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One local woman's Broadway dream has been fulfilled – but she's not done yet.
Tess Marshall, who went to Loyalsock Township High School, decided after college she would move to New York City and perform on Broadway, but it took her a lot of hard work and rejection to get where she is now: working on the Tony-nominated show "Titanique."
"I honestly don't know if I have the words for it," Marshall said. "It feels like a really singular experience to write something down that you feel is probably going to be forever out of reach. And then get to check it off."
Those in show business know there is an intimate understanding the business is unpredictable, full of rejection and ever changing, which makes the experience even more impactful, she said.
"Just because the idea that all of these things would happen in the exact right way at the exact right time to align with something I have dreamed of since I was a kid, that I didn't understand when I was dreaming it up, is profoundly meaningful."
Titantique is a musical comedy retelling of the story of Titanic -- but told through the eyes and music of Celine Dion herself, as if she were actually on the Titanic, instead of just singing the theme song for the movie, Marshall said.
In the show, she serves as a swing and dance captain.
"The job of a swing is to be ready at a moment's notice for every single track that you cover, which, conditioning-wise, can be quite a challenge and feat, given the nature of how different all of the roles are from one another," Marshall said. "Basically, I come into the building every day, not knowing exactly what I might be asked to do and the adrenaline of that is a specific skill set, if you will, just kind of dealing with the up and down of never really knowing what you might have to step into."
In any production, everyone has a specific role and the show is organized to support the people playing those roles every night. When a person playing a lead role is sick or is on vacation, the swing knows the role and can fill in, even at the last minute.
"And that's me," Marshall said. "The necessity of having people in the building who are capable of covering everything is imperative to the success of a Broadway show because if we didn't have those people in the building, the show would have to stop for the night. 'The show must go on' is still very much part of our business's inner workings. We have people who are capable of doing everyone's job all the time, no matter the conditions."
Before Titanique opened on Broadway in the spring of 2026, Marshall worked as a swing for the show off-Broadway for two years.
"The first year of swinging, I would say, is probably the most stress I've ever been under," she said. "It's just kind of playing a mental game every morning when you wake up of 'Am I ready for anything today?' Which I think you're a person with a different career -- maybe a more stable career -- that's probably pretty nuts to think about. But for us, there's so many people in this industry where that is our job every day, we wake up and go, 'Okay, am I ready for every single thing that I cover today? Do I know the track? Do I know the choreo changes? Do I know who I need to talk to before I go on to make sure anything that's shifting because I'm on will be okay for them?' It's a bit of a puzzle."
As swing, Marshall covers all of the women in the show and one of the male roles. At the time of the interview, she debuted five of the six tracks she covers on Broadway.
"There's just one left for me to go on for," she said. "We're just waiting on that last one. I will say the thing that is the most nerve-racking of all is doing anything for the first time so now that everything has kind of been debuted, it's just a matter of this last one, and I think I'll finally be able to just rest easy knowing, okay, I don't have to do anything for the first time again."
Her other role as dance captain is to maintain the integrity of the choreographer's vision. The choreographer sets the show and then comes to the building once a week or once every two weeks to note the show. Otherwise, it is up to Marshall to make sure the actors on stage are doing what was originally set.
"When you're in a long-running Broadway show, things start to kind of shift over time," she said. "You might be standing on eight, stage right for a long time and then all of a sudden, somebody's line shifts or something over time and now we're moving into seven and we don't know it. My job is to make sure that we know, 'hey, you're supposed to be on eight, be on eight.' I have to note the show once a week. I sit in the house and note the actors and just make sure that the show is true to what it was currently or what it was designed to be."
With those two roles, every day is just a little bit different. As an example of what a day in her life can look like, Marshall said on the day of the interview, her day began with her teaching business. She owns a voice studio, and on the example day, taught several students in the morning, then had a two-show day, where she was performing in the ensemble for both shows.
