Michael was born in Holmen, Wisconsin, a small town along the Mississippi river. He attended and graduated from the University of Wisconsin-River Falls and attained a Bachelor degree in Theatre, and minored in Dance and Musical Theatre Performance. While at River Falls, he was Tulsa in “Gypsy”, Yasha in “Cherry Orchard”, Carl Lindstrum in “O’ Pioneers”, Balthazar in “Romeo and Juliet”, Cookie in “Return to the Forbidden Planet”-which remains his favorite show to this day, Damis in “Tartuffe”, and a Company Member in an original piece called “Stuff”. On top of these main stage shows, he was involved in numerous one-act plays as actor, director, and lighting designer.
During his time at University, he also spent three years in the UW-RF Dance Theatre, where he was a dancer, choreographer and lighting designer. And was also fortunate enough to be a part of the 1998 Concert Choir tour of Italy where he was able to sing in some amazing churches including St. Peter’s Basilica.
During his summers between school years, Michael worked as a singer/dancer at Valleyfair Amusement Park in Shakopee, MN. He worked there for four seasons performing in musical review shows, spanning many musical genres. He was also selected to be a Team Leader for one season.
After University, Michael relocated to Tampa, FL where he worked at Busch Gardens. There he performed as both a singer and a dancer in their review shows. During his time at Busch, he also performed in an industrial production for the Boys and Girls Club.
Michael next took his talents to the seas, spending the next 8 years working for Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines as a featured singer. He performed onboard 9 different ships in over 20 different shows. Each show being a review type show varying in styles from swing, disco, broadway, and pop. His favorite ship was the Freedom of the Seas, which hosted his favorite and award winning shows: “Once Upon a Time”, a fairy tale show telling the classic stories with modern songs, and “Marquee”, a broadway review. Along with the main stage production shows, he performed in themed numbers, parades, 70’s sets, and jazz sets. He enjoyed being able to travel around most of the Caribbean, Bermuda, the Panama Canal, Mexico, Alaska, around the Mediterranean, and meeting his wife while doing so.
After landing shore side, Michael has been in “West Side Story” at the Neptune Theatre in Halifax, Nova Scotia as Luis (Chino Understudy). He was very happy to get back to musical theatre again. He is looking forward to being a shark again this fall in the Vancouver Opera’s production as Nibbles (Bernardo Understudy). After that, he looks ahead to “Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat” in Kamloops, BC.
Michael would like to thank his parents in Wisconsin for helping the shape and groom the man that he has become, his brother for keeping him humble, and his wife for her constant love and support.