We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Marlene Villafane a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Marlene, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Let’s jump back to the first dollar you earned as a creative? What can you share with us about how it happened?

Well My first dollar as I performer? I’ll explain what lead to that and what that was exactly.
So Zoom! Fast forward!
I had just graduated from Manhattan School of Music with a Bachelor’s and just finishing up my Masters.
I started working part time at a call center selling products over the phone. During training for the job, I met two people who were in show business as well. I became good friends with one of them named Stephen Finch who sang operatically also. Well later he told me that he was going on tour with Porgy & Bess and that they needed more singers particularly for the role of Clara. He also said that they would be touring internationally.
He put in a good word for me. I eventually auditioned and knocked it out of the ballpark.
Stephen Finch and Peter Klein who was the head of the company came to my Master’s recital. Peter loved it and said we’d love to have you join our tour. Next thing my mom and
are in his office talking about the tour. Thank you Universe, Stephen, Peter Klein. This was my first dollar(s) earned as a performer. Right after Porgy & Bess I landed the Australian tour of Show Boat understudying the role of Julie.
The late great Harold Prince directed that. That was an honor.
We were paid of course every week plus per diem. Broadway level.
The first monies I made as a comedienne was with a Latino improv comedy group called
Lose Control which was founded by Andre Chulisi Rodriguez. He’s so talented. He’s a great actor/comedian/writer and he mentored me in his group.
What a blast. I must add though that
during the pandemic I wrote and filmed my own comedic sketches with zany characters. Yes. Comedy is my sweet spot. Definitely love it.
I grew up watching Lucille Ball, Carol Burnett, SNL, Madeline Kahn, Jerry Lewis, Cantinflas, Second City with Andrea Martin, Eugene Levy etc. They all inspired me. Ha. I definitely digress but I’ll move on now with an extremely important piece of advice that I must interject.
I believe that as artists/performers we must create our own projects.
If you’re complaining over and over to death that the work and money is not coming then STOP! Time to turn your mind set around. Affirm that you are already winning. Meditate on thoughts that motivate you. Think it and/or visualize it everyday. The money will come in.
Produce a vehicle for yourself. Hire yourself yes!
Just do it! Mobilize! How good it is to have iPhones and social media.
I wrote my one woman show called Marlene Goes to Hollywood. Now I sing, I do impressions and tell my story and it’s story driven.
It’s like one woman musical.
I entered the 11th Annual One Festival in 2016 with my show and I won.
Then, after 7 years of just revising and tweaking it on and off I decided to bring back Marlene Goes to Hollywood.
Shows are coming up June 5,6,7. & 8 at the Alpha Omega Theatrical Dance Company which was founded by Enrique Cruz de Jesus and he’s also directing the show. The show paints a story about my past challenges grappling with severe gawkiness while growing up which I’m proud of in Puerto Rican family on the UWS of NYC. I do impressions of my favorite icons, various people that I’ve met along the road and few of my family members, like my father Wilfredo and my mother Nancy. They both supported my artistic endeavors.
May they both rest in peace. My entire family is loving and supportive.

