Sophomore Sunny Gronstad said that the Troy Theatre Ensemble is small yet hectic with this year’s musical approaching.

 TTE consists of students from all grades who have a passion for the stage and what goes on behind the scenes. Many cast and tech crew members are determined to get what needs to get done efficiently and spectacularly. One of those many students is Gronstad.

“[I’ve been acting] since fourth grade,” Gronstad said. “I’ve always liked Disney and their movies, and when I was little, I always liked playing pretend, [but] when I got older I never grew out of that.”

Gronstad used to act at the local community theatre, Ridgedale Players, for about seven years, but stopped due to time constraints and a preference for TTE. He plans on continuing his acting career and hopes to act outside of school again in the future.

“Hopefully I’ll do musicals,” Gronstad said. “But if not, I’m happy with any acting. I need to work on singing, though. I’m not bad, but I could be better.”

Besides acting, Gronstad enjoys singing as well. He is a part of concert choir this year and continues to hone his skills while also being one of the prop masters for TTE’s tech crew.

“I’m head of props, so I’m here for school, then for rehearsal, then for set build, which makes me here for a total of fourteen hours many days of the week,” Gronstad said. “I don’t really have time for outside theatre, but I wish I did.”

Gronstad has other struggles that very few can say they have experienced as well. Gronstad is only able to perform as female roles, even though he identifies as male, contrary to his gender assigned at birth.

“It was one of those [moments where] if I wasn’t so oblivious, I would have noticed sooner,” Gronstad said.

Gronstad said that in some cases, it can bring along more personal issues such as feelings of dissatisfaction and unease with life overall. This feeling is described as dysphoria, a feeling that is common among transgender people. Luckily for Gronstad, his feelings of dysphoria are not overwhelming.

“[Since] I don’t have dysphoria I still dress femininely and act femininely, and that doesn’t change anything, but to some people it does,” Gronstad said “People who aren’t trans won’t recognize your identity right off the bat, but that’s not really their fault.”

Gronstad has to audition for female roles because of his unaltered voice.

“It makes me kind of sad,” Gronstad said. “But the thing with acting is that it’s not so bad because I know that it’s just a character, so it’s not really a reflection of me being female or not.” Some aren’t as lucky as Gronstad. Some transgender people have severe depression and dysphoria, but Gronstad hopes the best for everybody.

“We’re all supposed to be in this together,” Gronstad said. “We shouldn’t have to be fighting on the inside.”

Being transgender doesn’t stop Gronstad from being his best self on the stage, because as long as he knows who he really is, it’s enough for him.