Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Michael Seward. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Hi Michael , thanks for joining us today. Let’s jump to the end – what do you want to be remembered for?

I hope to be remembered for fostering an inclusive environment for every member of my team, a true chosen family. I hope to be remembered for being firm yet fair, for approaching my days with Patience, Love, Courage, and Kindness, for my perseverance, fortitude, innovation, and originality, For my ability to bounce back and reinvent myself and my brand in order to shift with the ever growing market and demographic. For bringing paid performance work to an area where there is an abundance of talent and not much opportunity. I hope to be remembered for delivering “Radio City quality on an Alabama budget!”and also for my passion for teaching the next generation of artists across the board. I hope to be remembered for being a jack of all trades while contributing and helping grow the arts scene in lower Alabama. But ultimately, I hope to be remembered for bringing joy…I always say…you can laugh at me or with me…but either way you’re laughing and I’m spreading some joy!

Michael , before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

Michael Seward is originally from Daphne, Alabama where he got his start in musical theatre in the sixth grade playing Friedrich in The Sound Of Music. He went to McGill Toolen in Mobile, Alabama where he was involved in marching band, as well as Snoopy and West Side Story. He also began taking private voice lessons his junior year of high school with Mrs. Georgette Reims. Michael found a home in high school with the Starlight School For The Arts in Summerdale, Alabama, performing in Honk, Once On This Island, 1940’s Radio Hour, and Guys and Dolls. Michael has held national titles with Starpower and FameUS with Debbie Allen, as well as ranking first for several consecutive years with NATS.

Michael went to Birmingham Southern College, where he was trained in every aspect of theater from designing sound, floors, makeup, fight choreography, as well as staring in Merrily We Roll Alone and West Side Story. He performed around Birmingham as a featured soloist his freshman year with the Alabama Symphony Orchestra as well as Rent with RMTC and The Wild Party with VST.  During his summers, Michael performed across the country with Matt Davenport Productions at Hersheypark, Central Piedmont Community College Summer Theater in North Carolina, and RWS Entertainment Group!

Michael then went on to be seen in Cats at Amish acres in Nappanee Indiana, followed by performing in Aida, A Chorus Line, White Christmas, Smokey Joe’s Cafe, and Avenue Q for the Midtown Arts Center in Fort Collins, Colorado. In 2013/2014, he worked for Norwegian Cruise Lines where he traveled and performed in the Caribbean , Alaska, and Baltic Region. He then flew to Tokyo, Japan where he worked for Tokyo Disney Sea for 9 months!
Michael returned to NYC and within a few months was a proud member of Actors Equity Association through his US Tour of Theaterworks USA’s Junie B. Jones.

Since then, he has been involved in numerous workshops, recordings, and performances for Emmy Award winning RWS Entertainment Group, helping to build brand new shows for Holland America Cruise Lines, Azamara Cruise Lines, Hersheypark, and several other theme parks around the country. Through these workshops, he has had the incredible chance to work with John Charon (Peter Pan with Cathy Rigby, HAL), Melanie Lewis (Cher, Beyonce, Britney Spears, Backstreet Boys, Burlesque), Jason Yribar (Michael Jackson, Austin Powers, Showgirls), Richard Hinds (Come From Away, Newsies), Lorin Latarro (Waitress), Shannon Lewis (Fosse OBC, Sweet Charity OBC), and many others! Michael’s voice can be heard seasonally at many theme parks and cruise ships via background vocal recordings!

After two more ship contracts aboard Holland America Line’s Oosterdam and Koningsdam, Michael returned to NYC, where he was fortunate enough to join the Radio City Music Hall family in the Christmas Spectacular starring The Rockettes as a Singer! With four Christmas seasons under his belt, Michael is loving being back in the South!

Michael is the owner and founder of Seward Studios which offers vocal training, entertainment production, and industry access! Seward Studios prides itself on keeping paid performance opportunities local and utilizing all of the amazing talent available in the area! A few recent projects in conjunction with OWA Parks and Resort include; A Very Madd Tea Party, WONDER, Monsters, Got Talent, Tree Lighting, Mrs. Claus’ Crafty Christmas, The Tinsel Tones, and Holiday Express : A Christmas Spectacular. His most recent shows and experiences include Dancing Jesters, Mermaids, and Queen of the Night, a debut Vegas style drag show at the OWA Theater. Michael loves the opportunity to bring a little bit of the Big Apple to the area, as well as training and shaping the next batch of artists for longevity and success!

Can you talk to us about manufacturing? How’d you figure it all out? We’d love to hear the story.

All of the shows that Seward Studios produces are written by myself in house. Our clients are wonderful in that they give us a concept and then trust us and the brand enough to let us roll with it, knowing they will get a pristine product! From the concept, my wheels start turning and I compile an exorbitant amount of songs that could live within this world. I implement lyric rewrites when necessary and arrange mashups galore! After that, the story starts to reveal itself and writing the script ensues. My amazing team starts to become involved at this point. They will receive the materials to peruse and then we will meet up to discuss some particulars before going for it! All aspects are then custom made to the space we will be performing in as well as to the cast themselves. Unlike typical show processes, we do not get a workshop period to try things out, hence why casting has to be strategic at times! Once rehearsals begin, the cast only has 4-6 rehearsal days before they open the show to an audience! The show and design will morph up until we install on site. So basically, every aspect start to finish, from concept to design and execution, comes from myself and a small local team of 1-3.

How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?

I was living and working in New York when Covid hit and after sticking it out for a couple of months, I decided it was time for a “quick trip” home until things calmed down. That turned into renting a property for a year and subsequently signing over my lease and belonging in NYC and purchasing a house in back near home in Mobile. I was fortunate enough to have been music directing around the area before everything, so I already had a few students and worked to build up my studio again. OWA came up Halloween of 2020. Navigating a new way of rehearsing and performing was definitely a challenge which at the time was solely up to me. Over the course of the next couple of years, things began to grow at OWA to where I assumed all responsibilities including payroll, insurance, etc for my live performances. It was a very fast learning curve, but again, with my amazing team having my back, we worked through it and grew for the better as a result of it. It truly was the worst yet most perfect storm of a time in life.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.seward-studios.com
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/sewardstudios/

Image Credits
Lori Goodrich Photography