Marlene, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I was a very gawky adolescent, so one of my biggest things that somehow pushed me along was running around singing and imitating scenes and characters from tv shows to movies. I remember going on stage round 6 years old as a dancer with the ballet and flamingo classes I took with Ballet Hispanico.
As a student in 3rd grade in Catholic my very first ever acting experience was in a very very short play. I played a rich woman living in a haunted house and that was a hoot. Plus, I’ve done my share of talent show and industry competitions. I studied at Manhattan School of Music for Classical Voice. After my sophomore year during the summer I performed with an opera company called the Magic Circle Opera Repertory Ensemble. They did mostly contemporary works and they did many scenes from Carmen.
I graduated from LaGuardia High School of Music and Art and Performing Arts. The FAME school! No I did not see Coco Hernandez or Leroy Johnson or Debbie Allen in class ha! However, I love them!
Anyway I finished and got my Bachelor’s but then I went on to get my Master’s. Well towards the end of studying for my Master’s I was invited to perform in a choral piece for 12 choruses. Some people thought I was crazy to do this because it was during the latter part of the war.. Anyway. 13 of us from MSM would represent the US and other choruses would come from other parts of the world such as Brazil, Australia, Germany etc. This was during the tail end of the war in Bosnia. Off we went! It was probably the most moving tours I’ve ever done. We had most of our rehearsals in Croatia but the last rehearsals and performance would be in Bosnia. So upon leaving Croatia and going into Bosnia we saw rubble; rows of houses and villages that were devastated by the war. We stayed with a beautiful ,sweet and hospitable family with two little daughters in Medjugorie, Even though they had been ravaged by the war they still kept their heads up high with sincere smiles and did so much to help us feel at home. Medjugorie is a little village in Bosnia famous for its Apparition Hill. It was there that a group of young teens saw several years before the apparition of the Virgin Mary. That became very famous news of course. We went up that hill. The vista was beautiful from up there. The night of the concert many dignitaries showed up & it was packed. When we flew back I began to cry because I was so moved yet grateful for the experience. It was my very first tour completely far removed from home all together. We were gone for about 10 days. Right after Bosnia a couple of us went to Macedonia for a day and flew back the next day. Made me grateful of how lucky I was to be alive and well. All of us. I also prayed for them back in Bosnia.
Well my mom was so relieved that I came back ok. She was very worried about me and I understood of course.
After that I took a temporary part time job for a call center on Water st.
At the training for that I met two people who were also in show business.
One of them named Stephen was also operatically trained and later as we hung out and became friends.
He told me he was in a tour of Porgy & Bess that would be going to Japan, Taiwan, UK, Australia & New Zealand. He says they would have auditions so he told me to look out for that. They were looking for more sopranos and for a second singer to play Clara. This tour would double or triple cast certain roles. Well Clara is one of the youngest characters there who represents the innocence itself and she opens the show singing Summertime.
Stephen gave me his score to Porgy and Bess and started working on it.
So I auditioned and got in!
Also Stephen invited the director of the company Peter Klein to my Master’s recital .They loved it. Peter told me right after the recital. We’d like for you to join the tour and I went on tour with them.
I was so exciting to travel with them extensively.
Between Croatia and landing Porgy and Bess I auditioned for Livent for their production of ShowBoat which was the company that was running ShowBoat on Broadway and they expressed great interest in me.
They were auditioning for 3 ShowBoat tours; the Chicago tour., the England tour and the Australian tour.
Mark Simon who was casting gave me his card and told me I see great possibilities for you in this show. I most certainly kept the card.
Now here’s the Universe working as usual . The next thing i know is that while I was in New Zealand with Porgy & Bess we all received word that Livent was holding auditions there for ShowBoat; so I scheduled an audition day and time.
By the way, Livent did come one night in that week to our Porgy and Bess performance and a few days later I went to audition again. I went in and they were glad to see me and said that they loved my performance in the show. Anyway when I was done they asked if I was available to work with them starting on such and such and I said yes!
I’m proud of these accomplishments.
Now I am a comedienne at heart who sings and writes. I’ve had my share of a of really dry periods, many gaps in between of not doing any performances/filmings etc.
After a while I knew I had to create my own vehicles.
So anyway, I wrote my one woman show called MARLENE GOES TO HOLLYWOOD which I performed and competed with for the 11th Annual One Festival at the Puerto Rican Traveling Theater and I won. I’m very proud of this.
I’m bringing back the show again this year and performing it in the first week in June.
Then during the pandemic I decided to start writing and filming different characters and comedic sketches. Comedy is my sweet spot. Comediennes and variety shows like Lucille Ball, Carol Burnett, Madeline Kahn, Gilda Radner, Cantinflas,
Jerry Lewis. Saturday Night Live,
Second City TV etc inspired me greatly..
Many movies and musicals have inspired me like Young Frankenstein, The Nutty Professor,, Grease and West Side Story, Victor Victoria etc, well the list goes on and on.

