About Me!
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My name is Sydney Michele Castiglione, my pronouns are she/her, and I am from Fullerton, Southern California! I started my theatrical journey at the young age of 14 weeks old on the television show 7th Heaven! I come from a very arts-oriented family, with my dad being an animal trainer for Universal Studios and my mom working as a professional actress, so performing has always been in my blood. I started in community theatre around the age of 10 and haven't looked back.
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In middle school, I was on the school's competitive dance team and fell in love with dance. My 7th-grade large jazz song was a mix of "Singing in the Rain" and "Don't Rain on My Parade", so to say I was excited is an understatement. I then went on to attend Fullerton Union High School and graduated from the Academy of the Arts where I was an active member in dance, choir, and theatre all four years. I was in the Dance Production level all four years and was on the school's dance team for two years, was in vocal ensemble for two years, and served in various leadership positions for our theatre department all four years, including as president my senior year. (Can you tell I had no life outside of school and the theatre department? Don't worry, I loved it and was happy to be there!)
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Something I was incredibly involved with and still continue to be very passionate about is the International Thespian Society. I even served as a California State Thespian Officer my senior year! I went to every state and international festival I could and loved all of the summits and events under the organization's umbrella. Even to this day, I make connections because of the Thespian Society, and I could not be more thankful for it. (I was in troupe #2498, just in case you were wondering)
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Covid struck, and unfortunately, the end half of my senior year (including my senior musical) was no more. I was, however, fortunate enough to attend Drake University in Des Moines, IA, where we were able to have hybrid classes in the fall of 2020, and I was able to begin to experience some normalcy and some version of an idea of college! (Drake is a small liberal arts college in the middle of Iowa, so we were able to easily do all of this safely, I promise)
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In my time at Drake, I made the most amazing friends, worked with the best professors, and was able to grow, not only in performance, but also in technical and advocacy fields. On top of all of the wonderful performance experience I was given, I learned how to work in a scene shop, got a job as a costume shop technical assistant for two years, was able to choreograph my first full musical, and got to stage manage two full productions! I got to attend Chicago Unifieds with my professors as a student ambassador and continued to do a lot of advocacy work for the school and our department. I could not be more thankful for my time there and I happily graduated with my BFA in Musical Theatre!
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Upon graduating, I made my professional debut at Cedar Summerstock (in the smallest of small towns in Osage, Iowa... I just couldn't escape Iowa, but I promise I loved it, it was so much fun), where I had the honor of my first professional role as Dolly Levi in Hello, Dolly! I've since moved to New York City, where I now live with my best friend in my aunt's basement, pounding the pavement and making it work. After just a few months of being out here, I made my Off-Broadway debut in the first revival of the 1965 musical, Skyscraper, which was quite literally one of the best experiences of my life! The cast and creative team were the best group of people and I love them all so dearly, the rehearsal process was truthfully so wonderful, and it was just so much fun! I then worked as an elf at Santaland in the iconic 34th Macys, and now work at Circle in the Square Theatre as a porter! (Sanatland made me realize that some people just should not be parents, but I love Circle in the Square, getting to work in that environment is so cool)
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I cannot wait to see what the future holds!
