Darlene Van Alstyne is a SAG/AFTRA actor, singer, dancer, wife, and mom to two Chihuahuas based in Provincetown, Massachusetts. She was born and raised in Boston, MA where her aspirations of becoming a performer were nurtured by her mother, a single mother of three, who was also pursuing a career in acting and modeling. While in Boston, Darlene made some appearances on TV shows such as The Chappelle Show, As the World Turns, and St. Elsewhere.
She was a backup vocalist in a band formed and fronted by award-winning songwriter-producer, TJ Armand and was the female lead in his first musical Welcome to Stony Brook. Van Alstyne left Boston for Provincetown in 2004 and discovered its theater community a couple of years later and was cast as “Dolores” in the Wild Party. Shortly after that, David Drake cast her as “Shannon” in Brad Fraser’s Poor Superman, and following that run, she played “Flannery” the ex-girlfriend of a junky, rockstar has been played by Lea DeLaria in Insatiable Hunger, a musical written by Meryl Cohn, and where she met Billy Hough and Sue Goldberg – cowriters of the show. She has been performing with the Rockstar duo for 15 years now and has the distinct honor of performing alongside Billy and Sue with the Garage Dogs in Provincetown, Boston, and New York City. In 2014, Van Alstyne was cast as “Joanne” in Peregrine Theatre Ensemble’s production of Rent while simultaneously working a full-time job and starring in her own show, Forever Blonde – a concert-style dance review, complete with 8 backup dancers.
She played “Gary Coleman” in Avenue Q at Cape Repertory Theater in Brewster, MA and at the Geva Theater in Rochester, New York and then was back for another run at Cape Rep.
Darlene has had the great fortune of making her debut appearance on the big screen as the head nurse in the movie Stronger. She was a police officer on the set of Hightown and when American Horror Story landed in Provincetown, she was a photo double for Angelica Ross and a stand-in for Adina Porter.
She is most recognized for her constant crowd-packing gigs and personal appearances during the Provincetown Summer season. She was the lead vocalist of the duo Summer on the Porch – her residency on Tuesday nights at Porch Bar Gifford House from 2016- 2019 and started her own band, Fuckery (named after an Amy Winehouse song), that had the wildest residency at WayDownTown on Sunday nights in 2018 and 2019. Although COVID put all things to an end, for the most part, she still had some streaming performances with Billy and Sue and in 2021, she performed in a two-person short play online called Closing Doors and played “Sheila” in Jim Dalglish’s online video series, Teacher of the Year. In the summer of 2022, Darlene, with Billy at the keys, started Manic Mondays – their Monday night residency at Post Office Café. During the winter months, Van Alstyne and Hough could be seen (and heard) at Tin Pan Alley on Tuesday Nights for an evening, they called See You Next Tuesday where you can hear everything from songs by Burt Bachrach to Prince, Harry Styles, Blondie, Nina Simone, and on. Most recently, Darlene co-starred in The Sondheim Tribute Revue produced by
Peregrine Theatre Ensemble.
Other TV and film highlights: Off Season (dir. Nathan Butera); Ribbons by Brandon Cordeiro; The Intensive for CQ4 Productions. Theatrical credits also include Jaqueline in La Cage Aux Folles, Melanie Welch in Ruby Tuesday (Cape Rep); Debbie Does Dallas – the Musical (dir/Producer Tom Dangora); Passing Strange, A Raisin in the Sun, Who’s Afraid of Virginia
Woolf? Candide, Women Behind Bars, (Counter Productions); Municipal Abattoir, Tenn at Town Hall, The Jazz Funeral of Stella Brooks (TWTF).