Faces of Long Island celebrates the uniqueness of everyday Long Islanders. In their own words, they tell us about their life experiences, challenges and triumphs. Newsday launched this social media journey into the human experience to shine a light on the diverse people of this wonderful place we call home.

‘I get asked to do Carol Burnett a lot, and I love that; you just laugh the whole time.’

Marc Courtade, Freeport

“I’m not a renaissance man. I like what I like. I have my interests — musical theater and classic motion pictures. I worked in the not-for-profit arts world for 30-plus years, starting at New York City Opera in the administrative offices. I went from there to Lincoln Center.

“I took a slight detour for a few years in financial services for one reason, full-tuition reimbursement. I got my master’s degree paid for in management and urban policy, specializing in not-for-profit management. I was at Tilles Center for 17 years in fundraising and as a business manager, which I think meant doing whatever no one else wanted to do. (I could push paper with the best of them.) From there, I took a job as the director of the Huntington Arts Council and was there for seven years.

Long Island is a smart crowd; they know this stuff. It keeps me on my toes.

“I retired about 18 months ago, but I’ve always done these lectures. I’ve been on the program at Jericho library every month since 2010. Now it’s a good retirement gig; it’s a labor of love. I started talking about opera and musical theater, then added classic movies because people love them. I write new material once a month for Jericho. I was trying to write about Harry Belafonte for years, but once he passed away, there was so much material. Tony Bennett is in the hopper; I think November.

“I get asked to do Carol Burnett a lot, and I love that; you just laugh the whole time. I love doing Julie Andrews; she is probably why I got interested in musical theater. I don’t get asked to do opera a lot anymore. I just did Renée Fleming, and I’m doing Maria Callas on what would have been her 100th birthday.

“For New York Council on Humanities, I developed three talks — the Rodgers and Hammerstein era, ethnic musicals, and the third, which I’m reviving, is on the Latino and the Broadway musical. I think it’s fascinating, and some people still like this stuff. The audience reacts wonderfully.

“Long Island is a smart crowd; they know this stuff. It keeps me on my toes. I look things up. I do my research, and I do it carefully, remembering just because you see something in Wikipedia doesn’t mean it’s true. People are all too happy to tell you that you made a mistake.”

Interviewed by Barbara Schuler

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