Today we’d like to introduce you to John Grimmett.
Hi John, so excited to have you with us today. What can you tell us about your story?
I am a composer, writer, and director. Like many involved in the performing arts, I have a varied background.
When I was in college, I had the opportunity to study playwriting with Edward Albee. After graduating from the Moores School of Music at the University of Houston, I also studied at the Graduate Musical Theatre Writing Program at New York University, where I was a recipient of the Max Dreyfus Scholarship from the ASCAP Foundation. After graduating from Tisch, I had a series of odd jobs in non-profits arts education and professional theatre (including working with the opera composer Jake Heggie by preparing his manuscript opera scores for the Library of Congress, being a research assistant with Dr. Howard Pollack on a biography on the lyricist John Latouche, and serving as a music copyist for an off-Broadway musical) before I entered into theatre education in Texas public schools.
All the while, I’ve kept writing. My work has been performed internationally by the Washington National Opera, Fort Worth Opera, Houston Grand Opera, Panoramic Voices, Nautilus Music Theater, and the Baltic Chamber Opera Theatre as well as at universities and conservatory training programs across the country. Recent collaborations include NOW, the second episode of the Star-Cross’d web opera series by Houston Grand Opera with composer Avner Dorman; a commission by the Fort Bend Symphony Orchestra with Kleban Prize finalist Jason Carlson; REGRETS ONLY, a song cycle for soprano Ann Moss and cellist Emil Miland; the libretto for NOTHING IN THE NOTHINGNESS, a chamber opera with music by Daniel Zajicek; and the libretto for FINITE DIFFERENCES, a song cycle with Kenneth Froelich for soprano Ann Moss and the Hausmann Quartet. My most recent play, MY FRIEND THE OCTOPUS, competed in the Texas UIL One Act Play Competition for high school students as a Regional Finalist and was recorded for a virtual premiere in May 2022.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
There is no such thing as a 9-to-5 job for a composer-lyricist — and certainly not for an opera librettist or a poet. I think you enter into the theatrical profession with passion, and you trust that your passion will be what carries you through writing your work, promoting it, and still trying to find time to be a human being. I have found that I have a lot of interests within the theatre, particularly in directing and technical design.
One of my teachers in grad school was the late Margo Lion, the producer of HAIRSPRAY. She said to our class once: “I’ve done every job in the theatre, including cleaning the toilets, and if you’re unwilling to do that, maybe you don’t love it as much as you thought you did.” That stuck with me. I am still willing to clean the toilet.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
I wrote an original film for Lucia Lucas, the first female (transgender) baritone to perform a principal role on an American operatic stage, as part of a commission from Houston Grand Opera. That was a really special project to me because I was making something with composer Avner Dorman that didn’t exist before for our audiences here in Houston.
https://watch.hgodigital.org/videos/star-cross-d-now-ep-2
I am most interested in creating new work. I am thankful for my experiences as a teacher because it has honed my ability to effectively and concisely communicate in my writing. Being able to direct students in a show, to think about the design of a production, to control the technical elements and create an experience — all of these things affect the writing process, which, in isolation, is largely an act of translating what the playwright or composer sees and hears in their head.
Is there a quality that you most attribute to your success?
I am persistent. I do not like being told what to do or that I cannot do what has never been done before. All meaningful art is a product of defiance and a willingness to venture beyond one’s imaginative limits.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.johngrimmett.com
- Instagram: @jtgrimmett
Image Credits
Mike Fox Photography
