Santino DeAngelo '12 is passionate about many things. He loves the Binghamton area in which he grew up. He loves Binghamton University, where he’s a dual major in classics and theater. He loves acting, writing, music and art. But most of all, he loves unifying his passions.
This summer, as a Harpur fellow, DeAngelo set out to improve his hometown, whose youth have become too familiar with violence and not familiar enough with art and theater, by putting on a play to teach how to break cycles of violence.
Working with Binghamton University Spanish majors, DeAngelo helped translate Federico García Lorca’s 1933 Blood Wedding and created an entirely new production that had local highschool students helping with rehearsals. One cast member worked with Upward Bound students to prepare them before they saw the matinees. (There were also regular shows for the general public.)
He asked Katie Kane, senior assistant director in Binghamton University’s Office of Undergraduate Admissions, to participate in conversations between the students and the cast. After each matinee, they explored how the play dealt with breaking life patterns and how that applied to their own lives.
“We had an incredible discussion,” Santino says. “These are kids from 12 to 16, 17, and we had some remarks like, ‘I noticed the foreshadowing at the end of Act I.’ You have that in mind with the kids the whole time, but when it happens, it takes you by surprise.”