Marine Veteran Alex Ekker Knows the World of Broadway’s A Few Good Men Firsthand

In his first acting job since graduating from the University of North Carolina School of the Arts, Alex Ekker is stepping into familiar territory. The Virginia Beach native joined the Marine Corps straight out of high school, serving four years as an infantry Marine. After two deployments to Okinawa, Japan, where he worked as an anti-tank missile gunner, Ekker decided to pursue acting. Now, the former Marine is making his Broadway debut in the ensemble of A Few Good Men, drawing on his military experience in Aaron Sorkin’s drama.

For most of the cast of A Few Good Men, the uniform is a costume. For Ekker, it’s familiar. “I feel so useful,” he tells Broadway.com. “I've been able to answer a lot of their questions and to help them get into the world of what we're doing, and it's been so much fun.” Some of his military training is so ingrained that he barely notices it, including the way he stands. “There was even a time I didn't realize that I stood differently than a lot of other people in my body,” he says. “It's physically different.”

Ekker has also learned to adapt his military habits to the demands of the stage. “I can't just be doing all the stuff I would be as a Marine in this, because we have to live in a world and we have to live in the transitions and we have to tell the story,” he says.

Beyond the physical details of military life, Ekker brings something less tangible to his performance. "It's the not giving up. It's the doing more with less. It's the love in the worst situations," he says. "The discipline and being able to help other people has been part of the Marines that I've been able to bring into the room." 

For his next role, Ekker hopes to put more of his physical training to use. “I'd like to do something where I get to show off all that training as well as be able to just more actively move about a space,” he says. Whatever comes next, Ekker hopes to carry the sense of brotherhood he found in the Marine Corps and among his Broadway castmates with him. “This is a blessing to be able to work with all these people," he says. “I really want to take part of that family with me."

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