The season of giving began significantly early, when on Nov. 8, Meg Gnidula visited Town Hall and presented First Selectman Jim Zeoli with a HUGE painting of Town Hall that her son had done during his freshman year at the University of Vermont.
She’d called ahead and said she would drop by, but never mentioned the enormity of the canvas. “I expected a little one (maybe 8×10 or 11×14),” Zeoli said.
Zeoli admired the detail in the painting and commented how it almost looked like a photograph more than something hand crafted. He was familiar with the artist, too, having seen young Marty Gnidula perform in Amity Musicals as “Uncle Fester” in The Addams Family (2018) and “Carl Hanratty” in Catch Me If You Can (2019) — Best Actor nominee for the Sondheim Awards in both roles. The Spring Musical in which he was to be the leading man in 2020 was canceled due to COVID.
Zeoli watched as Senior Class President, Martin Gnidula, addressed the 2020 graduating class (for outstanding extra-curricular achievement) with one of the most humorous, memorable speeches of the decade.
That said, during the Thanksgiving break from UVM, Marty was able to personally present the painting as a gift to the town. On Tuesday, Nov. 22, Zeoli greeted him in his office and they caught up on everything Marty had been doing since leaving Amity, both creatively and academically.
“I didn’t know I could paint.”
On Nov. 8, Orange Live tweeted a teaser photo of Marty’s mom, Meg, and Zeoli with the painting. Although twitter followers were impressed with the work, the one comment we heard more than anything was, “I didn’t know he could paint.”
Friends, old classmates, teachers, and townspeople knew him for his acting and singing talent and fantastic sense of humor, but no one, it seemed, knew he could paint. His response, “Neither did I.”
Marty left Amity and went to the University of Vermont while the COVID pandemic was raging and keeping students from having a normal college experience. Which for him, meant a lot of alone time. “This was part of a project for my scenic design class and I expanded on it,” Marty explained. “I decided to paint the Town Hall, (using several photos from online sources for reference) and I made it bigger and kept going with it and now it’s here.”
When he started the painting he had no plans for its future. “As I kept working on it, I thought it was nice and now I’m really glad it’s here,” he said.
He’s excited that Zeoli is going to have it framed and hang it prominently outside his office, across from the stairwell at the top of the first floor landing. “I’m so happy,” Marty said.
Busy Life
Marty takes his education seriously. His schedule consists of a double major, double minor: Theater and English Majors and Musical Theater and Pre-Law Minors. “It keeps me on my toes. The Law Minor goes with the English Major, and I’m trying to find my way into Law school with that,” he said. “The Theater Major and Musical Theater Minor is for the creative side.”
At school and in Burlington, VT, he’s performed in many shows, including outside of school at the “Vermont Stage Theater Company.”
Still a standout performer, he was nominated for KCACTF (Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival) awards for Theater and Musical Theater for a one-man operetta “Walking” based on a novella by Thomas Burnhard. The Festival takes place in Hyannis, MA Jan. 31-Feb. 4, 2023.
“(With COVID on the decline)We’re pretty much on track to having a normal school (experience) this year,” he said, “I’ve been busy.”
He is the musical director of an acapella group — the 8 member, all male UVM Top Cats. “We’re pretty good,” he said.
Even with a schedule that would overwhelm most people, Marty keeps his grades up and is an excellent student at UVM.