Meet Marcus

Kaelyn Free

Marcus Gonzalez shares his second love of theatre.

On the field under the shining lights is where offensive right tackle Marcus Gonzalez brings his all. Running, tackling and defending consumed his life for seven years as his passion. However, off the field Gonzalez can be found on the stage - singing, acting and performing. While football is prominent in his life, he discovered his second love - for theatre - in eighth grade.

“[I] chose it as one of the electives in seventh going into eighth grade and, well, just stuck with it,” Gonzalez said. “I figured it was something new for me.”

Playing on the River’s varsity football team and taking part in his church’s theatre program keeps him busy. When he is not practicing for a game, he is practicing his songs and lines for upcoming plays, which currently are canceled due to Covid-19.

“Needless to say, any time I have to practice, I’m practicing,” Gonzalez said. “Any time I am not in football, I am going over songs and choreography, especially with our competition, that, at least, was coming up.”

Each year, Gonzalez prepares for an annual competition called “Fine Arts” with his church’s youth group. It is a competition between various churches where they show off their creative talents.

“Our youth performs at this big competition called Fine Arts every year,” Gonzalez said. “It includes a multitude of different categories from musical theatre solos to small theatre ensembles to even stand-up comedy and, oddly enough, puppetry. If you and your group do well enough, you go to Nationals.”

Although Gonzalez plans to pursue football at Florida State, he wants to keep theatre as a plan B. As long as he gets to perform in some way, it does not matter to him whether he becomes an NFL or Broadway star.

“[Theatre] is fairly important to me,” Gonzalez said. “Especially with the amount of time and effort I have put into it. I would love, if not making it professional in football, to become an actor.”

Pre-performance jitters are common amongst many different performers, and Gonzalez is no exception. Before stepping on the stage for the first time, he was nervous to be performing in front of people, but his nerves slowly started to fade.

“I was very nervous before performing in front of anyone, but as soon as I got on stage or started singing, all the nerves just melted away,” Gonzalez said. “When I perform, it feels like I am in a whole new world. I’m just in my comfort zone where I can be whoever I want or need to be and get applauded for doing so.”