Christine Cestaro has always loved the performing arts.
Raised in Ithaca, New York, Christine went to Cornell University, studying apparel design with dreams of becoming a costume designer. When she had her son, Caleb, during her junior year, her goals shifted. After graduation, she took a job in alumni affairs at Cornell, and later worked in a similar role at Ithaca College.
In 2013, Christine and her family moved to Athens, after her spouse accepted a job with the University System of Georgia. By then, she was the mother of three children—two sons born in her 20s and a daughter born in her 40s. In Athens, she focused on raising her kids and threw herself into volunteer work. When her daughter Mila began acting at Athens Little Playhouse, Christine started volunteering there, too.
After divorcing from her spouse, Christine returned to paid work at a Mother’s Morning Out childcare center, caring for one-year-olds, before taking over managing Athens Little Playhouse. Around the same time Mila started taking voice lessons, Christine decided to start lessons as well. Soon, the two were performing together in Camelot with Athens Creative Theatre, and Christine joined the local improv group Flying Squid, where her love for performance grew.
Today, Christine works as a preschool teacher at UGA’s Child Development Lab at McPhaul, and handles administrative duties for the Collective Artists Workshop, a music and theater nonprofit in Bishop that she also sings with.
She lives in Bogart with her son Caleb, her daughter Mila, his dog Zoey, and her dog, Marigold.
What is your favorite part of the work you do?
Well, I have the IT stuff, the theatrical stuff and the kids stuff. For the theatrical stuff, I would say I’m a puzzle person. That is probably the one constant through all aspects of my varied career is that I’m a puzzle solver. I love thinking about how to accomplish something. So someone presents an issue, you know, “We need a jet pack,” and you have zero dollars to make it happen, so that exploration and problem solving and coming up with something creative. You have two soda bottles, some duct tape, and some orange fabric, and you got a jet pack. There’s higher levels of that, too. When you want to present something more professional– that problem solving, and thinking about what speaks to me that I can communicate to someone else. I love that creative aspect of building things whether it’s costumes or props or bringing together a production.
As far as working with children, I love a mind that is untapped and pure and able to see things, see the universe in a different way than I might see. That brings me joy. There was one day – I sleep with my hair in a ponytail because it gets all snarled up and crazy – so I had my hair up and I was like, This actually looks good! I’m feeling good about myself! I’m gonna leave my hair like this today. And I walked into work and we were out on the playground and this four-year-old boy comes up to me and he goes “Uh, Ms. Chris, what’s going on with your hair?” and I was like “Oh yeah, do you like it?” and one of the other little boys was running by and stopped and he goes “You know you could comb it, that would fix it.” I was just like, okay this is reality. I’m thinking I’m hot stuff with my messy bun, and you’re telling me I need a comb, yeah. That makes me laugh. It brings me joy; they’re just so unfiltered.
I’m also a craft person. So, you know, just generally crafting. I do a lot of crafting in the classroom as well. It’s a lot of fun.
If you could travel anywhere in the world right now, where would you go and why?
I’ve actually been very fortunate enough to be able to travel to a bunch of places. I’ve been to Japan. My 60th birthday was this year, and my boys got me a trip to Guadalupe in the Caribbean, which I wanted to go to because of a show that I watched, a mystery show. And I have been to England. I’ve always wanted to go to Greece, or to the Mediterranean generally. I want to see those white buildings with the blue ocean. And then I’m also totally a UK freak. So I would totally love to go back to London and then go to Ireland and Scotland and Wales and just kind of be in the UK and hang out.
If you could put any message on a billboard, what would that message be?
It’s too long for a billboard, but it would be basically, Nobody is thinking about you as much as you are.
Don’t be nervous, don’t be shy, don’t be self-conscious. Relax.
Do you have a favorite movie, or a movie that you’ll always watch when you run across it?
Well, since we’re in the season, I love Love Actually. That’s one of my favorites. I love The Truman Show. Also Gosford Park. I absolutely love Gosford Park, and any time, like, when I’m having a really bad day, I’ll throw that on in the background. Maggie Smith is just, I don’t know. She’s just so hilarious. She gets those zingers.
Do you have a favorite book, or a book that you find yourself referencing or gifting?
I read The Secret Garden to all three of my kids. I love that book. It just speaks to me. Actually, it was very funny because my middle child, his name is Ryan, and Ryan means little king, and I used to say he was like the maharaja. I don’t know if people know The Secret Garden; it’s a kid’s book. The main character’s cousin stands there and expects servants to dress her, and when she gets to England, they’re like, no. But I used to say to my son that he was like the maharaja. He just wanted to stand there and have someone dress him, and he sent me a photo recently, while in Portland, of an Indian restaurant called The Maharaja, established in 1989, which was when he was born. And I was like, that was freaking perfect, Ryan.
What advice would you give to your younger self?
Don’t be so scared of everything. You’re so much stronger than you think you are, and there’s no such thing as a handsome prince who’s gonna save you.
If you could see any band, musician, or show, at any time in history, who would you see and where?
Wow. That’s really hard. Having just done Into the Woods, I would have liked to have seen Joanna Gleason in Into the Woods with Bernadette Peters, in New York on Broadway, of course, in one of those theaters.
If you could have lunch with anyone, dead or alive, who would it be? And where?
I think honestly, this is a little crazy, but I would want to have lunch with Hugh Laurie. I love him. He’s just – well, one, British. He could just like, read the menu to me and I would be fine with that. But when I think about him, he’s so multi-talented. He’s written a novel, which I read a long time ago. It was very good. He’s such a talented actor. He plays piano and I don’t know what all else. And he’s freaking hilarious. He’s so funny. I’d want to have him tell me about his career, how he started doing all the crazy comedy, and then to end up being House and then writing a book and, yeah, some of the darker stuff. And we’d have to eat in London, obviously. Somewhere fabulous in London. Wherever he likes to go there.
What three words or phrases come to mind when you think of the word home?
Caleb, Ryan, and Mila. (And puppies!)
