Marc Palmieri (’94)
Assistant Professor at Mercy College, Playwright, and Author
New York City
WFU Class of 1994
Speech, Communications, & Theatre Arts
DeacLink: What did you study at Wake? What year did you graduate?
Marc Palmieri: I graduated in 1994. It took me five years to complete my major in Speech, Communications & Theatre Arts, with a minor in Theatre. I must say I also studied baseball. I played four years for the baseball DEACS.
DL: Please walk us through your path from graduation day to your current job.
MP: That is one windy path, and one I’m in many ways still on. After falling in love with theatre at Wake, a fellow graduate named Will Nolan (whom I’d met doing plays my fifth year) and I decided we’d move to Manhattan and, well, just become New York theatre people. I focused initially on acting, while Will directed and wrote. We both got lucky getting busy with opportunities early—I did some soap operas, independent films, small plays—and managed to start doing national television commercials, thank goodness.
Being exposed to scripts as an actor inspired me to write my own stories, and over the years, while working enough as a performer to earn my future retirement pension in both the Screen Actors Guild and Actors Equity, I wrote. A lot. I had a screenplay optioned which, in a wild, windy, and weird way, got made in L.A. and purchased by Miramax Films. But writing plays was my main focus. I was fortunate to meet wonderful, connected people as an actor, and I was able to push my early work into New York premieres. Meanwhile—I’m tiring just recalling all of this—I got my MA from the English Department at The City College of New York, where I also eventually got an MFA in Creative Writing. In 2006 CCNY hired me to teach an undergraduate course in playwriting, which I loved. That adjunct job led to more assignments in other courses: Shakespeare, Modern Drama, and other literature and writing courses. Then I was hired onto the MFA faculty. In 2018 I was offered my position at Mercy College, where I am now a full time assistant professor. But I still write—a lot. Oh, and I’ve always coached baseball on the side. I just had my first book released, a memoir, so now I’m a memoirist too, I suppose.
DL: How much did your studies and general experience at Wake inform or drive your career path?
MP: Enormously. First off, if it wasn’t for Dr. Harold Tedford and the incredibly warm, welcoming faculty of the Wake Forest Theatre Department, I would never have had the guts to step into a world I knew next to nothing about. Second, as I tell my students at Mercy, I understand that the general experience, this liberal arts education, is designed to do exactly what it did for me: it made me discover aspects of myself I hardly knew, by exposing me to such a varied range of subjects. I came to Wake after turning down an offer from the Toronto Blue Jays in the 1989 draft. I planned on being a professional baseball player. I left as an artist. That’s what a liberal arts education can do. I left clearer about what I wanted out of myself, and my life. Not that a career in the arts is any easier than one in professional baseball!
This last point speaks a bit to the next question, but another thing I experienced at Wake that informed and drove me on this path is the attention to excellence. Both on the athletic field and in the Scales Fine Arts Center, I was surrounded by hard-working perfectionists who would settle for nothing short of excellence in their work. The work ethic I had to adopt to keep up with my teammates, cast-, and crewmates, was something I absolutely believe helped me succeed—or stay determined to succeed, when I didn’t.
DL: How did you find and apply to the various positions you’ve held? Do you have any tips and suggestions for students on networking, interviewing and applying for jobs?
MP: I came to NYC when things were still done in a very old-fashioned way. One mailed resumes in envelopes, sent headshots, lined up at open calls, etc. However one gets a shot, I will say this: Be easy to work with. Be on time, be a positive energy in the room, let everyone talk, forgive people for their mistakes, and say thank you. I deeply believe that people want to work with nice people. They want to work with people they can trust and can imagine being under pressure with. Be that easy person. You’ll get a lot more than if you had been the difficult one.
DL: What is your favorite part of living and working in NYC? What is the most interesting thing going on in the art scene there at the moment, in your opinion?
MP: The most interesting thing going on in the arts scene is no doubt, hands down, by far, the recent publication of my book, SHE DANCED WITH LIGHTNING. The entire town is abuzz. Aside from that, I will also claim my small piece of what’s going on in the NY theatre, where a show I did the dramaturgy on, WASHINGTON SQUARE, just closed after a critically acclaimed off-Broadway run. Of course, every day brings infinite wonders in the art world here. I can say this: if I didn’t live here, I wouldn’t have six or whatever plays published, have my actors’ union cards, or a fraction of the diverse life experience I’ve been gifted with. I’m not sure I could recognize life not living in New York City. However, I was just in Winston-Salem again for the Bookmarks Books & Authors Festival. Downtown is beautiful. If I did have to live somewhere else…
DL: What is your favorite part about working in your field(s)?
MP: My favorite part of the professional existence I have is the variety. My favorite line of Shakespeare’s is “Thus play I in one person many people”—I love it because I feel that’s me. On campus, as a professor, I get to participate in students’ discoveries of things I feel made me a happy person. On the baseball field, I get to teach and coach the game I love. As a writer, I get to make some sense of experience by telling stories—whether they’re played on a stage, a screen, or read on the page. I play many people, and that has me content.
DL: What and where is next for you?
MP: I’m currently on a tour with my book. It’s about life with my daughter’s epilepsy, and I’m doing a lot of work with awareness campaigns, organizations and hospitals. I’m delivering the keynote speech for the New York Statewide Epilepsy Conference soon, and in the spring, I’ll be throwing out the first pitch at Wake Forest’s “Epilepsy Awareness” game against N.C. State. Coach Walter organized the event after participating in an event I did in September with the Epilepsy Alliance North Carolina. Creatively, after the holidays, my attention will return to my new play, where I write about baseball. I finished it just before the pandemic, and I’m feeling like it’s time to get behind it again. All the while, I’ll continue my teaching, studying, and contributing to campus life at Mercy.
DL: Any final kernel of advice you’d like to impart to our readers?
MP: Try to remember that everything is always changing. Nothing, including people, is the same for long. You can have more, you can become more, and you can change into what you want to be.