We recently connected with Marion Fontaine and have shared our conversation below.
Hi Marion, thanks for sharing your insights with our community today. Part of your success, no doubt, is due to your work ethic and so we’d love if you could open up about where you got your work ethic from?
A great work ethic is hard to find in a city like New York. Working as a professional actor and director for a little more than a year now, you face opportunities, coworkers, friends that will challenge that ethic.
Our experiences, our backgrounds will influence that ethic, as a young international student coming alone in this country I wanted to trust people, I wanted to make a family of my own in this new part of the world.
I started to work with friends I met during my studies and I learned really fast how mixing friends and work cannot always make the best cocktail. After you graduate from a performing school you have to switch seeing these people from classmates to potential performers for your next production, cast mates, or competition at an audition and it’s not always the healthiest environment. Finding friends that will keep you on track with your values is crucial.
I would describe my work ethic to be resourceful, optimistic, caring, and passionate.
Which brings me to another challenge I faced this year: trying to keep moving forward when work was going well and a higher position was offered to me, I noticed how older male performers can feel threatened by a younger woman working as their manager.
Great, so let’s take a few minutes and cover your story. What should folks know about you and what you do?
I don’t really set any limits for myself, I love to learn, to stimulate myself.
I love to do everything in my projects going from writing, directing, playing singing dancing, and editing.
I studied classical French Theatre in a conservatory in France, while directing the most extravagant short films. I started teaching myself the art of filming. Then I found myself in a Musical theatre program in New York City, having no idea of what Musical Theatre was but that’s where I perfection my singing and I learned how to dance.
Now I am working in the city in an immersive show midtown “Call Us Vilains”. I am also working on my own projects, I just released my first rap song both in French and in English called “DIDIER” a fun project on the side! You can check it out on Youtube or any music platform.
Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?
Being Humble with everyone you meet, everyone you work with.
As a performer you can learn so much from anyone, if it’s an experience, a skills, knowledge, as an artist, living is working.
Go out, talk to people, be nice, you never know where is the next opportunity.
How can folks who want to work with you connect?
I am aways looking for new people to collaborate with!
I am right now working on a short film with a friend and these are the kind of projects that I love to be a part of, we are writing, we don’t have a big budget but we are figuring it out. Friends reach out a lot with a first idea and then we brainstorm and work together to build this project, any type or form, going from short films, music video, plays or cabarets.
You can always reach me at my email [email protected] if you are in need of a Director, an Actor, a Singer or a Stage Manager.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://fontainemarion.com
- Instagram: @fontaine.marion
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@fontainemarion
- Other: MARION FONTAINE on Spotify
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