOTHER story) and had moved to Orlando. I was working at the park when I got my first contract at an Equity house. I was 22 years old and was cast as the old Mrs. Mullins, who runs the Carousel in CAROUSEL. The two women playing Julie and Carrie were in their 40s playing 18 and I’m playing….an old woman. It was GREAT!
After that show, I was cast in a TYA tour of Babes in Toyland and spent four months on the requisite non-union van and truck tour that paid in peanuts. Upon my return, I promptly got engaged to Thomas and we decided to move to Los Angeles since his company didn’t have a branch in NY. We got married and headed West. I spent the next two years doing background to pay the bills and theatre to pay my soul. And man, I have background stories as well!
I became pregnant with my daughter Sydney in 2001, she was born in 2002, and we moved back to FL to be closer to family. I was performing in a long-running production of TONY AND TINA’S WEDDING as a swing when it became really hard to juggle childcare with a performer and an animal trainer’s schedule. Plus, I was 25 years old and was CONSTANTLY being cast as older people! Maybe I was doing this backward.
And that’s when I fell into teaching. Now, I say that because you can ONLY fall into teaching in Florida where they will often hire you if you have a pulse. I was teaching in a school with 5000 students, and many of my students were facing things that my background of privilege didn’t understand. Between my students and my mentor teacher, I decided that I loved teaching high school theatre.
In 2005, after two years of teaching, my husband had had enough of FL and asked if we could move back to CA. Now pregnant with my second child, I told him we could, but that would be the last time. So westward we went…again.
This time, I went straight into teaching theatre again. My daughter, who had already made her TV debut on 7th Heaven at 9 days old, worked on her first film and musical upon arrival in CA. Dylan was born, and I juggled two tiny children, teaching, directing…and then I thought it would be smart to add a Master’s degree in Theatre Production and Design to that, so off to Oregon I went for three summers in a row.
I moved schools and the kids got older. Sydney turned out to be her mother’s child and spent all of her time at our local youth theatre program in Orange County, and Dylan, after scoring the role of Zach in their production of SCHOOL OF ROCK, decided that guitar was his thing.
So here we are, pre-pandemic. Sydney has been accepted into the BFA musical theatre program at Drake University in Iowa, and Dylan is the frontman of the thrash metal band called Tornadic, whom you can hear on Sirius XM Liquid Metal channel.
So this past summer, my husband and I start talking about what the next chapter looks like for us. We have six more years before Dylan is done with college, then what do we do? I knew that I always wanted to go back to performing when I was old enough to play the roles I was being cast in 20 years ago, and with the kids gone, it would be a perfect time. So my husband suggests that maybe I should dip my toes in the water to see if I even still like it. So armed with a photo that my daughter took of me in the backyard, I got a subscription to Actors Access and Backstage and went for it.
It’s been eight months. In that time, I have still done my job which entails teaching five classes, all of which are different. I have 48 students of the 120 I have who have a range of special needs. I have directed five full-scale productions, served as the department chair for the Performing Arts, taken my students to 5 theatre competitions, and our one-act just won the CA State Chapter Select and will be the only CA school to represent at the International Thespian Festival this summer in Bloomington, Indiana.
But this performing thing is where it’s AT! Since August, I have performed in 3 plays (Agatha Christie’s AND THEN THERE WERE NONE, a door-slamming farce called ONE WIFE TOO MANY, and most recently an LA production of THE VAGINA MONOLOGUES), a world-wrecking episode of JUSTICE WITH JUDGE MABLEAN (too many of my friends thought the court shows were real), a horror film in which I play the psych twins (coming out this fall), an episode of Discovery+’s GHOST ADVENTURES (not released yet), a staged reading, and two other proof of concept pieces. I have an upcoming discussion with an agency scheduled and am constantly living in my daughter’s room, which has been turned into a self-tape studio.
Am I tired? Not really. I’ve never had so much energy, and I’ve never driven so much in my life, but I can tell that I have a lot left of my story.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Both of my parents died within three years of each other. My dad’s death with sudden and inexplicable and it rocked me to my core. My mother, who had been crippled by her stroke in 1995 was the one that everyone expected to go first, so this was even harder. My brother and I had to make a lot of choices and very fast about her and her care. She died right before the onset of COVID. I had gone to visit her (she was living near my brother in Virginia) in November of 2019 when my brother said it was the end. The worst thing I ever had to do was tell her that I had to go back home. Our last interaction was her turning her head away from me when I had to say goodbye.
Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
Here’s what sets me apart from others. I’m old. I mean, I’m not the crypt keeper or anything, but I’m not a 22-year-old getting off the bus with one suitcase and $10. I’m coming back into this, so I come at acting with a very different set of glasses on (add reading glasses to that now!) and am lucky enough to want this career, but not have to NEED it.
We’d love to hear about how you think about risk taking?
Risks. My mantra is a little clichéd, but I live by it. Two actually:
1. Throw everything against the wall and see what sticks. I put myself out there for EVERYTHING. I know it’s actually really naive, and often maybe a little too trusting, but you can’t get something you don’t put yourself out there for,
2. Luck is when hard work and opportunity meet. Again, SUPER clichéd, but it’s totally true. I work really hard. I don’t sit still. When I’m not at my actual job, teaching and directing, then I’m revising resumes, submitting myself, doing self-tapes, and learning sides, songs, and monologues.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.stacycastiglione.com
- Instagram: @stageworthy
Image Credits
Headshot by Laura Lejuwaan @lauralynnheadshots
