How The 602 Stage theater company in the West Valley grew out of its founder’s crisis of faith

There’s a brand new theater company in the West Valley.

It’s called The 602 Stage, and they’re targeting this fall for their first production.

The Show recently spoke with the company’s founder and artistic director, Madilyn Marks. Marks moved to Arizona in 2022, in her early 20s. It was a time when she was feeling lost and disconnected from her sense of self.

In the midst of that difficult period, Marks found herself drawn back to sources of comfort from earlier in her life — including acting.

Full conversation

MADILYN MARKS: There is something to be said about the vulnerability of theater that's different from other art styles. As an actor, having to put yourself in the shoes of someone or something else, it opens up a whole other part of your heart. And the other people that are around you doing it with you feel that same thing.

SAM DINGMAN: One of the things I was really interested in reading about the origin story of The 602 Stage is that it partly grew out of an experience of faith that you have. 

MARKS: Yes!

Would you be willing to talk about that?

MARKS: A hundred percent! I grew up in a Christian household, so I was always raised around the church. I was in and out of it. When I moved here, I really just kind of fell off, is the best way to describe it. So —

DINGMAN: fell off of church specifically?

MARKS: Yeah. Fell out of church, out of my religion. I did not have a connection with God or Jesus at all. And I started selling cars and that industry. — woo! I got pulled into a lot of things that I should not have been pulled into at such a young age. And so I remember, like, sitting in my house one day I was going through a breakup. And I was like, “Wow, I am so far from the person who I am. Like, I am an honest person. I'm a good person, like. And that's just not what I'm reflecting in my daily life.”

DINGMAN: What kind of things were you being pulled into at the car dealership?

MARKS: I mean, I think in dealerships when it comes to, like, negotiating, there's just certain sales tactics that are taught to you. …

The 602 Stage

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DINGMAN: Having to be deceptive or —

MARKS: Yes. Yeah. I just didn't feel good. Um, a lot of the people in that industry have, you know, addictions. And I was — I've never partaken in any of that. But they were, you know, going out on the weekends and drinking all the time, going out on a Wednesday, drinking. And I'm just not about that. …

DINGMAN: OK. So it seems like you were in a place where things were kind of open and shifting.

MARKS: I'd say things were fully falling apart as a better way to put it. I had quit at the dealership, just kind of cold turkey. And I was driving home, and I just remember feeling like, “What am I doing? Like, I need help.” And I found myself at the doors of a church, and they were closed. So I didn't get to talk to anyone. [LAUGHS] But, I think —

DINGMAN: Not where I thought that story was going.

MARKS: Right? Yeah. Me either. I thought, you know, someone would be there. But in that moment, even though I didn't get to talk to a person, that was God talking to me and telling me, like, “Come home.” … And so I did, and I started going to church regularly. I like the best way to describe it. When you first feel that call from God, it's like just a wave — like a fire ignites within you. And you just want to do the best you can be the best you can, and learn about Him as much as you can.

DINGMAN: So thank you for sharing all this, Madilyn. … I really appreciate it. And I'm interested to ask how that feeling became a desire to start a theater company?

MARKS: Yes. So I've been doing theater for what feels like my whole life. In that moment when I was feeling so alone, so sad, so not myself, I wasn't even thinking about theater the last three years I was selling cars. It was the moment that I put myself back into a community theater that I've really felt like myself again and I found friends here. It was the first time that I had moved here in like three years. That I had made friends here.

DINGMAN: Was by getting back involved in theater.

MARKS: Back involved in theater.

DINGMAN: And is that how you got to the idea of starting your own company? 

MARKS: Yes.

DINGMAN: And you're targeting your first full stage production this fall? 

MARKS: Yes.

DINGMAN: Is the work that you imagine putting on stage with this company, do you imagine that it will be religious-themed? Is this a religious theater company?

MARKS: It is not religiously affiliated. I am definitely religiously affiliated. And so the way that I conduct, the way that I treat people or talk to people or some of my policies, like that does stem from what I believe and how I believe we should treat other people.

DINGMAN: But if I'm hearing you right, the plays that you imagine doing won't necessarily be plays about God or about —

MARKS: No. For me, praise can be anything. So I can praise God by singing “The Music Man” or “Chicago.” I think anything that I am doing for God's glory honors him and glorifies him. So it doesn't necessarily have to be, you know, a nativity scene. [LAUGHS]

DINGMAN: Right. You've anticipated, I think my next question, which is for you as an artist, does doing theater feel like an act of faith?

MARKS: Yes. I don't know if I can build on that anymore. Just, yes, it does. I'm gonna build on it, actually. [LAUGHS] … It's definitely not easy coming out of an industry where you're making, you know, $10,000 a month. We know the arts are not the most financially supported thing in the world.

DINGMAN: Is the industry where you were making $10,000 a month cars?

MARKS: That is car sales. … Yeah, not every year, not every year. But, you know, a good month. Um.

DINGMAN: I do think that's interesting though, Madilyn, because, like, you know, in a good in a good year, that's a lot of money.

MARKS: It is.

DINGMAN: But I also hear you saying that the emotional cost of that work wasn't worth the salary.

MARKS: Correct. There was more for me in store than just making money. Like God has a plan for me. And a part of that plan is having enough faith in him to trust that I will be taken care of in being sent on — it feels to me like a mission, to serve my community.

DINGMAN: Tell me a little bit creatively what you are looking for in a good piece of theater.

MARKS: It's difficult to say, like, what is good theater, because it's so specific to each person. You know, I could sit next to someone and be like, “I didn't really like this show.” And they can be like, “This is a great show, greatest show I've ever seen.” So it's difficult to say. I think if I can tell the actors are having a good time for me, that makes it a good show. … You can see the community on stage. I think that's what it is.

DINGMAN: Can you talk a little bit about what you think the significance of having a company like this, based in the West Valley specifically, will be.

MARKS: You know, we have one, um, community theater over there that's pretty well known. And then everything else is, you know, Scottsdale, Mesa, Chandler, Gilbert. There's a lot of stuff on the east side.

Also, there is a large Hispanic community in the West Valley, and to me, that is a super important community. My fiance, his whole family, they all speak Spanish. So for me, the west side is rooted in that culture.

And when you love other people, you are absolutely praising God and glorifying him. So that's how I'm going to frame it. And I think that there is a lot to be said about communication and understanding that I think the world could use.

DINGMAN: Well, it'll be very interesting to see where your journey takes you. I have been speaking with Madilyn Marks, the founder and artistic director of The 602 Stage. Madilyn, thank you for this conversation.

MARKS: Thank you. I really enjoyed this, so thank you.