When Madison Grimsbo ’21, Duluth, toured the University of Minnesota Morris as a high school student, she wondered what students do for fun on this small campus. The tour guide replied, “You make your own fun in Morris.”
Grimsbo took that as a challenge and spent her time creating not only her own fun, but her own opportunities as well. And she feels that there truly was more for her in Morris.
One of the first things Grimsbo did as a freshman was to try out for the fall theatre production.
“I wanted to do the theater stuff. But I also wanted to play the clarinet, which I really enjoy. So I told myself that if I get into the fall play, I'll take it as a sign and I'll quit playing the clarinet for good. I auditioned for Spring Awakening. I did not get in. So the next week, I auditioned for Symphonic Winds, and they put me on 3rd clarinet.”
But Grimsbo, who described herself as a “feisty little freshman,” didn’t let go of her desire to be involved in theatre.
“I took [Theatre professor] Luke [Granholm]'s Intellectual Community class. I remember I went up to him afterwards and said, ‘Hi, my name is Madison and I want to be a lighting designer. What can you do for me?’”
Grimsbo went on to double major in theatre arts and history and enjoyed the many opportunities she had to learn by doing.
“Between my theater experience and my work study job on the tech crew for the Student Center, I was doing lights and sound.”
During her junior year, the Meiningens student theatre organization produced She Killed Monsters and named Grimsbo as the lighting designer.
“I was in charge of conception and hanging everything. I was in charge of programming everything, including the LEDs. My intelligent fixtures were not doing what I wanted them to do and I don't know what to do. So I was talking to [the scene shop supervisor]. He suggested that I could swap the LEDs out for incandescent lights. Instead, I called the Electronic Theatre Controls helpline. I sat on the phone with them for four hours, and we eventually figured out what was going on. I kept thinking, ‘you have to persevere until you do this, you know; stick with it.’”
As graduation drew closer, Grimsbo was concerned about her job prospects, given the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on theatre.
“So I was panicking in my parents’ basement trying to figure out something to do. And that's when my dad said, ‘You're not bad at the clarinet. You should audition for the Marine Corps band.’”
She successfully did just that, with support from Simon Tillier, music professor and Symphonic Winds director.
Grimsbo joined one of the 10 active duty Marine Corps field bands and has toured throughout the western United States.
“We usually do big tours in March and September. But I wasn't satisfied with the amount of travel I was doing as a clarinetist, so they started sending me as a sound engineer, which gave me more opportunity to travel all over. I've been to Phoenix, San Francisco, Indianapolis, and Austin, Texas. We had our jazz combo go up to Alaska recently and we did a parade in Portland not too long ago.”
Grimsbo, now a corporal, serves as the audio engineer when the band goes TAD, or on Temporary Assignment of Duty. She credits the myriad of opportunities she found at UMN Morris with her ability to serve in this role.
“I can explain to you 10 times over how to run a soundtrack, but you need to have hands on the board. And I was able to have that experience at Morris, and then I'm able to impart that wisdom onto the team that I have here.
“I guess I would just say that ‘you make your own fun’ is so, so true.”
Madison Grimsbo
