When he was a boy, Blake Stadnik marched with the Pittsburgh CLO Mini Stars in the WPXI Holiday Parade.

On Nov. 30, the actor and “This Is Us” cast member and Ellwood City native will again participate in the parade, this time as a featured performer.

“I was 10, 11 years old. I went to (the parade) a few times when I was a kid. I’m excited to be a part of it,” he says during a telephone interview.

Stadnik, 28, attended Riverside High School and Lincoln Park Performing Arts Charter School, both in Beaver County. He is a Penn State musical theater graduate and now calls New York City home.

He joined the cast of the popular NBC television show, set in Pittsburgh, this season. He plays Jack Damon, the infant son of characters Kate and Toby.

A recent time hop into the future shows his adult character on his way to pop stardom, with Stadnik performing the song “Memorized.”

And like his character, Stadnik is visually impaired. On the show, the child’s loss of vision is attributed to premature birth. Stadnik was born with the genetic Stargardt disease, a form of macular degeneration, and began losing his sight at age 7. When casting the role of Jack, the show’s producers prioritized finding someone with vision loss.

Hit the stage early

The role of Jack is Stadnik’s first television role, although he has been active in musical theater for 20 years.

“I started performing at about 7, when I lost my eyesight. I couldn’t play sports any more,” he says. To help keep him socially active and to provide exercise, his mother enrolled him in a tap class. “I fell in love with it,” Stadnik says.

After taking additional dancing and singing classes, he began performing with the New Castle Playhouse.

“I was in my first musical there at (age) 9 — ‘Gypsy.’ I played a newsboy,” he says.

By middle school, he became enamored with Shakespeare. “My mom tells me I was always a big ham,” he says, laughing.

Next up was Pittsburgh Public Theater’s Monologue and Scene Contest, where he was a winner for Upper Division Monologue after performing as Lewis from “King John.” “I loved the language and imagery, and I thought it was beautiful,” Stadnik says.

He knew early on, he says, that performing would be his career path.

“I always loved film and going to movies. There is a magic when the lights turn down and the beginning credits start to roll,” he says.

Television, he says, is enjoying “this wonderful renaissance of storytelling,” that audiences are embracing.

He learned on-camera acting in school and always has loved singing.

“Acting is really my main love, because it’s how you tell the story. I’m meant to tell stories. When singing is involved, it’s a plus,” Stadnik says.

At home on stage and screen

Stadnik has performed in “Newsies” on Broadway and toured nationally with “42nd Street.” He recalls performing in “Guys and Dolls” in Aspen, Colo., when he was asked to audition for the role of Jack.

He and his girlfriend found a studio, she read lines with him, and the two used an iPhone to record his audition.

“We did 10 takes,” he says.

When learning scripts, Stadnik says he tends to use large print.

“I like having paper in front of me,” he says.

He also has magnifying glasses he uses to read and screen reading software on his computer.

Acting on a television set, Stadnik says, is “both very different from and exactly the same” as stage acting. One difference is television scenes may be performed multiple times, while live stage shows are done once all the way through.

The effort to communicate with and affect an audience is the same, he says, whether that audience is in the back row of a theater balcony or watching a filmed scene.

Insight into character

Stadnik is unable to comment specifically on his story arc on the show, but gave some insight as to how Jack’s life may unfold.

“We are already starting to see, and will continue to see, Toby and Kate learn what it is like to be parents of a child with a vision impairment,” he says.

“Right now, Jack is an infant. His whole world is his parents. For me, growing up, I faced some adversity as a kid. I learned what it’s like to go through that. Kids can be cruel sometimes. I got bullied majorly in school,” he says.

It will be interesting, he says, to see what young Jack faces as he grows up.

Stadnik is staying with family over the Thanksgiving holiday, visiting with his mother and siblings. “They are all very, very excited and very proud,” he says.

Messages on social media tell him viewers also are proud to have a “Pittsburgher” on the show. “It’s an honor to represent my hometown on ‘This Is Us,’” he says.

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