Garry Grasinski

Garry Grasinski is a producer/director based in Chicago, Illinois.  He started his company Grayson Media, Inc. in 1987 and has produced award winning media for a wide range of corporate, health care, arts and non-profit organizations. He is deeply curious about how things work, and loves to figure out a way to tell each story. Music plays an important part of his life and he strives to utilize it to great effect in all of his media work. Garry has a Bachelor of Arts Administration in filmmaking from Central Michigan University.

 See Garry’s work on Acis and Galatea and Apollo e Dafne - Get your tickets now!

Q&A with Garry Grasinski

Q: What do you do for Haymarket and how will you be involved in this production?

GG: I help create the video promos and previews for Haymarket Opera productions. I also lead a small crew in filming all the operas that Haymarket Opera Company has presented over the years. I will be directing and editing the productions we produce at Resolution Studios.

Q: What do you love about the operas? Do you have a favorite moment or piece of music from them?

GG: I have always been impressed with the amount of creativity that this company brings to each and every opera. The costumes have long stood out as examples of the care taken with details that bring life to each production. The audience sees the beauty from their seats, but we get to see them up close through the camera lens and they are so detailed and so gorgeous you just want everyone to see them! I also love the way the audience anticipates each opera. There is an excited buzz before the show begins and when Craig Trompeter leads the orchestra with the first notes of the overture, you can really sense the joy in the audience.

Q: What is the biggest challenge in presenting Haymarket in HD? What are you most excited about?

GG: The biggest challenge is probably the technical task of capturing the magic of the singers and musicians and doing justice to the music. Everyone is very used to playing to a live audience and we won't have them present, just the cameras! And while this is more oratorio style, the beautiful painted backdrops by Zuleyka Benitez presented on the LED walls will certainly enhance the storytelling. I'm truly excited by the chance to make this as compelling to our audience as possible.

Q: Where are you drawing inspiration from? Are you drawing from other films? Other Haymarket productions? 

GG: I've watched a lot of staged-for television productions, but I'm also drawing on theater experiences and old films that utilized rear screen projection to great creative advantage. While our production is using state of the art LED screens, the end result is similar, with our singers performing in front of wonderful imagery that evokes scenery, emotion and atmosphere.

Q: How does this production continue Haymarket’s unique stamp of early opera conventions?

GG: Given the constraints of the pandemic, I'm thrilled that Haymarket Opera has decided to present the pleasure of its unique art in this new way. While this can't be a full-blown operatic production, we will try our best to present the stunning music of Handel in an artful way. The imagery may be shown on an LED screen, but it's in the spirit of baroque painted sets. The musicians will continue to play with their performance practice authority and the singers will give their full emotional interpretations that we all expect from a Haymarket Opera Company presentation.

Q: These operas center around a theme of transformation. How has the pandemic forced you to change? Have there been any silver linings?

GG: Certainly from a media producer's standpoint, the pandemic has ground business almost to a halt. We are taking extraordinary steps to make this production safe for all involved and everything we do reminds us that we can't be with our audience, and in many ways with each other, to work out the intricacies of these productions. It's hard to find a silver lining in all of this, but I will say that it has made me treasure the interactions I do get to have with all the folks involved in making these operas happen.

Q: As it’s Haymarket’s 10th anniversary, do you have a favorite Haymarket memory?

GG: Perhaps the first time I saw Ryan de Ryke and Erica Schuller cavorting around the stage in Telemann's Pimpinone. Hilariously entertaining and just wonderfully sung and acted!