©Anchorage Daily News Dec. 18, 1988 Actor Knows How To Dive Into a Role By Sue Adair
Imagine this scenario. You're sitting across the breakfast table from your son. He's a college sophomore with a diving scholarship. He's training under an Olympic coach. At 14, he captured second place in the World Diving competition in Stuttgart, Germany. Just as you're about to take a sip of coffee, he announces that he's dropping out of school, quitting diving altogether. I beg your pardon? Want to run that one by me again, son? Thus, in 1983, began Michael Gruber's career in the theater. The lead in Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, Gruber decided that the road to fame and fortune was not off the end of a diving platform, but straight through the throng of other young hopefuls who migrate annually to New York City. So Gruber enrolled instead at the Conservatory of Music in Cincinnati and spent a couple of years honing acting and singing skills, working on his dancing moves. "I was an athlete, not a dancer," Gruber said. "I didn't have a lot of dexterity. Dance is power, but it's also grace, and I needed to learn that." The vocal training has paid off. Gruber, 24, sings a bright, warm baritone. He's got the moves down as well, the athlete in him adding some acrobatic flourishes to his dance routines in the Alaska Light Opera Theatre production. That he got the job is a classic mix of fate and knowing the right people at the right time. Local actor Kirk Smitheram had been cast as Joseph, but a new job took him unexpectedly out of town for the three weeks of rehearsals. Director Richard Casper recommended Gruber to ALOT artistic director Gloria Marinacci Allen, who had seen Gruber in New York in Dreamgirls, as well as in a video of Joseph that Casper had directed. So, they cast him. He arrived in Anchorage in time for five days of rehearsal. "He had the role down pat," said Allen. Casper, it turned out, got sick five days before he was due to arrive in Anchorage, and Gruber suggested they bring in director Patti D'Beck, whom he had worked with on My One and Only. In the world of New York acting, connections mean a lot, said Gruber. Two actors can be equally talented, but if a director has worked with one of them and knows that the actor is conscientious, punctual and easy to work with, that actor has the edge. Performing in Anchorage has been a pleasant change for Gruber. "There is no'attitude' here," he said. "In New York, there's an added stress. Your next job is your next check. It's so hard and so serious. The first week everybody is sizing each other up. Here, though, everybody is kind, giving, open. They're more supportive. The problem here is the budget. The music director is so overworked and has no staff. The costumer has no help. That makes it hard." Gruber didn't get a chance to see the costume he wears in the final scene until after the second act on opening night. He takes an open but serious approach in his portrayal of Joseph. "Joseph is a prophet and has to be portrayed that way. The amusing pastiches of the show revolve around him, but the spine of the show is his faith." That mirrors the way Gruber sees his own life. Raised a Catholic, his faith keeps him steady in an unsteady world. "Entertainment is a screwedup business. The rejection is incredible. You audition and audition and audition, and you just don't get things." Gruber admits, however, that he's been lucky. In the year and a half that he's been in New York, he's worked in regional productions of My One and Only, Carnival, The Rocky Horror Show and A Chorus Line. His last acting job was a five month tour of Europe in West Side Story in which he played Tony. In January, he'll audition for the role of Mike in a Broadway production of A Chorus Line Gruber's parents have adjusted to his career. "At first, my dad especially, was very against it. Now they're incredibly supportive. Dad didn't believe I could take care of myself. He kind of cut me off, said, 'You can't keep coming to me for money,' but that was the best thing that could have happened." Joseph And The Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat will be performed through Tuesday at the Alaska Center for the Performing Arts. main Joseph 1988 page

©Anchorage Daily News
Dec. 18, 1988

Actor Knows How To Dive Into a Role
By Sue Adair

Imagine this scenario. You're sitting across the breakfast table from your son. He's a college sophomore with a diving scholarship. He's training under an Olympic coach. At 14, he captured second place in the World Diving competition in Stuttgart, Germany. Just as you're about to take a sip of coffee, he announces that he's dropping out of school, quitting diving altogether.

I beg your pardon? Want to run that one by me again, son?

Thus, in 1983, began Michael Gruber's career in the theater. The lead in Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, Gruber decided that the road to fame and fortune was not off the end of a diving platform, but straight through the throng of other young hopefuls who migrate annually to New York City.

So Gruber enrolled instead at the Conservatory of Music in Cincinnati and spent a couple of years honing acting and singing skills, working on his dancing moves. "I was an athlete, not a dancer," Gruber said. "I didn't have a lot of dexterity. Dance is power, but it's also grace, and I needed to learn that."

The vocal training has paid off. Gruber, 24, sings a bright, warm baritone. He's got the moves down as well, the athlete in him adding some acrobatic flourishes to his dance routines in the Alaska Light Opera Theatre production.

That he got the job is a classic mix of fate and knowing the right people at the right time. Local actor Kirk Smitheram had been cast as Joseph, but a new job took him unexpectedly out of town for the three weeks of rehearsals. Director Richard Casper recommended Gruber to ALOT artistic director Gloria Marinacci Allen, who had seen Gruber in New York in Dreamgirls, as well as in a video of Joseph that Casper had directed. So, they cast him. He arrived in Anchorage in time for five days of rehearsal.

"He had the role down pat," said Allen. Casper, it turned out, got sick five days before he was due to arrive in Anchorage, and Gruber suggested they bring in director Patti D'Beck, whom he had worked with on My One and Only.

In the world of New York acting, connections mean a lot, said Gruber. Two actors can be equally talented, but if a director has worked with one of them and knows that the actor is conscientious, punctual and easy to work with, that actor has the edge.

Performing in Anchorage has been a pleasant change for Gruber. "There is no'attitude' here," he said. "In New York, there's an added stress. Your next job is your next check. It's so hard and so serious. The first week everybody is sizing each other up. Here, though, everybody is kind, giving, open. They're more supportive. The problem here is the budget. The music director is so overworked and has no staff. The costumer has no help. That makes it hard."

Gruber didn't get a chance to see the costume he wears in the final scene until after the second act on opening night.

He takes an open but serious approach in his portrayal of Joseph. "Joseph is a prophet and has to be portrayed that way. The amusing pastiches of the show revolve around him, but the spine of the show is his faith."

That mirrors the way Gruber sees his own life. Raised a Catholic, his faith keeps him steady in an unsteady world.

"Entertainment is a screwedup business. The rejection is incredible. You audition and audition and audition, and you just don't get things." Gruber admits, however, that he's been lucky. In the year and a half that he's been in New York, he's worked in regional productions of My One and Only, Carnival, The Rocky Horror Show and A Chorus Line.

His last acting job was a five month tour of Europe in West Side Story in which he played Tony. In January, he'll audition for the role of Mike in a Broadway production of A Chorus Line

Gruber's parents have adjusted to his career. "At first, my dad especially, was very against it. Now they're incredibly supportive. Dad didn't believe I could take care of myself. He kind of cut me off, said, 'You can't keep coming to me for money,' but that was the best thing that could have happened."

Joseph And The Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat will be performed through Tuesday at the Alaska Center for the Performing Arts.

main Joseph 1988 page