Jasmine Stamos is currently a fourth-year Journalism student at Carleton University in Ottawa, Ontario, who has had a passion for theater ever since she was young.
Prior to attending Carleton, Stamos attended Sacred Heart Catholic High School in Ottawa. There, she was cast as a nun in The Trials of Robin Hood, Bombalurina in the musical Cats, and Jean Louise Finch in To Kill A Mockingbird.
When she joined Carleton, Stamos discovered Sock ‘n’ Buskin Theatre Company (SnB) and hasn’t looked back since.
While a part of SnB, Stamos has acted in The Crucible, Macbeth, and Twelfth Night and has stage managed Goodnight Desdemona, Good Morning Juliet. She has been a member of the SnB Board of Executives acting as the Social Media Coordinator and a member of the Marketing Team. She is now directing her first show for the company, The Mousetrap, by Agatha Christie, which she considers coming “full circle.”
“This just feels like a very appropriate way to make my mark on the company,” says Stamos. “And I’m doing it surrounded by people who I’m very grateful to consider friends after these months of rehearsals.”
In her first year at Carleton, Stamos was cast in the role of Abigail in The Crucible.
“I was drawn to SnB by The Crucible, I’d studied the Salem witch trials in high school. I also studied the play itself. I was so grateful to be cast as Abigail, and she’s still the best character I’ve yet to play,” Stamos said about the experience.
The following year, Stamos was cast as the First Witch in SnB’s production of Macbeth, acting alongside current cast members of The Mousetrap, Mary Sword and Molly McGuire.
That same year, Stamos worked as the stage manager for Emily Grant’s production of Goodnight Desdemona, Good Morning Juliet. Grant is now the technical stage manager for The Mousetrap, and the role of production stage manager is filled by Heather Herbert.
Last year, Stamos was asked to join the cast of Twelfth Night in the lead role of Viola when the original person couldn’t be part of the show anymore. She acted alongside Christian Giansante, who is also a part of the cast of The Mousetrap.
Stamos and her stage managers held auditions for The Mousetrap the first week of October. Once the cast was formed, they began rehearsals and have been rehearsing for about four months now.
“It’s been great. I think we started thinking really early on about our set pieces and about what we wanted things to look like, and costuming, so now that we’re in the final push, we have everything set up and ready to go which is taking a lot of stress off of me and the stage managers,” Stamos said about the process.
The Mousetrap is set in the 50s, and most of the costumes are set in 50s style, but Stamos has said they have taken some “artistic liberties” and “modernized” some of the costumes. “Our detective sergeant is played by a woman, and there probably were no detective sergeants who were women in the 50s, so I took that as a cue to modernize a little bit, and to have the costumes reflect more modern styles as well.”
Along the way of rehearsals, the cast has been able to add things or take out parts of their costume to some degree, as Stamos considers herself a “hands off director,” when it comes to being comfortable on stage. “Me and the production team pick the costumes, but if they have things, they want to add to it or take out of it, they’re one hundred percent able to do that.”
Throughout these four months of rehearsals, Stamos has touched upon how goofy the cast is, and because of this, the cast has had many memorable moments together.
“So, Molly, for instance, she’s hilarious as Mrs. Boyle, she usually has us laughing a lot, she makes a lot of little noises in between scenes that really get us on the floor,” Stamos said.
Throughout her time directing a show, Stamos has grown attached to the cast and to going to rehearsals each week, so, when The Mousetrap is over, she’ll miss the group dynamic and all the amazing times the cast has had. “I will miss the people the most, and I will miss knowing that every week I’m going to spend my time with an incredible cast and a really great production team.”
Once The Mousetrap wraps up, and April comes around, Stamos will be graduating from Carleton and leaving a theatre company that she has dedicated so much of her time, energy, and love into.
“It’s given me a really big sense of purpose,” says Stamos. “Because of all the roles I do, I always have something to do for the company, and whenever I feel a little lost, Sock ‘n’ Buskin’s always there for me. But overall, it’s going to be the people. And I’m grateful for what it’s given me.”
So, if you’re interested in a murder mystery, come on down this weekend and next to view Stamos’s vision come to life.
The Mousetrap runs February 1, 2, 8, and 9 at 7 p.m. and February 3 at 2 p.m. at the Kailash Mital Theatre in Ottawa.