Featured Artist: Don Castro

This is a series of posts featuring our artists who are making things happen in and around our great borough of Queens.  Please check back weekly for new posts.

TitleOccupation
Actor

Where were you born?
Manila, Philippines.

Which Queens neighborhood do you live in and for how long?
I’ve been living in Sunnyside, south of Queens Blvd., for 2 years now.

How did you get involved in theatre?
A mime came to visit my sixth grade class in Chicago.  He did the classic routines like “pulling the rope,” “invisible wall,” and “walking in place.”  Afterwards, he made us walk around while imagining we were clouds.  That was it.  That was the bait.  I then auditioned for the school play and got cast as a Lion in a not-quite-The-Wizard-of-Oz type of play.

What do you love most about Queens?
I love that Queens residents just do what they do: go to work, raise their families, live their lives.  They’re not trying to be a part of a “scene” or to be “seen.”

Do you have an “only in Queens” moment you’d like to share?
Only in Queens have I seen food move on a plate.  You won’t see food that fresh in Brooklyn!

Your top Queens picks (food, entertainment, sights, etc)?
I’ve enjoyed going to Queens Museum, Museum of the Moving Image, and the Queens Zoo.  Going to Citi Field is also a treat.  If you can attend a wedding at Terrace in the Park, go.  That building is unique.  For food, I like to go to Ihawan in Woodside for soul food Filipino.  I also frequent a Wendy’s on Queens Blvd., mainly for childhood nostalgia because it was once McDowell’s in Coming To America.

Current/Upcoming projects?
Currently, I am in Don Nguyen’s Red Flamboyant with Firebone Theatre until May 16 (go see it before it closes!).  I will be starting rehearsals very soon for a play called Yes is a Very Young Man by Gertrude Stein for Target Margin Theater’s Lab series.  I also have a couple of TV appearances coming up this May: in an episode of The Following and in the season finale of Louie.