My name is Catie Stahlkuppe. I’ve been involved with theatre for about five years. Theatre is my passion, my life, and my heart. How I got started in theatre is very personal and special to me. 

My wonderful mother has always been involved with theatre. As a child I loved her stories of being on stage and the many backstage stories too. I would drive her crazy watching videos of productions she was involved with. Maybe it is because of loving to hear stories that I started telling my own and performing every chance I got. When I was young, I had the captivated audience of my loving family and they always cheered me on. I LOVED being in the spotlight. But, it was not until I was in the seventh grade that I auditioned for a show. I made the chorus and from that point on I was hooked! 

I have been in twelve shows in the past five years and I have loved every second of each one! Characters Inc. has a VERY special place in my heart. My first Characters show was Sweeney Todd. Everyone was so loving and welcoming. Since then I have worked backstage on Legally Blond and Music Man. I also performed in the spring production of Titanic. 

Everyone with Characters is very special and I have enjoyed getting to know each one. I feel each person makes up a part of our big family. I have been able to meet and make some of my very best friends in the process and I am so very thankful for them! 

It is with great joy that I will be working with everyone again in Peter Pan. I will be playing the part of Tootles, a Lost Boy, and I am super excited to share his story. This cast is absolutely amazing! Every single person is so talented! I really encourage everyone to come see this show. Peter Pan has always been one of my favorite musicals since I saw the production starring Cathy Rigby with my Mimi in the 90’s. 

I’m so happy that I get the opportunity to help bring this story to life for my community. 

Catie Stahlkuppe 

Hi! It’s Santana again! Only this time, I’m blogging as a performer and not as a CharACTers website editor. Today I will be talking about my upcoming role as Peter Pan! I’m so very excited and honored to be playing this role. Being able to play this part is truly fulfilling a childhood dream. When I was very young, say around the age of 7, my mom introduced me to the musical stage version of Peter Pan starring Mary Martin. I was instantly hooked! I watched that old VHS over and over until I had every line memorized. For all of you youngsters, the VHS was the prequel to the DVD ;). I can vividly remember dragging my younger sister out onto our back porch and “presenting” my own version of the show. I played Peter of course and I made her play all the parts that I didn’t want haha!

Peter Pan has always been a big part of my life. From the stage version, to the Disney cartoon, to the Robin Williams movie, to the Jeremy Sumpter movie (FAVORITE). I love every bit of it! Tinkerbell has, is, and always will be my absolute favorite Disney character. My bedroom is still currently covered in Tinkerbell merchandise. Cody even calls me the Peter Pan expert because I strive to know everything there is to know about Peter Pan and the precious J.M. Barrie story. One of the highlights of my life occurred just a couple of weeks ago. My awesome fiancé took me to see Peter Pan the musical starring Cathy Rigby. Not only did I get to see one of my absolute favorite shows and witness something that I used to think I could only see on DVD IN PERSON, but I also got to meet Cathy Rigby after the show! It was amazing! We talked for just a minute and I shared with her that I too was playing Peter Pan soon. She seemed genuinely excited for me and wished me luck! Needless to say, I cried a good bit of tears that night. Tears of joy, of course! I just hope my wedding can top that.  :) Ha ha!

If I had to pick, I would say that I am most excited about flying! I don’t know how many times I jumped off our (very high) back porch and wished I could take flight. Let’s just hope I don’t crash land like I did when I was a child though!

One of the first questions I often get when talking about the musical is “Peter Pan’s a girl?” Yes! It’s played by a female! Come on, you don’t actually think a guy can do all of those tricks like Cathy right? Ok, maybe some of you genetically blessed guys can, but definitely not the average guy. So, am I looking forward to toning down my pink-sparkling-heel wearing-glitter loving-girlie girl self to play a dirty-mischievous-rambunctious-immature young boy? Of course I am! I am looking forward to exploring all of the similarities between Peter and I. What are they? Well, you’ll just have to wait until the next blog post!

Faith, Trust, and Santana Dust!