Artist on the Stage and on Paper: Meet Lydia Castillo!

As preparation for the musical slowly starts to turn its gears, arts on the stage aren’t the only things in motion. Lydia Castillo, ‘26, has something in the books for Redwood’s Spring Musical, Anastasia.

By: Ella Chan

Lydia Castillo, ‘26, has been a part of the Redwood Theater program since her freshman year, Anastasia being her third musical to take part in. 

Castillo recalls, “All my life, ever since I was in diapers, my mom put me on stage… I started off doing dance, and it just grew into more musical theater. I was always around theater my whole life.” 

Similarly, she’s been drawing at a fairly young age; however, around late elementary was when the passion grew. “I remember my mom would put me in like [art] shows, and at one point I participated in Art Hobb in Fresno,” she says. 

Castillo’s art featured below:

Castillo’s passion and skill for art are now pushed to the test as she will be designing the poster for the Redwood’s musical, Anastasia.

She gained this opportunity during her time in the stagecraft class with Galvan. 

“She [Galvan] came up to me, and she was like, ‘I have a special job for you,’ and I was like, ‘What’s up?’ She’s like, ‘You’re going to do the poster art, here’s all the information you’re going to need to put on the poster” says Castillo.

Castillo was nothing short of taken aback by this request. She later found that Galvan had not offered anyone the opportunity. 

Together, as the group finishes up work for It’s a Wonderful Life and transitions into building the set and decorations for Anastasia, Castillo focuses on getting the poster just right. “I am sort of collaborating with her [Galvan], like obviously I need her input on what I’m going to do, but for the most part she was like ‘go crazy’ and like ‘let’s see what we can do with it,” she says.

Despite the art still being in the works, there have been a few challenges for Castillo. The greatest difficulty for her at the moment is that, “It’s a completely different aesthetic from what I usually do. Looking at inspo, I definitely want to go outside the box and not do anything I’ve ever done before.”

As Castillo puts her piece together, she considers several aspects, such as style: “I don’t know if I want to lean into more realism, or just a silhouette,” she says. She has several rough drafts at the moment of the actual poster, and together, Galvan and Castillo have taken aspects from different drafts to continue forming the finished piece.

Castillo says, “It’s coming along, don’t get me wrong, we’re just like taking bits and pieces of ideas and trying to shove it into one.”

“I’m taking elements, like big major elements, that give a rough idea on what the show is going to be about,” Castillo says. She plans to take aspects of settings such as Russia and Paris to “give the audience like a rough draft of what they’re going to be experiencing.”

As she continues to work on the poster, she’ll further enhance it by contributing small symbols and references to other characters and moments of the story.

This amazing opportunity really goes to show how students can further build and develop their show, and overall, the involvement that Redwood provides!

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