Local teen Grassman aspires to acting career
Riley Grassman, an eighth-grader at Green Middle School, has been in one production after another, sparking her interest in becoming an actress.
Riley Grassman remembers the first play in which she performed.
“My grandma, I call her 'Moochie,' saw something about the (Wayne County Performing Arts Council) putting on the musical 'Lion King Jr.,' and she knew I was really into singing, so she thought I might want to audition. I auditioned and was cast as a bird in the animal chorus,” Grassman said.
From that 2019 production, Grassman, an eighth-grader at Green Middle School, has been in one production after another, sparking her interest in becoming an actress.
“That first production was so fun, and everyone was so nice,” she said. “We were all so new at acting that they had to teach us how to read sheet music. I still have my script from that production. In fact, I keep the scripts from all my plays. After that production, I knew this was something I wanted to keep doing.”
And continue doing productions she has. With the exception of a brief hiatus during the COVID pandemic, Grassman has acted, sung and even danced her way through numerous musicals and plays including other WaCPAC productions and productions with BrightLife Players and the Orrville Community Theater. She started acting with OCT when her Girl Scout leader Chelsea Alleman, a director with OCT, suggested the group to her.
Grassman has acted with that group on over eight productions over the last four years. In addition to being in a variety of productions and honing her acting skills in that way, Grassman also studies voice with Mia Smith and did an acting seminar called Hello Broadway with Broadway actors through the Baldwin Wallace Conservatory of Music.
Grassman is the daughter of Wooster residents Tina and Joe Grassman. Tina remembers her daughter as a performer from a young age. When she was in first and second grade at St. Mary School in Wooster, she participated in the school’s annual talent shows.
“When she was in second grade, Riley performed a song that she had written herself,” Tina Grassman said. “I remember her telling me that she hoped the song would be famous one day.”
Riley Grassman remembers something else life-changing that happened after that performance.
“One of the parents came up to me and said they wanted my autograph because I was going to be famous one day,” she said.
In addition to acting with local theater groups, Grassman also performs with Green Local Drama Club, a drama club through Green Local Schools in Smithville, whose adviser is Ethan Hamilton, a 25-year veteran of the program that includes kids from third grade through high school.
Grassman has been in several productions with the group including last year’s production of Roald Dahl’s “James and the Giant Peach.” This year Grassman has the lead, playing SpongeBob in the group’s production of “SpongeBob The Musical,” which will be held in the cafetorium of Green Local Schools May 16-18, with tickets $10 each.
Tickets are available for purchase on the drama club’s website at greenlocaldrama.weebly.com and are on sale starting May 5 or at the door the day of the performance.
Grassman has a great attitude about acting and the roles she gets.
“I can learn something from even the smallest role,” she said. “The size of the role doesn’t matter as much as what you take away from the experience.”
Once graduating from high school, she hopes to attend Kent State, where her sister Lillian is currently studying nursing, and then she eventually wants to move to Los Angeles with hopes of making it big in Hollywood. Maybe the parent who has her autograph will one day be holding a piece of valuable Hollywood memorabilia in addition to a precious keepsake.