Karen Sheridan Costanzi

Karen Costanzi passed away 12 November 2022 surrounded by family. Karen was born in Baltimore City, MD on 4 November 1949 to the Rev. Elden Sheridan and Rebecca Sheridan nee Eller. They lived in Harford County, MD before traveling to and residing in Florida. After a few years the family returned to Harford County where Karen graduated from Bel Air High School class of 1967. Karen married, had a son, Michael, divorced and began working for a local law office and started taking classes at Harford Community College (HCC) toward a theater degree. It was while Karen was acting in a local play that she met her future husband Vincent; they wed in September 1984. After graduating from HCC, Karen enrolled in the University of Baltimore County pursuing a degree in Theater and Creative Writing where she performed on stage as well as behind the scenes constructing sets, sewing costumes and doing makeup. Karen graduated Summa Cum Laude with a Bachelor of Arts degree in December 1992. After graduation, Karen worked for a time at an ad agency writing copy for various ads, was a prison guard in the movie “Serial Mom,” an abused woman giving a police report in “Twelve Monkeys,” bystander in “Murder in a Small Town,” and starred in a local commercial and wrote and directed the Centennial Celebration for Aberdeen, MD. Karen continued acting or directing in various community theater productions in Cecil, Harford and Baltimore Counties to include a traveling company started by Karen and named The Magnolia Players where they performed “Murder most Fowl,” written and directed by Karen. The couple then moved to Michigan where her husband pursued a degree in Survey Engineering at Ferris State University while Karen took a position at Central Michigan University as support staff for the dean’s office in the College of Human Services while taking a 500 level playwriting class. The final assignment was to write a full-length play “Terminal State,” and was selected to be part of the 1997-1998 Season opening 15 October 1997 at the Bush Theater on the campus of Central Michigan University. Her husband graduated in May 1999 and the couple moved to Colorado, settling in Fort Collins. While in Colorado, Karen was a freelance researcher for a local production company, Grizzly Adams Productions, working on “Encounters of the Unexplained” hosted by Jerry Orbach allowing Karen to travel to the UK, first on business, then with her sister on a lengthy vacation with a day trip to Paris, France. After seven years the couple returned to Maryland finally settling in Bowie. It was at this time that Karen retired and was thus able to pursue her other interests--- genealogy, stamping, scrapbooking. She wrote two plays, “Aulder and Young” about two late night radio hosts and “Boudica” a one women play about the last hours of the first century Iceni Warrior Queen. She also wrote two novels, “Thyrza” and “Half Baked Corpse” two novels the later in partnership with a friend she met in Colorado and painting. Karen connected with a former classmate from UMBC and performed at her friend’s theater, The Venus Theater, in Laurel, MD. She enjoyed gardening but was more “supervisor” pointing to where her husband was supposed to plant certain bushes or plants and also enjoyed crushing her husband whenever they played Scrabble.

Karen is survived by her husband of 38 years Vincent Costanzi, a son Michael Price, a sister Evonell Waddell, nieces Monique Kruml, Mashelle Arnold, Melissa Cleary and Melanie Waddell Diab and various grandnieces and grandnephews.

In lieu of flowers please send a donation to a local animal shelter or Humane Society in Karen’s name.

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