Oscar Dreams & Restaurant Schemes

As an incoming freshman at the University of Montana and graduating senior at Polson High School, Seth Stanley will major in culinary and minor in theater when he starts next fall. His acting experiences throughout middle school and high school have sharpened his skills, and he hopes to eventually win an Oscar. However, his time in Culinary 1 and 2 have opened his eyes to the opportunities in the culinary industry. Not only is he going for an Oscar, but he wishes to open his own restaurant one day.

Robert DiGiallonardo, a history teacher at Polson Middle School, and past theater director, was the person who got Stanley into acting. During his freshman year, The Addams Family play was in need of people to audition for the male roles. At the time, DiGiallonardo gave a speech that encouraged Stanley to go out for one of the lead roles, Gomez Addams. Stanley said, “I forgot about what he said, but I remember the feeling of what he said. And it made me feel like I could be an actor.” Looking back, he thinks it was one of the most important stepping stones to where he is now. Although he wasn’t confident he would get the role because an upperclassman with more experience also auditioned, Stanley had still hoped his hard work would pay off. It did and he got the part. 

Originally planning on majoring in theater, Stanley had reluctantly decided to minor in it.  Now his main focus is culinary. Despite only taking two out of the four culinary classes offered at PHS, Stanley has come to like it a lot. He hopes that when he gets to college, he will learn everything he will need to know before opening a restaurant. 

While he is currently finishing up high school, Stanley is also in the process of acting in an upcoming movie: BKS: SKIN. When Stanley was approached for a role he was astonished because he was finally being viewed as a representative of acting. Stanley had never acted on this scale before. Prior, he was used to just being in plays. He considered this role as proof that he could show new sides to him. Stanley said, “I'm the second main character. You know how many actors fight for one line to be in a movie?” But with bigger acting roles comes bigger responsibilities. Stanley said when compared to filming a play, filming a movie is, “a lot tougher because you have to stay longer and continuously retake scenes.” 

As a kid, Stanley wanted to play Spider-Man when he grew up. He thinks that maybe it will happen one day if there is a reboot. But as of right now, he is still occupied with balancing school and his extracurriculars. He prioritizes getting all his homework done at school so he can focus on learning how to act as Ryan in Skin.