'MONSTERS, INC.' Local skater stars in 'Disney on Ice'

Gregory Lazzara couldn't come home for Christmas because of a performance.
By DEBORA SHAULIS
ENTERTAINMENT EDITOR
If there's one thing Gregory Lazzara of Austintown loves, it's the sound of 10,000 people clapping enthusiastically as he skates across an ice rink.
"It's a feeling you can't get anywhere else," Lazzara says.
That applause is something Lazzara once hoped he'd garner as an Olympic athlete. His desire to compete at that level waned, but his enthusiasm for skating hasn't. That's why he's performing in his first "Disney on Ice" production, "Monsters, Inc." He calls it "an opportunity of a lifetime."
Lazzara began to weigh his options with "Disney on Ice" when he was a student at Austintown Fitch High School.
"It popped into my head my junior year," he said, calling recently from a tour stop in North Carolina. "I wasn't going to be Olympic-caliber material. I started thinking about other things I could do with skating so I didn't have to put it on the shelf."
By then, Lazzara had at least one thing in common with Olympic skaters -- he'd invested a great deal of time in the sport.
Training pays off
He started on roller skates at age 3 and eventually placed sixth in a national competition. His ice-skating training took place first in Cleveland, then at Hess Figure Skating Club in New Castle, Pa., with Jackie Pusztay. Lazzara trained there three or four days a week, which meant getting in the car as soon as he got home from school and doing his homework on the road.
"For a while when I first started skating it was hard," said Lazzara, 19. "It took a lot of adjusting to get used to that."
Lazzara's assessment of himself as a show skater with good jumping ability is why he decided to try out for "Disney on Ice" while another tour was in Pittsburgh. The offer from Disney came in a telephone call on his last birthday, just three weeks after he'd graduated from Fitch.
All that training gave him a taste of the life he lives today.
"Disney on Ice" schedules as many as three performances in a day, usually Saturdays. As a costumed ensemble skater, Lazzara isn't permitted to talk in detail about his roles in the show, but he's expected to perform every time.
"At first it was very tiring, but there are some cities where we have two and three three-show days in a row," he said. "Our bodies adapt."
Perks and sacrifices
Since joining the tour on July 21 in Lakeland, Fla., Lazzara said he's traveled along the East Coast as far north as Providence, R.I.
Lazzara, who also considered going into culinary arts, enjoys more than the sightseeing aspect of traveling.
"The one thing a lot of us do in a new city is to try something local to get a taste of where we are," he said. In Asheville, N.C., for example, they found "an excellent seafood restaurant."
If there's a downside to performing in "Disney on Ice," it's having to make sacrifices. The cast had Monday through Wednesday off, but Lazzara didn't come home for Christmas. There's a performance tonight in Philadelphia.
"I can't take a chance at bad weather and getting stuck in an airport," he said. "I just have to be patient and wait till I'm home."
That comes next month, while the tour is at Gund Arena in Cleveland. Lazzara will stay in Austintown. He's looking forward to spending time with family and friends, enjoying home cooking and visiting with folks at local ice rinks. Since he used to train in Cleveland, "It'll almost be like performing for a hometown crowd," he said.
So Lazzara won't stand on a platform afterward with a medal around his neck while the National Anthem is played, but he will still feel the crowd's energy. That "very well could compare to an Olympic experience," he said.
shaulis@vindy.com