Growing up with a twin sister, and the youngest of seven children in the Marburger family, Dennis has fond memories of his home and his neighborhood at Pear and Buttonwood Streets in Reading. “We were never altogether in the house at once,” he recalls. “In fact, the first time the nine of us were together as a family with Mom and Dad, was at the rehearsal dinner for my wedding. That was really special for our family.” Some siblings stayed local and others moved out of state as Dennis was growing up. Having his twin sister Debbie to share his childhood is a happy memory. “We got along well. It was not a negative thing, but she got a lot more than I did,” he laughs.
Dennis spent most of his childhood hanging out and sharing adventures with his best friend Ricky Balthaser who lived on Buttonwood Street until he moved in junior high. As he began to venture further from home, he found new friends and discovered new things to become involved with. Dennis enjoyed singing at Trinity United Methodist Church and in school choirs. He also found a steady summer job as a caddy at the Berkshire Country Club, riding back and forth on his bike.
“My best friends at Northwest Junior High were Mike Gantz and Dave Case. We hung out all of the time and there are lots of stories to tell. Football and track split us up in seventh and eighth grades. At Reading High I met my life -long friend, Chris Graul on the football field; we clicked and hit it off immediately.”
Dennis’s talent, both on the field and on the stage, emerged at Northwest in his first stage appearance in Finian’s Rainbow. “It was my role as Jud Fry in the musical Oklahoma that really hooked me into acting.” He went on to play in Fiddler on the Roof and The Music Man, which helped to solidify his passion for acting. He graduated in 1975 and entered Kutztown University, majoring in Business Administration. Dennis became involved in the theatre department to the extent that he was more invested than most of the theatre majors.
“I remember my worst semester in accounting, cost accounting, and statistics. The first week I had nightmares; numbers were coming alive. Dr. Annette Mazzaferri, from the theatre department, took me aside and questioned me, ‘Dennis, you’re good at acting. Why are you a business major?’ It was then that I decided to change my major.”
In college Dennis found opportunities to be on stage with summer theatre programs sponsored by GRAIL at Nativity Lutheran Church in Reading, where he played Marco the Magnificent in Carnival, Lazer Wolf in Fiddler on the Roof and Mr. Webb in Our Town. He also performed at Penn State Berks, and Genesius Company. He maintained his high school friendships throughout college. “I had my good friend, Barry Ciabitoni, who was in all the plays; my singing friend. And my sports friend, Chris. I was going to Kutztown and Barry was going to Allentown College for Theatre. Our early idea was to support one another and head up to New York City, getting a place together and becoming stars! It was at this time that I met my wife who was my hall director, working on her master’s degree. I was working as a desk clerk at the time, and she was essentially my boss. We had to keep it hush, hush until we got married.”
The couple worked their way toward their respective academic goals while Dennis took classes part-time and entered into the corporate world, moving from place to place, working and acting, until they settled in Stewartsville, Pennsylvania where they currently reside.
Dennis has done a remarkable job balancing a career in the corporate world while pursuing his career as an actor. The achievements listed below reflect his dedication to excellence in both areas of his working life:
Accomplishments and Achievements Corporate Career
National District Manager of the Year – Video Concepts – Received 5 consecutive National District Manager of the Month awards on route to earning the National District Manager of the Year award for having the best combination of year-over-year sales improvement along with bottom line P&L results.
Pinnacle Club – Attained Gold Level in national year-long sales contest for Sprint PCS. Achieved a 135% year-over-year district sales gain which was the second highest result in the country.
Sprint PCS Academy – Chosen to facilitate the inaugural event. Selected as 1 of 12 retail managers from across the country to facilitate a week-long retail store manager peer-to peer training throughout the summer at the corporate headquarters in Kansas City, MO.
Most Valuable Employee of the Year – Two years in a row from One Wireless World.
Opened an Upstate NY market for 6 retail locations for One Wireless World.
A long career in the corporate world has equipped Dennis with expertise in sales, management, leadership, coaching, mentoring, customer service, operations, merchandising, human resources, recruiting, interviewing, meeting facilitation, expense control, inventory control, and public speaking. When he decided to leave the corporate world in 2017 to pursue acting full-time, he created a business workshop for actors utilizing all of what he had learned along the way. “I am working on launching a coaching business, and in the process of writing a book as a resource.”
At a time in life when most people start to wind down, Dennis is gearing up to dive deeper into his acting career, which already has an impressive foundation. “Covid made acting much more feasible. They started self-taping for auditions, recording yourself at home, and making the call-backs on Zoom. When covid hit, everyone started doing it, which opened the playing field. I’ve had an acting coach since 2017. She had a lot of students, and I actually started helping other actors tape and submit videos. After signing with a new agent, Landrum Arts LA, which is based in Shreveport, Louisiana, Dennis will be working with an agent who will submit his work all over the country. His goal is to join the actors union, SAG, which could open a new door for this seasoned actor who has the talent and good looks to take his career to the next level.
For a complete listing of film, television, new media, and theatre, and full a resume, please check out www.dennismarburger.com.
In addition to his impressive accomplishments in the corporate world, on stage and in front of the camera, Dennis decided to return to his roots training as a track and field athlete in order to get in the best shape of his life at the age of 49. His familiarity with the events in javelin, discus, hammer, triple and long jump, and short sprints from his jr. high, high school and college days led him to train and compete for five year in the Pennsylvania Senior Games and one year and the Maryland Senior Olympics earning 38 medals, with 22 of them being gold!
Dennis returns to his hometown in Reading occasionally through his active involvement with Terry’s Legacy, an organization he helped to establish in honor of Terry Graul a former letterman at Reading High School who suffered a life changing injury when he became paralyzed from the waist down in an industrial accident. Terry worked relentlessly on his rehabilitation, and served as a champion for the disabled community in Berks County. Through various partnerships and fundraising events, the organization provides grants to individuals with spinal cord Injuries in the Berks County area to complete home modifications and making independent living a reality.
Dennis continues to live an inspiring life as an actor, coach and writer with his wife Joyce, and his son, who is a dual purple heart recipient and a traveling Hindu monk, and his two grandsons Kevin, and Tyler.
