Welcome to a brand-new episode of Sudbury.com's Person of Interest, where each episode, we meet interesting Sudburians with stories that are just begging to be told.
So far, we've visited a downtown boutique whose owners were sent on a Hollywood adventure, a Juno-nominated Indigenous artist who produced his debut album on his phone, a musician-turned-entrepreneur who has almost single-handedly transformed a piece of the Donovan into one of the coolest neighbourhoods in town and, most recently, we celebrated Pride Week at Northern Ontario's only gay bar.
Now, over the last five to 10 years, Sudbury has been in the midst of a kind of cultural renaissance with an explosion of everything from film production, festivals, food, public art and a thriving theatre scene.
And much of it is coming from a new generation of young creative-types who are choosing to stay in Sudbury and build an art scene from the ground up instead of moving away to pursue their dreams.
In this episode, we're going to meet one of them.
His name is Alessandro Costantini and it's hard to find a Sudburian who hasn't seen him perform on the stage.
He's only 24-years-old, but already Alessandro is making a name for himself as an actor, having starred in productions in both Toronto and Montreal.
But here at home, he's probably best-known as the founder and artistic director of YES Theatre, a company he started when he was just 17 that, over the past eight seasons, has been delighting Sudbury audiences with near sold out shows of big, high-concept musicals featuring mostly local talent.
We caught up with Alessandro at a rehearsal for YES Theatre's upcoming production of “Billy Elliot: The Musical,” a show that has a particular significance for him as the 2001 film on which this musical is based helped inspire him to take to the stage himself.
Click the play button above to watch the video and don't miss YES Theatre's production of “Billy Elliot: The Musical” on stage at the Sudbury Theatre Centre Aug. 4-20.
If you have an idea for our next Person of Interest, get in touch by emailing [email protected] or tweet @CallamRodya.
And, check back to Sudbury.com for more new episodes of Person of Interest in the coming weeks.
