For Zack Grosh, theatre isn’t just what happens on stage. It is about creating moments where people feel recognized and connected. He has been part of the ticketing and entertainment community for less than a decade, yet his career has already carried him from backstage to the ticket office and beyond. Through it all runs one quiet thread — authenticity. In work and in life, he believes the most meaningful thing you can do is be yourself and help others do the same.
Grosh, as House Manager, having some post-show fun with the crew.
In conversation, Grosh often returns to a single guiding principle — say what you mean, mean what you say and let that honesty shape everything that follows. “I admire anybody who comes into life honestly,” he says. “That is something that I'm learning for myself, as my career grows. I am trying to be truthful and honest in who I am, what I like and what I want to do with my career … I want to be known as a person who is genuine.”
Authenticity, as it turns out, has been part of his story from the very start.
“I wanted to be an actor at one point,” he recalls with a laugh. “But when I was in high school, I had a drama teacher who did not see me as an actor in any way, shape or form. I am glad I ended that idea very quickly. But she offered to keep me involved in the play, and I ended up doing the front of house for the show. That was how she put me in. I was an usher, essentially, and that was my first moment of thinking, ‘Oh, this is a job. This is something I can do.’”
Grosh took that early experience with him when he went off to get an arts degree specializing in drama, theatre arts and stagecraft at the University of Windsor, followed by a certificate in theatre arts management. His work-study placement as house manager for University Players rekindled that front-of-house spark that he first discovered in high school. The pandemic became a turning point. After years in stage management, Zack saw the need and the opportunity to shift. “At some point, we are going to have to [come back], and they are going to need ticketing … so I am going to start focusing on these jobs a little more.”
His decision to pivot when the industry needed it most became a defining moment in his career.
“Some people want to be involved in sports, some people want to be involved in medicine, or they want to do law in high school, and then they follow it through going into university. Others change mid-career after they have graduated. I still feel like I fell into [ticketing, live events and entertainment], because it wasn't something that was ever on my radar before university. But I made a choice when the need arose to go into something a little bit more stable. I don't regret that choice for a second.”
Loyalty and follow-through now shape his work at the Prosserman JCC in Toronto, where he serves as Theatre Rentals and Events Coordinator. The venue, he says, is as much about people as it is about logistics.
“My job is a little less ticketing at the moment, which I am not the biggest fan of, but we are working on that,” he says with a smile. After earlier jobs at TIFF, Mirvish, Opera Atelier and Canadian Stage, customer service and creating memories remain integral to what Grosh does. He shares a recent experience about a corporate client celebrating its 101st anniversary.
“They were showing a screening of a film, and they had a whole gala, where they [showcased the company] to their big stakeholders and some dignitaries. We had five meetings because they were kind of panicky. They got [the event] thrown on their plate by somebody who had left the company. Every single time I met them, they just seemed a little bit more frantic. They were trying to pull it all together, and they were a little stressed out. I said, ‘You guys are actually really well organized. From my perspective, you've got everything together, even if you don't feel it.’”
He continues, “There was an opportunity to have a part-timer work that particular event so that I didn't accrue lieu time. I said to my manager, ‘No, I want to work this one, because I have been working with them for so long to make this event happen, I need to see it through to the end. And I was there, and it felt so good afterwards to know that their event went off without a hitch, the way they wanted it to, even if there were some road bumps along the way. From the venue side, it went really smoothly. I think everybody walked out of there really happy, so that felt really good. I want to be part of somebody's experience in a positive way … [and] knowing that somebody had a great experience brings me joy.”
Though Grosh hasn’t been in the business as long as others we have profiled in this series, he is convinced it’s exactly where he belongs. Much of that confidence, he says, comes from the guidance of mentor April Moon.
