Or why I, Mark Maharrey, do what I do.
As a child, singing was the easiest form of artistic expression available in small-town southern America. Church and school provided the groundwork. However, I wanted to know and learn more. My afternoon babysitter was the public library. This is where I learned how to check out records and books on performing arts I had never heard about and began my lifelong love of the arts. I wanted to be exposed to the arts, and I wanted to be a maker of the arts and was drawn to performing arts, acting and singing.
It is easier for students today to, with a click of a keyboard or a swipe of a finger, be transported to instruction from the best of the best. While I find this a great asset, I believe that a true artist must start from a basic and firm foundation. When I moved to NY for school, my first-year acting teacher sat us down on day one and told us that we would get frustrated. We were all probably the best of the best our communities had to offer as young performers. At the time, on the corner of 72nd and Broadway, a block away from our school, a new highrise was just starting. Eliza said we were the same age as that building. We will only hear noise and banging, trucks in and out for months. We would wonder what is happening, then one day, we will see the second floor appear, and then it will shoot up. That is why we would get frustrated, it is not flashy or showy developing the foundation, but it is so very important.
Learners today can get advice from the best with a quick internet search. However, it is no substitution for trial and error with a safe group of like-minded artists and a caring and understanding coach. I am that coach. The sense of comradery or esprit de corp that develops can carry them thru life. Whether using it in problem-solving, work environments, or being a meaningful team member in an ever-evolving community.
My biggest influences were all public educators of the arts, two elementary school music educators, and two secondary-level theatre and music teachers. I want to show how being part of the arts community can impact a child’s life. I have demonstrated this by being a 30+ leader and counselor in the Scouting movement. Still, I want to make a positive influence not only on the child who has stars in their eyes, but also I want the average student to be charged and pushed to have a better understanding of the performing arts. To learn how to be proud of the basic groundwork that I will have assisted them in laying and, as they grow, be able to say, “ One time I was in a play.” or “I know some chords on a ukulele.”
I have spent 30 years in local broadcasting; yes, it was the closest to professional “show business” you can get in rural Mississippi. I have constantly worked to feed my love of performing arts on nights and weekends via community theatre, garage bands, and church choirs. After 30 years, I was downsized in 2019. At that time, I started working with Start With the Arts, a non-profit charged with helping introduce arts integration at the earliest level, a pre-K daycare setting. These three years of teaching one day a month have changed my life. Introducing youth to performing arts is how I want to spend my next 15 years while also being able to contribute to our family financially solely as a teaching artist.
Mark Maharrey 