J. Elaine Marcos Discusses AMDA, Her Career, and Creating Her Own Work!
Kevin Ray Johnson
I am pleased to introduce you to J. Elaine Marcos. Ms. Marcos is an actress who has been seen on Broadway in A Chorus Line (Val), Annie (Lily St Regis), Gettin' The Band Back Together (Grouchy Grandma), Flower Drum Song (Mme. Liang), Priscilla Queen of The Desert (Cynthia), The Wedding Singer (Ensemble), Sweet Charity (Ensemble), Wonderful Town (Ensemble), and Miss Saigon (Ensemble). She has also been seen on Television in Rent Live! (Alexi Darling) as well as Law and Order: SVU, 30 Rock, and 2 Broke Girls just to name a few!
She also appeared in one of my favorite film documentary's Every Little Step which followed the casting of the 2006 Broadway revival of A Chorus Line! J. Elaine Marcos is an artist that truly has left her mark, and it is such a privilege to have the opportunity to interview such a versatile actress!
How old were you when you knew you wanted to have a career in theatre and when did writing come into the picture for you?
It was my last year of high school, I was doing a lot of dance competitions, and it wasn’t until I had actually received a scholarship for a musical theater solo from a dance competition that I thought that I could possibly pursue a career in this.
What shocked me was I was competing with major dancers with incredible technique and skills, and my Musical Theatre comedy number was practically lipsyncing to a Funny Girl song and had so many props. I guess I won the judges over. To be honest, that is basically what my audition skills are now (but instead I actually sing).
In addition, one of the adjudicators had written on my evaluation form, "should be out auditioning. NOW”. Just that simple note gave me a little bit of confidence to research theatre schools. Also, in my last year of high school, I auditioned for the Toronto company of Miss Saigon. I went to the audition completely unprepared singing wise, but thankfully, I was a strong dancer. The casting director had called me after and told me that I did not get it, but that I should continue working on my voice because I was the right type for the show. In hindsight, I’m really glad that I just took those little moments as signs and took the next step which was finding a school to study musical theater in New York.
As for my writing, I have always been a person who loves comedy. I grew up watching Second City TV and I infused all my school projects with some type of sketches or comedy routines. So I think that’s when it all started.
Come to think of it, I ran for student council every year in high school because I just loved putting on presentations in front of the whole school. I did not care for politics, I just wanted to have a captive audience where I could perform sketches while everyone else did speeches. I guess that’s how I became Student Council President, not for the love of politics, but for the love of comedy. Plus, I’ve been improvising for over 20 years, so being around improvisers, writing the stuff you make up in your head is the next step.
Where did you study? Are there any people and or mentors who helped you on your journey?
Where did I study and where do I still study should be the question because I just never stop training. It’s a habit, a curse, and a blessing. Okay, so after high school I studied at the American Musical and Dramatic Academy in New York City. I was not interested in getting a degree, I just wanted to be in Miss Saigon and I knew if I studied in New York the school was 20 blocks away from the Broadway Theatre, where Miss Saigon was playing. I used to walk by and pretend like I was walking in the stage door. I guess you could say I was obsessed, but back to my training at AMDA. I learned so much about the New York scene and how to audition, and so from there, I had a great foundation to build more skills.
As for mentors, Baayork Lee is someone who is a mentor, and I am so lucky to have worked with her in so many productions of A Chorus Line. She is incredible and such an inspiration. Right out of AMDA, I booked the national tour of A Chorus Line with Baayork Lee. I learned so much from her and how hard you have to work in this business when you are a “specific" type.
When Baayork would explain her days of auditioning back in the day, she truly described how hard she worked but she never complained about the business and how there weren’t a lot of opportunities back then for Asian performers, so it’s inspiring to see her continue to work so hard to create opportunities for Asian performers. From the musical Flower Drum Song, there is a lyric about “honoring those who came before’ and so I look up to people like Baayork Lee, Jodi Long, Lori Tan Chinn, Christine Toy Johnson who paved the way for many of us Asian performers.
Now, as for someone who really gave me “permission’ to hone my comedic side on stage, I’d say it was Bobby Longbottom, the director of Flower Drum Song. He gave me a few bits and features in that show, so I started to realize that that was something I was very comfortable doing; playing the comedic character woman. I had gotten to go on for the older character woman, Madame Liang and that’s when I really thought, " I don’t have to be just a dancer, I got this shtick and comedy to offer, and it’s less taxing on the body!!!”.
J. Elaine Marcos poses after blessing the stage in her Legacy Robe for Gettin’ the Band Back Together . Photo by Jay-Rey Rivera.
We are all living in very unprecedented times. How have these times been for you and what is your daily routine like now?
Now that I live in Los Angeles, my days are definitely different than when I lived in New York. My typical day in Los Angeles consists of having Speaking events or workshops online, often all over the world, or sometimes really early in the morning because I will be speaking to the school in Asia.
During this time, I’ve actually ended up creating a company called "Out of the Box". It came out of people asking me to teach their students and even young professionals who wanted to have musical theater classes. I’ll go from teaching a dance class, to taking an acting class, then to speaking to students about Diversity in Casting. That talk was created by extracting parts from my own show called “What I Did for a Job”, which chronicles all the crazy things I’ve done in auditions and turned that into a speaking/performance workshop masterclass!
During these times, I’m reminded that as artists, we practically live in uncertainty 90 percent of the time, and that is just part of our lives. I’m not saying it’s easy but this time reminds me of the unemployed times between jobs and how it’s inevitable. Things close and it has nothing to do with us personally, but it’s what we signed up for.
Often days feel like years, but when I look back, those in-between times flew by and the next thing I knew, I was working on something new, and thankfully, SOMETHING always showed up as long as I kept the momentum going with classes or being creative some way.
You have done some amazing shows in your career. Are there any performances, shows, or moments in your career that will always stick out and be near and dear to your heart?
Thank you for acknowledging that. Sometimes I forget how long I have been doing this! One of my moments in my career that really struck me was when I did my own show, “What I Did for a Job” here in LA.
What’s crazy is, in comparison to playing on Broadway or in front of a sold-out Hollywood Bowl crowd of 15,000, or being in movies and TV with celebrities, it was this comedic yet intimate show that used every part of me and I just laid it all out on stage and I had never felt so proud and ashamed at the same moment. I cried days after, and I didn’t know exactly why. It wasn’t a sad cry, it was a cathartic cry. I think it was because I can easily play comedic characters because I am given permission to be a certain way because it’s a character, but for me to just be ME on stage, that felt risky and vulnerable.
Yes, I revealed all the things I have done in audition rooms that seemed “risky’ and taboo to everyone else, that was the easy part of the show, but really talking to the audience why I did those things, I felt like I stood in front of the audience naked, so it made me want to continue to create my own work because the feeling of telling your story is really empowering.
What advice would you give any aspiring artist during these crazy times?
Again, since uncertainty is part of the game, learning how to acknowledge and be happy where you are at this very moment is key. I think reminding ourselves, 'Where I am now is exactly where I am supposed to be’, can be very powerful. It releases any judgment and honestly, it just feels good to say, ya know? No matter where you are in your journey! I need to tell myself that right now!
For more information about J. Elaine please visit her official website at - www.jelainemarcos.org