“She has been so good to me for no reason other than she knew me,” he says. “She was my indirect supervisor at Canadian Stage way back when. When I was a gate supervisor, she was my boss's boss. I reconnected with her because I had her on Facebook. Since then, she has looked at my CV, she has helped me find other jobs, she connected me to INTIX, she talked to me about the UK’s Ticketing Professionals Conference and now we are both on the OPTA (Ontario Professional Ticketing Association) board this year, so I feel like she's had a really big role in me figuring out what I want to do, who I want to be in this industry. I want to repay her in any way I can. I feel like she's done so much for me already.”
Grosh at INTIX 2025 in New York City.
Grosh’s career path, in many ways, mirrors his own process of self-discovery.
“I have always called myself a massive ticketing nerd,” he says with a warm laugh. “There was a period of time where I would … just research ticketing systems and public transit, and I don't know why [I was drawn to] these things. I still do it a little bit [in my spare time].”
He adds, “I've just loved ticketing — all the functions of how we make this work, how do we get the ticket out of the printer, the system that is used to get it on the printer. [So, I guess it shouldn’t come as a surprise that I have now joined] a whole group of people who are also ticketing nerds … I joined INTIX because I felt like I belonged. I felt like it was a group of people who cared about similar things.”
Grosh’s enthusiasm deepened when he discovered the Wednesday Wisdom calls, a place to learn, listen and connect.
“I unfortunately don't get to be on as many of them nowadays because of the new role,” he says, “but I do like hearing what's going on in the industry, different things that people think about and how it gets implemented around the world. I like to hear how people approach problems and conversations. There have been a couple of conversations where I've said, ‘Oh, I've never thought like that. Or how are you thinking about it? What am I missing here?’ So, what I get from INTIX is the opportunity to learn from other people.”
He continues, “That [learning] is evident in the conference, of course. Specifically, go into this room and learn from somebody else … I feel like I'm so new and young in my career path. I want to absorb as much as I can from as many people as possible who have different perspectives, and work in different but similar industries — who work in sports, or who work in museums as opposed to theatre, or conferences, festivals, all of those kinds of things. I think it is so interesting, and there is so much to learn.”
Grosh at INTIX 2025 in New York City.
Attending his first INTIX conference in New York only reinforced that sense of belonging.
“It was so interesting to be in that room full of people,” says Grosh. “I made a point of introducing myself to people who I constantly heard on the Wednesday Wisdom calls, because at that point, it was my only connection to INTIX. A week or two later, Skypp Cabanas sent me a private message during one of the calls saying, ‘Thanks so much for introducing yourself. It was really great to meet you.’ And I thought, okay, that’s what this organization is about [because people remember, care and reach out]. Okay, cool, cool, cool, cool. I like it!”
That experience of being noticed and remembered by others mirrors a theme that runs throughout Grosh’s career — the importance of truly seeing and valuing people.
“I like somebody who sees, who looks and observes, and realizes,” he says. “I’ve had managers who fully look at me as a person. They want me to develop and grow … I don’t want to be placated. I want you to see me for who I am, be honest if I’ve screwed up and be honest about where I can go and what I can achieve … Even if they didn't actually see eye-to-eye with me, at least they made me feel like I was seen and I am a human being more than just the value of my labor.”
His friends, he says, live by those same values.
“They are honest, they are hard workers. They work in the arts, so we have similar values,” he explains. “We lift each other up and we want to be lifting each other up in every way, shape or form … Among my friends, I’m probably the only one who is admin focused. A lot of them are technicians, in various disciplines, backstage, behind the scenes, but I’ve never felt out of place. We have all been there to support each other, and so it is that shared camaraderie of ‘I see you, I see what you do, I see your work,’ and for this industry to grow, we all need to be working together.”
Grosh and friends at Blue Jays Pride Night.
When he isn’t working, Grosh has at times turned to books. “I’ve always loved Mitch Albom,” he says. “I [also] had a very brief period where I was into a lot of young adult queer literature. I really liked Casey McQuinston’s writing style, the person who wrote ‘Red, White & Royal Blue,’ which is now an Amazon movie.”