"I'll head into work at 2:30 for a 3:00 p.m. show," she said. "I'll get ready for the show, get into wig, hair and makeup, walk through anything that needs to be walked through, do the show, have some dinner, do the next show, and then come home and probably watch Outlander. That's my current obsession. Then I'll just really gear up to do it all again."
What people don't think about with performing eight shows a week is the conditioning it takes to be ready to do anything at any time, she said.
"Rest is really, really important when you can get it, and hydration," Marshall said. "Typically after a show, I just come home, rest, stay super hydrated, steam my voice, and make sure everything's in working order because who knows what the next day will bring."
The dream of Broadway, probably not knowing it entailed eight shows a week, began when she played Annie in the fifth grade musical at Donald E. Schick Elementary School, she said.
"I want to say ever since that moment, I just got bit by the bug that is live performance," Marshall said. "It's just so different from anything else."
She had a lot of encouragement along the way to chase that dream.
"I have a wonderful, supportive family who was never shy to encourage me along this path," Marshall said. "I think there was a lot of power and freedom of choice in that that a lot of people don't get. I think for a lot of families, specifically in suburban areas, it can be intimidating or scary to have a kid who has big dreams in this kind of unknown avenue that might be unstable or difficult. I know no parents want their kids to experience hardship, but my parents and my brother were just so all in with me right away that I never really thought of not pursuing something in the creative arts, which I think is a unique experience."
Once she entered high school, she did entertain the thought of becoming a lawyer because she was interested in debate, human psychology and becoming an expert on something and using her gifts in understanding human behavior.
"I realized, oh, all of that actually is more in line with being an actor than an attorney," Marshall said. "Then I went to musical theater school and I've literally never looked back."
For anyone interested in following similar footsteps, she has advice.
"If this is something that lights you up, absolutely pursue it," Marshall said. "If there is anything else that also lights you up, give that a second thought because this industry is going to ask you to face rejections and insecurities and difficulties that other careers might not. If you are prepared to accept that because of how much you love this and how passionate you are about pursuing it, then I think you'll be just fine."
If there is something else that "makes your heart sing," she said it makes sense to pursue it given the difficulty of breaking into this world.
"I know that maybe is not the most uplifting advice, but I also think that this is the best industry in the world and the people who belong here always find a way here," Marshall said. "I don't think it's off limits for anyone who is passionate and willing to put in the work. I think it's really important that even if you do end up in this wild, wild west of entertainment to have other things in your life, other friendships in your life, people who don't do this, people who aren't consumed by the ups and downs of this roller coaster ride, a faith of some sort that can keep you grounded, things in your life that fulfill you that don't have to do with having permission to get to do this. Because quite frankly, you spend a lot of your time asking for permission to be in a show or play the role or get to do what you know how to do and that can be really taxing, so having a full life outside of this is really, really important."
There are also more dreams out there for her to pursue, now that she has achieved this one: such as originating a principal role on Broadway.
"I would love to be the first and only person to do something and to get to really create it from the ground up," Marshall said.
Being part of the process with Titanique and seeing what the writers of the show -- Tye Blue, Marla Mindelle and Constantine Rousouli -- wrote and then how they stepped into their performative roles illuminated her having this goal.
"I don't know that I would have known that I have this dream unless I watched them walk the walk," Marshall said.
Mindelle designed the character of Celine Dion, whom she plays in the show, specifically for herself.
"It has just been so inspiring, and I think it would be really, really cool to get to work on something and be the first hands to touch it," Marshall said. "I think that's definitely a dream of mine"
Outside of Broadway, her goals are more work in television and film.
"I also really love the idea of working on something really intently and intensely for four or five days at a time, like working on six pages for six hours and then being done with them and never seeing them again," Marshall said. "Working in a medium then that kind of immortalizes it and then you get to move. ... It's totally different from live performance but I think equally as exciting."
To find out more about Marshall and her teaching business in voice and acting lessons, visit tessmarshall.com.