Carol Charniga, B.S.’76

At the University at Albany, Carol Charniga “took classes in the sciences and theatre, and both have continued to be important and balancing aspects of my life.” That’s probably why the Troy, N.Y., resident works as a lab manager for the Neural Stem Cell Institute and enjoys acting and directing!

Pictured here as Fraulein Schneider in a 2011 UAlbany production of Cabaret, Charniga returned to campus this February to portray Miss Piedmont, a character based on Miss Haversham from Charles Dickens’ Great Expectations. She has amassed an impressive array of credits in New York City (A Murder is Announced, Queens Theater in the Park) and, closer to home, at Capital Repertory Theatre, the New York State Theatre Institute (NYSTI), Cohoes Music Hall, Mac-Haydn Theatre and The Theater Barn. Her directing credits include Gross Indecency: the Three Trials of Oscar Wilde at Albany Civic Theater (ACT) and On the 20th Century for the Schenectady Light Opera Company (SLOC).

Offstage, Charniga has two favorite roles: mother of three, and grandmother to Hayden, 13, and Violet, 3. “They are future [UAlbany] students, I hope,” she says.