Seth Grondin
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Video Text: Seth Grondin, Senior
Music Performance Major, Figaro: "The Marriage of Figaro": "First movie
or play... my brother was a theater major here when he was in college,
so I saw a lot of his productions. Some of the first were 'Barefoot in
the Park,' and he did 'Cabaret' when he was here. I think the first
movie I saw in theaters was 'Land Before Time' or something like that,
or 'Hook' was another one that I remember early on.
"It's a unique experience for me because it's my first theatric
production here, so the whole staging aspect is a pretty big challenge
for me. It's something I've had to really work hard on. Getting all the
movements right, getting it so all the lines coordinate, and to get all
your cues in on time for the music--so that part is pretty challenging.
"It helps a lot getting into character when you've got these big, bulky,
costumes on that are period costumes of 18th century style. At times it
kinda feels like you're wearing a couch. I had a bigger role in 'Les Mis'
my senior year at Bangor High, and that was actually what really
launched me into this whole kind of experience, getting me into music
and singing a lot more, so that was a big one for me.
"That's a tough one. Ian McKellen really stands out to me. I've seen him
in a lot of different stuff--I've seen some of his earlier Shakespeare
stuff and I've seen, obviously, the big stuff nowadays--'Lord of the
Rings,' 'X-men,' and all that. He's just someone who I've really just
admired everything I've seen him do. Another big one, as someone a
little bit younger, would be Ed Norton. He's a really big influence on
me. He just totally transforms himself.
"That's an interesting question, because something that's kind of
universal in theater is to not be comfortable. The comfort, I guess, if
you can call it that for me, is the learning experience--going through
the process, whether it be with one individual show or just your
theatrical career over time. It's seeing what I can do next time to make
it a little bit better, and a little bit better next time, especially
with 'Figaro' because it's such a complicated show--there's so much
going on. I really try to take a moment every time before I go on to
say, 'OK, what's happened already in the show, where am I at this
moment, what's he trying to do, what's he trying to accomplish.'
"I'm hoping to go to conservatory or a big university with a big vocal
program at some point, either for opera specifically or for vocal
performance, and that hopefully either leads to a professional
performing career, or I would also be happy with ensemble singing and
teaching either private students or in a university setting or anything
like that.
"That's an interesting question. Five favorite non-musical sounds. At
least three would have to do something with the outdoors--I grew up in
Maine, so I've spent a lot of time camping, hiking, all that stuff, so I
have a really strong affinity to the outoors--any kind of water noise,
or animals, birds, etc. The sound of a really, really, really nice car
is always pretty good.
"It's definitely one of the more impressive, challenging musical
projects that I've ever been a part of, so it is really hard work. It
takes a lot of time, a lot of concentration. I've heard a few people say
that the Mozart operas are about forgiveness--it's kind of a blanket
statement, but a lot of them are, I think, and this one definitely, I
think, embodies that a lot, because of all the scheming and deceit that
goes on, and then at the end everyone realizing their faults--the Count,
Figaro, the Countess Susannah, everybody.
"Whether people agree with me or not, in my opinion, definitely you can
express more emotion, you can just enhance the action with the music
that's going on underneath. The character can't express what they're
feeling through just words anymore. They have to express it through some
other artform, and music comes into play that way.
"The limitations of it--the comedic timing is all timed out for you,
instead of, you know, with a straight play you can play around with
different inflections and different timings and different words to
stretch out or something like that--it's all timed out for you and you
have to figure out how to make that work, which is more of a challenge
than a limitation."
