A singer, actor, teacher, Alabama’s Brandon Marcus may be best known as a dream maker
A day in the life of Brandon Marcus is filled with music, sweat, sometimes tears and, is often bedazzling.
His day might include accompanying students at his performing arts studio, helping them complete college scholarship applications and then jumping on a ladder in the gym of a nearby high school to help rebuild a collapsed set. You might also find him lobbying for arts education at a board meeting, attending his own rehearsals and then gluing together headpieces for his students to wear at the legendary Showstoppers event. For him, it’s all a true labor of love.
Marcus is the owner and voice teacher at The Studio, an educational performing arts studio in Daphne. He feels called to help students in Alabama grow through the arts and wants The Studio to be a haven for creativity – something he knows is missing in many parts of the state.
“When I was in college and I came back in the summers, I would teach Vacation Bible School,” Marcus says. “It was the most fulfilling thing, but also heartbreaking because I realized that it was the only little bit of arts that kids got. Of course, they had band and choir, but in the summers and after school hours, there was nothing.”
He felt that needed to change, especially in what he calls “such a sports ball state.” So he opened The Studio, which offers intensive one-on-one arts education.
“Even though it’s stressful owning a business, 99 percent of the time I go home happy and proud of what my students are building,” he says.
In addition to teaching, Marcus is an accomplished and experienced performer. He’s been cast in lead roles in shows across the Gulf Coast and continues to give back to the region’s theater community. He was included in the 2022 Who’s Who in America list, highlighted in the South Alumni magazine, and featured in both the Mobile Bay Magazine 40 Under 40 and Access Magazine’s 50 Most Beautiful. He’s won accolades for his teaching, was recently awarded the Emerging Leader Award by the Mortar Board National Honor Society and was named a National Association of Teachers of Singing Joan Frey Boytim Fellow.
Despite the recognition, he’s too modest to accept the title “local hero.” He prefers the term “dream maker.” We’d venture to say he’s both. In this recent interview, he talks about his pride in his home state and in other Alabamians who make it a great place to work and live.
This is Alabama: What is your favorite thing about living in Alabama?
Brandon Marcus: I feel like Alabama is a melting pot. Alabama has a little bit of everything and there is someone for everyone in Alabama. And it’s not hard to find that person. If you are a sports lover or a patron of the arts, or someone that just wants to sit on their back patio, drink a sweet tea and talk about the neighbors, you can find that in Alabama.
Just thinking about the clientele that I’ve got, we’ve got students and parents from completely different countries. And thanks to places like Mercedes and Airbus, we have people from every different country coming to Alabama to live. And it’s truly becoming this cultural melting pot.
TIA: Who would be on your Alabama Mount Rushmore?
Marcus: I would, of course, include Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King Jr., because I feel like without those two, we probably would not have the same Alabama that we have today. Then I would include Tim Cook, the CEO of Apple, because he is from Robertsdale, which is right around the corner from me, which is so cool. I’m hoping he sees this and gives me money. And my fourth one, I really had to do a lot of thinking on it because there were so many people that I could have put, but I chose Laverne Cox.
Laverne Cox is doing what so many in the LGBTQA+ community aspire to do and hope to do. In a way, I connect with her because I’m trying to teach all of these kids that you can do anything you want to do. All you’ve got to do is set your mind to it and surround yourself with the people that are going to help you get there. That’s exactly what Laverne Cox has done. It’s amazing. She’s so inspiring.
TIA: If you had to make a soundtrack about your life in Alabama, name three songs you would choose.
Marcus: My first one, of course, would be “Sweet Home Alabama,” because, why not?
I think my second one would be “Jesus Take the Wheel” because, in my teen years, that was definitely my only hope to make it out – was that Jesus just took that wheel. And sometimes, you know, he drove me to places where I didn’t exactly know where I was, but I finally figured it out.
My last one would have to be “Livin’ on a Prayer” by Bon Jovi. Because at this point, I’m definitely living on a prayer, doing things that I never thought I would be able to do. I’m allowing kids to come in and open their hearts and souls to me as their unofficial therapist. We have 10 seniors this year. Eight of the 10 are going to school for something in the arts and they’re all going on full scholarships. I want to be there helping their kids get to the next place. So I think “Livin’ on a Prayer” is number three.
TIA: What do you want other people across the country to know about Alabama?
Marcus: Yes, we do all have our teeth. No, we do not marry our cousins. And only half of our roads are dirt roads.
Thanks to bad media, there are these stereotypes that we have here. People think Alabama’s a Third World country. And we’re not; we’re really not. Sure, we are kind of low on some lists, but there are people working to make that better. There are actually a lot of us working to make it better, and we’re everything you are in the other states. We get such a bad reputation, but, hey, at least we’re not Florida.
TIA: Name an Alabamian who inspires you.
Marcus: An Alabamian that inspires me would have to be Daphne’s mayor, Robin LeJeune. What a lot of people don’t know is that he just went through a very rough battle with cancer. And still, the whole time, was serving our community and growing Daphne as a whole, all while dealing with what a lot of people would consider to be life-altering.
To me, that is extremely inspiring, especially when you look at the bigger picture of how most of us would’ve just stopped. We would’ve quit. We would’ve said, this is what I have to focus on and put our responsibilities on the back burner. But he continued; he persevered and he pushed through. That to me is a prime example of servant leadership. That’s what I aspire to be one day when I transition into politics. Possibly. Because one day I want to be on the school board as a proponent of the arts.
TIA: What’s the most beautiful place in Alabama?
Marcus: The most beautiful place? Oh, my God. I might start crying. The most beautiful place in Alabama is exactly where I’m at right now, The Studio.
Because I interact with some of the most amazing, beautiful, inspiring, talented, gracious and humble children that I’ve ever met. And while, yes, the mountains are beautiful, the beach is great and the water is lovely, getting to sit behind a piano day after day and watch light bulbs come on with children, that’s the most beautiful thing I’ve ever experienced.
This story previously was published by This is Alabama. Want to read more good news about Alabama? Sign up for the This is Alabama newsletter here.