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“Hold fast to dreams for if dreams die, life is a broken winged bird that cannot fly.”  – Langston Hughes

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One of the things I love about my son is his ambition. His dream of creating and starring in his own Broadway Musical is never daunted. Last time we went to the theatre to see a Broadway Across America production he stood in front of an empty poster frame and gave me the thumbs up.

“This,” he told me, “Is for Marcus the Musical.”

He believes in himself and this dream. 

The burdens of official training in the areas of playwriting, acting, stagecraft, and so on…not an issue.

“This,” he told me, “Is for Marcus the Musical.” Marcus believes in himself and his dream. There's power in that that many can learn from. I do. Click To Tweet

I would never, ever, tell him he won’t, or worse can’t, reach this dream. His passion is clear and he spends both waking and sleeping moments working toward this. 

Another 23 year old without training and facing the uphill, dare I say an impossible mountain of learning and struggle, would likely give up. In fact, most young people are talked out of their dreams and move on because they “know better.”

I’m more sorry for those folks than Marcus any day.

He will keep working on this dream. He will keep learning and plotting. And because of this he actually has a better chance of making his own Broadway dreams come true. The simple fact he will never stop learning, working and dreaming of making Marcus the Musical  a reality brings him closer to making it happen than the person who gives up.

On our recent “Theatre Road Trip” this last spring Marcus told the actor who played Arthur in the Grand Island Little Theatre’s production of Spamalot I am going to play Arthur!” The actor responded by saying, “The greatest of journeys begins with one step.”

That’s right. As long as you are moving forward toward your dream, you are that much closer to it.

One step Marcus has taken this summer is he began voice lessons. In only a few months we have already noticed an improvement in his tone and pitch.  He didn’t really need lessons in stage-confidence or showmanship. 🙂  Emily Wadhams, his voice teacher, also works with him on slowing down and enunciation, a big challenge for him. SO I hope you stay with us in this journey: Marcus the Musical or Bust! 

By the way, this post is rerun 🙂 originally posted in September of 2013. So, you should know that Marcus is now 28 and, although he doesn’t have a musical yet, he has had one short play produced and his first storybook for children, Black Day: The Monster Rock Band, was released in 2015. Not a bad start. Broadway, here he comes!