Standing in front of his Acting for Everybody class, Gary DeWitt Marshall is animated, shouting, waving his hands and taking long, dramatic pauses. The classroom is his stage now – and he’s playing the role of a theatre instructor in the College of Charleston School of the Arts.
“I’ve played many roles,” he says. “In my current role, I’m a brother, a father, a son, a husband. I’m a friend. I’m also currently playing the role of a college professor. Because I’m committed to the work I do, I’m going to be good at that role.”
As he sees it, everyone is playing a role. Reaching authenticity – or “truth telling,” as he calls it – in that role is a process, and if he can help someone discover the talent buried inside of them, he knows he has done his job.
“It’s really predicated on advocating for a person’s self-identity, their self-awareness and how I’m able to instruct that in the classroom and relate it to acting,” he says. “That’s my standard. That is what holds me accountable – my commitment to telling the truth.”
Although Marshall teaches theatre, including Theatre Appreciation, he does not, by design, teach acting. Sure, students in his Acting for Everybody course take part in feature script reading, improvisation and an end-of-semester performance – but the course is about confidence building.
“Gary has such an affectionate and energetic teaching style that would make anyone want to jump up and start acting,” says one of his students, sophomore communication major Erica Hill. “I enjoy his teaching techniques and love how he’s very goal-driven in preparing all of us to become better performers.”
Gary Marshall in his first “paying gig” as Cory in “Fences” in 1991-92.
Although he once lived the “Hollywood hustle,” as he calls it, Marshall, who was born and raised in Rochester, New York, did not set out to become an actor. But then, in the late 1980s, one of his professors at Hobart and William Smith Colleges in Upstate New York encouraged him to audition for a student play, Boxes. He got the part – and the acting bug.
In 1989, he landed an internship at Shakespeare & Company in Lenox, Massachusetts, which provided him with essential on-the-job training – and showed him a side of life that was “new and exciting.”
“It sort of opened up a new world for me,” he says. “It was the impetus or the spark for further inquiry or to pursue my curiosity as an actor.”
That curiosity paid off. Marshall went on to land Broadway and movie roles in New York City before moving to Chicago in the early 1990s. He dropped off headshots at a few agencies – and, by midweek, he was getting calls to come in and interview. Within that week, he had booked a movie and a TV show.
“Just like that, it happened,” he says. “It was something that I had the aptitude and ability to do. And, for a while, it was great fun.”
His time in the “City of Big Shoulders,” which included studying with the famed Steppenwolf Theatre Company, gave him his “tenacious work ethic,” he says, and was essential to his growth as a professional in the industry. It also gave him the confidence to try his hand in Hollywood, moving there in 1999. He spent more than a dozen years there, taking roles in plays, commercials, TV shows and movies (and even starting his own theater company).
Two of his biggest movies were Renaissance Man (1994) with Danny DeVito and The Hurricane (1999) with Denzel Washington.
“The greatest thing about working with Denzel wasn’t the scene that we shot,” he recalls. “It was that we shot pool for about a half hour during the break. My memories – that’s what I yearn for.”
As someone who describes himself as being “curious about a lot of things and particularly about academia,” Marshall knew when the time came to retire. He describes the moment when he told his agent and friends that he was going to take a break from the acting industry: “They thought I was going to Palm Springs or something,” he recalls with a laugh. “They were like, ‘Who would leave Hollywood?’ It was a great career, but it was really limiting. The roles that came up weren’t challenging anymore or stimulating. It wasn’t fulfilling in all the ways that it used to be. I couldn’t access that other part of me, so I decided to re-up on my education.”
He ended up in South Carolina on a whim, earning a master’s degree in teaching through a graduate assistance program at the University of South Carolina in 2015. Combining his two passions – acting and academia – Marshall created the perfect career for himself. He wound up back in Rochester, where he taught K-12 for seven years while also producing and directing award-winning plays.
In 2021, Marshall arrived at the College of Charleston.
Janine McCabe, chair of the Department of Theatre and Dance, loves the passion and energy he brings to the classroom.
“He is committed to students finding their voice and inspiring them to make connections within themselves and with others,” she says. “His boisterous presence in the classroom is invigorating and keeps his students engaged. We are lucky to have someone of his vast talents here teaching our current students and recruiting new voices to the program.”
For Marshall – who has also directed student plays at the College, including Marcus; Or the Secret of Sweet this past spring – the decision to teach at the College came down to authenticity and truth telling, not surprisingly.
“What I asked every potential employer was, ‘I know why I’m here, and you know why I am here. But why am I really here?’” he says. “And ultimately, that’s a question that I can only answer, but it had to be presented so that I could really see if I were being dealt with authentically or not. And the truth is, I had three other stops to make. Well, I didn’t need to look any further. Charleston sells itself.
“The College led me to believe that I had a place and that I was welcomed,” Marshall continues. “They invited me to share that with the greater student body. And so far, so good. I’m proud of the results of my accomplishments in service and in teaching.”