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

It was after my sophomore year in Manhattan School of Music.
When I finished my Bachelor’s and I went on to finish up my Master’s
I was invited to perform in Bosnia in a choral piece for 12 choruses.
Even though some people thought I was crazy to do this because it was during
the latter part of the war, I still mustered the strength to go. I really wanted to go anyway.
I guess I was resilient to tour in a country that was deemed dangerous because of the war.
Anyway. 13 of us from MSM would represent the US and other choruses would come from other parts
of the world such as Brazil, Australia, Germany etc.
This was during the tail end of the war in Bosnia. Off we went!
It was probably the most moving tours I’ve ever done.
We had most of our rehearsals in Croatia
the last rehearsals and performance would be in Bosnia.
So upon leaving Croatia and going into Bosnia we saw rubble; rows of
houses and villages that were devastated by the war.
It definitely requires a resilience to see such things before your very eyes
and still have the faith to know that we’d be ok.
We stayed with a beautiful, sweet and hospitable family with two little daughters in Medjugorie,
Even though they had been ravaged by the war they still kept their heads up high with sincere smiles
and did so much to help us feel at home.
Medjugorie is a little village in Bosnia famous for its Apparition Hill.
It was there that a group of young teens saw several years before the apparition of the Virgin Mary.
That became very famous news of course. We went up that hill.
The vista was beautiful from up there.
The night of the concert many dignitaries showed up & it was packed.
When we flew back I began to cry because I was so moved yet grateful for the experience.
It was my very first tour completely far removed from home all together. We were gone for about 10 days.
Right after Bosnia a couple of us went to Macedonia for a day and flew back the next day.
Made me grateful of how lucky I was to be alive and well. All of us.
I also prayed for them back in Bosnia.
Well my mom was relieved that I came back ok.
She was very worried about me and I understood of course.
FINALLY, Some time during my preteen years I had stage fright
and low self esteem; so I saw a therapist for quite a few years.
This anxiety would continue on through my earlier part of my adulthood
but eventually as i was just beginning to practice control mind control techniques
and this was before I discovered Buddhism, my anxiety would appear for some time and disappear.
Appear and disappear. I would go back and forth.,
I knew it was my way of thinking that was causing it.
Then again when I finished senior year of Manhattan School of Music
I was totally fine again.
So I went on tour to do Show Boat . Then a few months after I began having bouts of severe anxiety.
I cried a lot so I started seeing a therapist while in Australia.
I prayed a lot and affirmed for some sort of answer within me that would help me to have the faith,
willingness and discipline to love & believe in myself and be at peace.
Eventually I grabbed all kinds self help books such as The Silva Mind Control Method, Zen Buddhist books,
Eckart Tolle, and Louise Haye “You Can Heal Your Life”,
continued affirming, visualized, tried different meditational and yoga techniques, deep breathing,
did acupuncture and acupressure etc.
This would lead me to Korean Yoga and then Nichiren Buddhism SGI. I started chanting everyday.
PLUS I wanted so much to perform and film, travel, tour etc. I wanted my career to start taking off.
I wanted to put my talents to work not as a hobby but as a profession because I love it so.
Nichiren Buddhism really saved me.
The minute i chose ME then everything I needed to manifest consciously,
to build my self esteem, to be happy, build my confidence, to heal myself
and to be successful showed up from me.
I’ve been practicing consistently since 2019.
Now I no longer think the same way I used to years before.
I feel more resilient and happier than ever because choose it.
I’ve come into my own and believe in myself, my capabilities and talents.
I really appreciate life and the people in my life as well.
I was able to repair my relationship with my mother right on time a couple years before she passed.
Chanting helped me to achieve this also.
Anyway, My mother passed away this year in May.

For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?

