We were lucky to catch up with Alexander Scelso recently and have shared our conversation below.

Alexander , thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. We’d love to hear about when you first realized that you wanted to pursue a creative path professionally.

There were a few pivotal moments to navigate through the doubt of “should I just do this.”

A very specific breakup led me to pursue drag by signing up to do a competition on Valentine’s Day of 2020 and have had a drag career since.

My English teacher in senior year of high school making me perform and recite my poems written for class, as well as perform full out the 6 monologues I was preparing for college auditions and summer theater auditions for my class at 730am on a Friday morning. She made me put my money where my mouth was.

My mom and grandma showing me classic movies. My family was full of artistic people that never fully pursued the art that they loved at one time. I have a legacy to carry but I want to authentically make my art my living. And the dream is coming true.

Alexander , love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

Acting I started and truthfully never stopped since I was 4 years old. I started in school plays (learning the whole play by heart) going above and beyond on stage because it was the one place I wasn’t teased for being effeminate or “meek.” People listened and watched when I performed in plays. I could be serious and funny and didn’t judge myself so harshly on stage. I needed to keep doing it. So I did.

Acting in school settings almost convinced me that the more you hid your femininity, the more marketable I’d be. I didn’t work consistently until I unlearned that notion. I was scared to play queer characters as if it was career suicide, which is so not true.

Poetry I started by joining a poetry club in college and speaking into the Nuyorican Poets Cafe and doing the open mics there or at other schools whenever I could. I competed in slams often and shared new poems at open mics steadily throughout my 20s until I started getting paid poetry feature spots in my mid to late 20s. I really had tenacity for wanting to strengthen my authentic voice and making poetry a career.

Started drag because my ex fiancé was uncomfortable by the fact I even wanted to. Said I’d be an ugly girl. Gathered some elle woods legally blonde energy to push past that image of myself. Sitanya Face was born, my drag persona, and the muse for Alex’s poetry. Something about doing poetry and even acting as Sitanya not only clicked, but made Alex a more confident actor.

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

I remember feeling so scared I wouldn’t be accomplishing anything during the pandemic….but truthfully it allowed me time to cook. I had just started drag. And I wanted people to know Sitanya as an actress as well as a poet. So as I practiced makeup and dancing in heels, I compiled a collection of poetry, added to previous poems and edited them, wrote up new ones. I wanted to do a one queen show as Sitanya. My previous one I did pre pandemic, I did as myself but something was missing. Just something I felt inside, not anything I heard from the audience. So I self published The Unicorn That Discovered Self-Love, that collection of poetry, and made that my one queen show, complete with stand up comedy vignettes, lipsyncs and as a drag queen. So much came full circle because I realized I could be a multi hyphenate. Not be placed in one box.

Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?

I remember a time when I had a director try to push a sexual relationship onto me while working on a production. I started to hate the rehearsal room where, I once was so happy but now uncomfortable. When I said I wanted nothing to do with him after hearing how I was only cast because he was interested in me in that way, I stopped acting and became a full time retail manager for a couple of years that felt like a century. I got invited to do a talent show at a gay bar, so I did a poem and a Shakespeare monologue. Dressed as a Unicorn 🦄. I wanted to make that my brand I guess. Well, it went over really well and gave me my confidence back, in performing. That was where I was meant to be. I eventually quit those two retail management jobs and committed to drag and auditioning again and revitalizing my poetry again.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.alexandergscelso.com
• Instagram: @sitanyafacequeen
• Facebook: Alex Scelso
• Other: www.alexandergscelso.com/sitanyaface

Image Credits
Alyssa Rapp, Matthew Lucerna, Elmer Quintero, and Michael Kushner