DECOSTANZA

I was born in the mid 90s, in a Connecticut hospital down the street from my childhood home. I was raised by two social worker parents in a house filled with books and records, and my childhood was indoorsy and somewhat sheltered. I was in special education for nearly all of my compulsory schooling, which contributed to a lifelong feeling of being on the outside looking in. At fourteen I heard Tom Waits and Nick Cave cover songs from The Threepenny Opera and was inspired to begin acting... While an undergrad at SUNY Purchase College I spent prodigious amounts of time on extracurriculars, not only directing and acting in school plays, but also managing the college radio station (where I cofounded the Spectral Citadel arts collective with three friends, a collaboration in theatre, video, and genre fiction that continues after a fashion to this day). Summers were spent with the Shakespeare Academy at Stratford, where I began as a student in the inaugural ensemble and was eventually made..