I would say traveling around the world, meeting and performing for different
people of different cultures has been so rewarding.
It makes you step out of yourself and learn about other cultures.
To be able to touch move and inspire people through performance is so rewarding.
When I finished my Bachelor’s and I went on to finish up my Master’s I was invited to perform in Bosnia
in a choral piece for 12 choruses.
Some people thought I was crazy to do this and I understand of course because it was during the latter part of the war..
Anyway, 13 of us from Manhattan School of Music would represent the US and other choruses would
come from other parts of the world such as Brazil, Australia, Germany etc.
This was during the tail end of the war in Bosnia. Off we went!
It was probably the most moving tours I’ve ever done.
We had most of our rehearsals in Croatia but the last rehearsals and performance would be in Bosnia.
So upon leaving Croatia and going into Bosnia we saw rubble; rows of houses and villages that were
devastated by the war. We stayed with a beautiful ,sweet and hospitable family with two little daughters in Medjugorie,
Even though they had been ravaged by the war they still kept their heads up high with sincere smiles
and did so much to help us feel at home.
Medjugorie is a little village in Bosnia famous for its Apparition Hill. It was there that a group of young teens saw several years before the apparition of the Virgin Mary. That became very famous news of course. We went up that hill. The vista was beautiful from up there. The night of the concert many dignitaries showed up & it was packed. It was a beautiful mass we were singing was about the importance of world peace and sanctity of it. They were moved by each word each phrase.
When we flew back I began to cry because I was so moved yet grateful for the experience. It was my very first tour completely far removed from home all together. We were gone for about 9 or 10 days. Right after Bosnia a couple of us went to Macedonia for a day and flew back the next day. Made me grateful of how lucky I was to be alive and well. All of us. I also prayed for them back in Bosnia.
Well my mom was relieved that I came back ok. She was very worried about me and I understood of course.
After that I took a temporary part time job for a call center on Water st.
At the training for that I met two people who were also in show business. One of them named Stephen was also operatically trained and later as we hung out and became friends he told me he was in a tour of Porgy & Bess that would be going to Japan Taiwan UK Australia & New Zealand. He says they would have auditions so he told me to look out for that. They were looking for more sopranos to play Clara. Well Clara opens the show singing Summertime. Stephen gave me his score to Porgy and Bess and started working on it. So I auditioned and got in!
What was rewarding about this is to recognize how the universe works in your favor even in circles that you may not be aware of in that moment. I met Stephen at call center and it was through his connection to the tour that helped me my foot in the door.
Also Stephen invited the director of the company Peter Klein to my Master’s recital .They loved it. Peter told me right after the recital. I’d like for your to come on tour with us. After that I landed the Australian tour of Show Boat. The late great Harold Prince directed. He was amazing.
I understudied the part of Julie and got to play the role for a week.
Next thing that I have very talented talented family members. My cousin Javier Luis is a Salsa Artist; amazing singer and songwriter. Plus, he’s traveled and has won many awards and deservingly so.,I’m very proud of him. Artists can really help bring people together.
My aunt Carmen Martinez is a writer too. She’s written quite many of Javier’s lyrics. She has written a book in Spanish about spirituality called The Light Behind the Darkness (La Luz Detras de La Oscuridad) She’s also written a few comedic sketches for me which I’ve produced. She’s a talented writer. It’s rewarding to have worked with Javier musically and with my aunt.
I’ve recorded & did videos with him, and performed in concert with him many times. I have a cousin in law Melissa Ruiz who’s sung a lot in church and boy does she have quite a voice. Well I’ve sung with her in concert also. It’s so rewarding to sing with such talented family members. Finally another rewarding factor is to be able to make people laugh through my comedy. I love comedy. Comedy is my passion. I love playing zany characters. I have a comedy channel in YouTube with all kinds of vids. I’m still building it up. I’m still producing sketches and thank the universe for iPhones too.
So comedy is my forte. It’s my sweet spot. I grew up watching SNL. Lucille Ball, Carol Burnett, Cantinflas. Jerry Lewis, Second City. Etc etc They certainly influenced me greatly. There’s a freedom to comedy, to go all out and that’s rewarding. Laughter is one of nature’s best medicines. You can’t take yourself too seriously. You can heal yourself mentally and physically also through power of laughter. It keeps in you touch with your higher self. That’s reimbursing. Well anyway to do a variety show like SNL will be fabulous! I’m ready to do that. I can totally see it.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/villafane_marlene?igsh=MTA0dnE5NzhwZDRm&utm_source=qr
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/share/1RoWYLBhep/?mibextid=wwXIfr
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/marlene-villafane-46485970?utm_source=share&utm_campaign=share_via&utm_content=profile&utm_medium=ios_app
• Youtube: https://youtube.com/@marlenevillafanecomedicact2382?si=ZZL-hChgxmt-8mzz

Image Credits

Donna Clark, Photographer (Stills from my one woman show MARLENE GOES TO HOLLYWOOD)
Marlene Villafane, Photographer