He continues, “For me, queer issues are important [because] it affects my life directly. So, [I admire] young adult writers [or] any writer who is championing the cause of representation in media, specifically for queer people, but also for racialized folks, or for ethnic groups that maybe don't get media representation. I'm always in awe of authors who are fighting in a big literary, media, artistic landscape to make sure those stories are told. And, when we see success in one of them, that makes me happy.”
Grosh also finds joy in music and live events, with Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour being his favorite live event to date. “Three hours on stage doing 44 songs across nine albums is insane. The production value was incredible … I love everything for different reasons. I love Taylor Swift because of the music that she has put out and what she's stood for in the public eye, but I have also really loved the music of so many other artists, like the Beatles, AC/DC and Earth, Wind & Fire.”
Grosh (second from right) attending the Eras Tour with friends.
When asked about favorite venues, he lights up. “I have been partial to the Rogers Centre (formerly Skydome). It is one of a kind,” he says. “For theatre, I love any of the Mirvish venues, especially the Princess of Wales and the Royal Alex. The Royal Alex has its charm because it is the oldest, and the Princess of Wales is just so big for a theater.”
Grosh and his partner David at the Princess of Wales Theatre.
If Grosh could have any talent, he says it would be the ability to connect even more. “I would want to be multilingual,” he says. “To be able to speak any language on earth and communicate with anybody. Communication is so vital to how we run as an industry, as a species, as a civilization.”
His advice to his younger self is both funny and deeply human. “Oh, for God’s sake, try things,” he says. “Stop being scared of liking things. It's this tale as old as time, you go through the coming out process as a kid, and through high school, you don't want to be perceived as anything that would cause bullying. Then you grow up, and you become a young adult and you're like, ‘Why did I ever hide any of that?’ Like, who cares? It's so inconsequential now. And it was so inconsequential then, but it felt so real and so big.”
And if he had three wishes, what would they be? “I would wish that I would always have what I need, whether that’s money, housing or whatever. I don’t necessarily need too much, but I would wish for enough,” he says. “I wish the world was kinder in how we treat one another. That sounds like a Miss America teenage pageant answer, but I think in our every day, if you just think about a job interview, some employers and managers don’t think about the kindness aspect of it, they think of it as the business transaction … Maybe we could remember that we are humans and be nice about the rejection, let me know that I'm not getting the job. I would actually be okay with that. I'll move on. Don't leave me hanging. I wish kindness was the default option … and you could expect that from people. I'll have to get back to you on the third [wish].”
When it comes to where he would most like to live, the answer comes easily. “I love Toronto. I think it’s a great city,” he says. “I specifically went to university outside of it because I was sick of it at that point … and I kind of wrote Toronto off as a young 18-year-old. Now that I’m here as a young adult, there is much more here than I gave the city credit for … I have always said the only place I could live full-time that wasn't Toronto would be Stratford, Ontario. It is [a hub for theatre] and is such a quaint little village.”
Zack’s 30th birthday pie – lemon meringue!
He passes on questions about his greatest love and most memorable career moment, saying he truly loves his partner, the people he works with, and the work he does, but there are still greater heights to reach. Yet what brings him joy is clear — being part of something that connects people. “Great joy for me is knowing that somebody had a great experience with anything because you were part of it,” Zack says. “I love when people go into a show, and you were a part of the transaction that got them through the door. You sold them the ticket. That is why I'm here in this industry. I love working with people. I tried working a job where I didn't interact with people, and I lasted literally three days. Especially when it's a live event, or it's something big like the Eras Tour, or any band that comes through, some people are going to come out and say, ‘That was such a great experience, and I saw you on my journey, and I want to thank you for this whole experience, top to bottom.’ That really makes me feel great.”
Zack (right) and his partner David celebrating 60 years of Tim Hortons at the Elgin Theatre.
Zack’s story ends the way it began — with honesty, connection and care. For he wants only to be seen for who he is, for who and what he loves, and to make other people feel seen, too. That’s the kind of friend and colleague he strives to be, and that’s the kind of industry he is helping to build.
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