Introducing Meg Grujon, Assistant Director on TWO ROOMS

As a special feature on opening week, we're excited to introduce you to our cast and creative team, who talked with us about their life as actors and their experience of creating the world of TWO ROOMS. 

TWO ROOMS opens February 21 and runs through March 9 - Wed-Sat at 9pm and Sat-Sun at 4pm. For tickets and information, click here. 

Introducing: Meg Grujon, who is our assistant director for TWO ROOMS. Here is her first-hand account of her life as an actor & director, and her perspective on working with this production.

Full Name: 
Megan Arielle Grujon

Zodiac Sign:
Gemini.

What your parents did/do for a living:
My dad is a product manager for TenaSys Corportion in Oregon. My mom is a bit of a dabbler and has run businesses in tile murals, wedding planning, photography and props.

Siblings:
My sister is a teacher in Washington State.

Favorite food of all time:  
Ribs. With mashed potatoes.

Special skills:
My friend likes to tell people I can do a really great cat impression. So there's that.

Something you're REALLY bad at:
Pop culture. Sports. Waiting for things, I'm terribly impatient.

If you could go back in time and catch any Broadway or Off Broadway show, what would it be?:  
I directed a scene from Lee Blessing's Down the Road back in college. I had so much fun with it, I would've liked to have gone back and seen how the first director approached it. I also think there was something about the 80s and 90s where people had a particular obsession with learning about serial killers, and media was widely involved in perpetuating people's curiosity. Ted Bundy was a perfect example of turning a killer into a celebrity and since the play opened the same year as his execution, the moral questions Lee Blessing brought up would've been quite relevant and I wonder how people must've responded to it.

Did you have any particular mentors or inspirations as a young actor?:  
It's the people in my life that I get most of my inspiration from. Every day I'm learning how I see and experience the world differently from my friends and my family, and theatre is a lesson in empathy and understanding so you can tell someone else's story. I've had a lot of really great teachers in the past, and the ones who have most inspired me are the ones who are passionate about theatre because they are passionate about people.

What age did you start acting, and what was the project:
The first play I was ever in was in the 2nd grade, it was a class play for Thanksgiving. Someone got sick and another kid didn't want to be in it, so I took both their lines. I got to have 3 lines.

Current show other than your own you have been recommending to friends:
The shows I've seen recently have already closed - but I will always recommend anything at Playwrights Horizons because I've never seen something there I didn't like.

Favorite plays:
Angels in America. Whenever I have a bad day I'll carry a copy of both parts in my bag and find something in there that rings true for the moment and reminds me why I do theatre.

Most embarrassing moment on stage:
Nothing too traumatizing. In high school, I played the Baker's Wife in Into the Woods. Our director had the actor playing the Prince and I roll on stage together after an implied sex scene. On the first day of rehearsing that scene, my mom (who was doing costumes) made sure to be sitting in the audience. My 17-year-old self was mortified and I texted her offstage to leave.

What's your favorite part about being a part of The Seeing Place?:
Our ensemble is made up of a group of wonderfully supportive people. I love the collaboration but also the willingness everyone has to put themselves out there and take a risk, even if it doesn't work right away.

What most excites you about your involvement with TWO ROOMS?:
I was excited about Two Rooms from the moment I read it. I've always loved Lee Blessing's plays, he has this way of putting on stage not only what's really happening, but crossing the line of reality to see what's going on in each character's mind. We see how Lainie and Michael create conversations with each other to cope with their loss. My favorite playwright, Tony Kushner, has said that life is about losing, and the most we can do is to struggle to face loss with grace. That's exactly what Lainie is trying to do in this play, and we see her trying so hard to keep him with her, until eventually she has to let go and face the reality of what is happening. I'm excited to tell this story because I think anyone who has experience a deep loss of any kind will be able to connect to it and perhaps find some peace in it.

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Meg Grujon is excited to be working on her first production with The Seeing Place Theater! Past directing credits: FIVE WOMEN WEARING THE SAME DRESS (TRG Productions), MISSPELLED and THESEUS 2.0 (Coffee Black Productions). Her acting credits include: INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY (Playlab NYC/Coffee Black Productions) and SNAPSHOT: A DRAMATIC ANTHOLOGY (AlphaNYC Theatre Company). She has done several student films, as well as her first feature film, "Downcast" filmed in Portland, OR. She is a proud graduate of Marymount Manhattan College.

TWO ROOMS opens February 21 and runs through March 9 - Wed-Sat at 9pm and Sat-Sun at 4pm. For tickets and information, click here.

It runs in repertory with DYING CITY, which runs at 7pm and 2pm on the same dates. For tickets and information, click here.