CMU School of Drama


Friday, October 14, 2016

Dancer wears several hats at family-run Stage Right

TribLIVE: How you gonna keep 'em down on the farm after they've seen Point Park University?

Stage Right's Renata Marino says her journey from a Wisconsin dairy farm to the bright lights of the Palace Theatre and other area performing venues went through the Downtown Pittsburgh school. Now, she's an actor and choreographer and also a teacher at the Greensburg performing arts school and theater company she runs with her husband, Tony Marino, and Tony's sister, Chris Orosz.

2 comments:

Tahirah K Agbamuche said...

Since I'm a dancer, my interest was peaked at the mention. Interestingly enough, it was more about a multi talented mom who just so happened to have artistic talent. An nice point about this article is that one you've been bitten by the theatre bug, you never go back. Throughout the interview, she seems like a really talented, strong woman. However, one thing that rubbed me the wrong way was her response to the last question about whether or not her children had a choice to be in the performance industry. The interviewee herself, was exposed to Point Park University, and never went back, but that was her choice to submerge herself into that world. It is the same choice she made to sprint out of the hospital and get back to theatre.
When the interviewer asked if her children had a choice to be in the industry, she basically skirted around the fact that she gave them little to no choice. That's where she was, so that's where they would be and if not it's seen as an issue, not individualism. Personally, I believe all children should have room to blossom into their own passions, not have one provided for them.

Sarah Battaglia said...

This is so crazy. I know the Marino's and have worked with them extensively, although not on Stage Right. Tony wrote the show that I worked on this summer at the New York Musical Festival and through the process I got to know him and the rest of his family relatively well, and the community of stage right. Even from six hours away the community at stage right was so lively, and they came to the opening night of the show to support the family that leads them. Having grown up being a part of a relatively similar theater company it was really sweet for me to see that the same kind of community exists in a lot of different places. I also know that I loved the woman and her family that ran my theater company and I am sure that the people the Marino's work with feel the same way. It is a huge undertaking to run a theater company and a thankless job to work with children. I was so excited when I saw this article because I think its great to give credit to people who spend their lives trying to teach other people about art, and expose more people to the community that art provides.