Meet the Character: Marcus Bertrand

tyunglebower ♦ March 30, 2015 ♦ 1 Comment

Between now and the summer launch of my novel, Flowers of Dionysus I’ll be posting some introductions to the characters, as well as some other information about the story. Today I’m introducing you to Marcus Bertrand, one of five point-of-view characters in the novel.

Marcus is over six feet tall, so when he talks, most people tend to listen. This comes in handy when you’re a community theater stage manager. As anyone familiar with putting on a production at the community level will tell you, it is, on its best day, organized chaos, and the stage manager is often most responsible for making sure the entire operation doesn’t leave out the “organized” part altogether. A lover of order and efficiency, Marcus, (a travel agent by day) volunteers many hours to the local theater scene to help keep productions on course. That’s how he met Matt Blackwell, an actor whose dedication and professionalism matched his own. The two became fast friends, and over the years have evolved into one of the best friends the other ever had. In fact, he is the only person Matt would ever allow to call him “Blacky,” a nickname Marcus came up with combining Matt’s last name, and his tendency toward melancholy.

Though he doesn’t consider himself an artist per se, Marcus takes pride in enabling others to create art on the stage. By maintaining order and safety, and acting as a sounding board for aesthetic ideas, (such as a production’s set or light scheme), he contributes to bringing the arts to small communities in his spare time.

Loyal, reliable, plain-spoken and rarely willing to suffer fools and lazy people, Marcus Bertrand is an asset to any stage production he is involved in. But will even his dedication and passion for his volunteer work be enough to help steady a wavering summer production this year at the Little Dionysus Playhouse? Find out when you read my novel, Flowers of Dionysus, coming out in e-book this summer.