Throughout time, cultures have hailed the singer, actor, dancer or what has venerably come to be known as the consummate triple threat; names arise such as Fred Astaire, Julie Andrews, Jennifer Lopez and of course, Katie Grim.
Though not as universally known, Katie Grim is Princeton's own personification of "The Triple Threat."
Before Princeton, Katie Grim got her start in the token high school performing arts activities. She acted and sang in her school's musicals, she took classes in classical ballet, and sang in the chorus, but upon her arrival at college, Grim was ready to explode onto the artistic scene.
"I auditioned for everything in one week," recalled Grim, "and decided to just wait and see which groups took me." Apparently a number of groups at Princeton were in the market for Katie Grim.
After about a month Grim found herself extremely overcommitted and performing in a play, which turned out to be the nadir of her career at Princeton.
The play was entitled "Chess," and everything began smoothly enough, until the two lead actors quit the show and the director decided to take the semester off. Needless to say her Princeton acting debut was "kind of a let down."
Grim decided that she wanted to focus on academics for the remainder of her freshmen year, simply to avoid the stress of overcommitment, but during the summers she was able to curb her zeal for acting by performing with the Princeton Summer Theater in such productions as "Joseph and the Amazing Technicolored Dream Coat," a children's play, and "A Midsummer's Night's Dream."
Grim had resolved not to perform during the academic year until she spotted an audition for "West Side Story." Relinquishing her previous mantra, Grim could not resist the temptation to take part in one of her favorite musicals.
The zenith of Grim's acting career came in the spring of her junior year with her performance in "The Wild Party." This senior thesis performance provided Grim with her most challenging role to date. "I wasn't just playing the young ingénue who acted out obvious scenarios; I played a comatose, lesbian druggie."
Not only did the role demand that Grim embody such a difficult persona, in one scene the script called for her to be topless. Looking back on the experience Grim recollected that she was able to accept the nudity because "I trusted the director not only as a friend, but as an artist. I knew that she wouldn't portray it as lewd or inappropriate."
Grim contended that though the play was racy and controversial, it was absolutely worth it, "people still come up to me about it."
Though Grim jokily said that her biggest pet peeve was overcommitment she does not seem to be succumbing to her own ideal. Not only has Grim conquered the Princetonian acting arena, the crux of her time is spent singing a cappella with the Katzenjammers.
Grim has sung with the group for all four years of her collegiate career. "Katzenjammers help me carve out my niche here at Princeton, and it has been a great friend base for me."
Singing a cappella has so thoroughly inundated Grim's life that practicing with the Katzenjammers has become part of her daily routine. "A two hour rehearsal doesn't even faze me anymore; it just became part of my schedule." Her motto about balancing academics and performing arts is "not to get discouraged, the busier you are the more you get accomplished."
Yet despite the time commitment, Grim relishes her position in the group and spends her spring and fall breaks traveling with the Katzenjammers to captivating destinations such as Seattle, New Orleans and Paris. "One time in Paris," Grim described, "we just started randomly singing "You Better Shop Around" in this Parisian café.
The Katzenjammers are far from all work and no play, after school ends in the summer, all the singers travel to a cottage in Cape Cod to sing for a local church but basically just spend most of their time having fun.
Yet the question arises, does a harden performer such as Katie Grim ever get nervous?
Grim admits she still can be plagued by stage fright, for example, at the 30th Katzenjammer reunion last June, the Katzenjam-mers of years past gathered in Richardson Auditorium and groups of alumni sing together. So when it was Grim's turn to sing as part of the highlight of the night, she admittedly became a little anxious. "I was a little intimidated just because there were so many talented people there," she said.
Though constantly juggling her performances in theater and singing with the Katzenjammers, taking classical ballet classes at 185 Nassau Street and displaying her hidden talent at whistling, Katie Grim is still able to master the academic rigor at Princeton.
Grim is majoring in Religion after switching from Molecular Biology in her junior year. After discovering her affinity for Buddhism, Grim abandoned her scientific pursuits to focus on religion, and will complete her thesis, "Concepts of Self and Non-Self," this spring.
As for her future in the performing arts, Grim plans to stay involved in community theater, go to graduate school and work for a nonprofit organization that promotes the performing arts.
Grim has relished every moment in her performing career at Princeton, and as for future thespians, vocalists and dancers, Grim said, "It's important not to have regrets, don't choose not to audition for a play just because you are afraid you won't have time to study. Don't get so bogged down with academics that you forget to feed your soul."
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