People love stories. According to NDSU assistant professor of theatre arts Marc Devine, humans are hardwired for them.

“Stories are important because that’s how humans learn; we’re natural storytellers,” Marc said. “Stories help us gain understanding and empathy for one another because when someone tells a story, we try to understand; we place ourselves in that situation.”

Marc grew up in Denton, Texas, just north of Dallas. After attending college in New Mexico, working as an actor in Los Angeles, and completing graduate school in Colorado, Marc started his teaching career at Ball State University in 2014 and came to North Dakota State University in 2018. During his time in Los Angeles in 2005, Marc started working in devised theater, which is an ensemble-driven form of creating theater where the director and cast collaborate to make the show together. The result is often personal and intimate.

“Devising can be empowering — especially for students who don’t see themselves represented because, historically, the majority of plays have been written by straight, white men. Or, for those who don’t see plays representing issues that they would like to have a voice in, devised work gives them an avenue to create something that speaks to their experience. For some NDSU students, that’s been very powerful,” Marc said.

One of NDSU Theatre Arts’ spring productions is a devised play, directed by Marc, called “Home.” The ethnographic play will depict stories of foster parents in the Fargo-Moorhead community. Five student-actors will embody local foster parents who are opening their homes to children in need. Marc spent months conducting interviews, and he and the students will work together to discover common themes and develop characters who will deliver these stories to audiences in a creative, but cohesive, way.

“I’ve interviewed about eight people who are foster parents in this area. This piece is really hearing their stories. It’s not linear. It’s their conversations that they’ve had with me. We’re giving a voice to these really wonderful, heartfelt, sometimes sad, sometimes very uplifting tales of what they go through,” Marc said. “We’re going to perform it in the Memorial Union Gallery, so that makes it different than a traditional theater show because we’re using the site-specific nature of the gallery space.”