If you attended theater in Cincinnati in the 1990s, you likely saw Marni Penning onstage. Her first acting performances locally were with Fahrenheit Theatre Company, starting in 1994. She co-founded the ambitious group with several college friends from Virginia’s James Madison University. When that feisty troupe evolved into the Cincinnati Shakespeare Festival, she played leading roles in numerous plays by the Bard — she even took on the title role in Hamlet in a 1997 production at the Aronoff Center’s Fifth Third Bank Theater. With a talent for marketing and graphic design, she also helped lay a strong foundation of awareness for the fledgling theater. Now known as Cincinnati Shakespeare Company, what Penning helped launch will mark its 30th season this fall.
Across her varied career she’s performed in 54 productions of 23 Shakespeare plays, most of them in Cincinnati. “My fourth-grade teacher introduced me to Shakespeare and completely changed my life,” Penning says. “My love of language stemmed from her.”
Always eager to spread her wings farther, Penning moved from Cincinnati to New York City in 2000 to expand her circle of theatrical opportunity. In a 2016 interview, she told me, “It ended up being the exact right move for me.” She did film, television, commercial and voiceover work — even taking on an uncanny impersonation of vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin in 2008. In 2009, she returned to her hometown, Washington, D.C., and married a wine and cheese buyer for a gourmet food chain. She took a five-year maternity leave from theater but made a successful return to acting in 2016.
Nevertheless, the life of a working actor demanded a lot of time away from her young son, so she headed in a new direction in 2019. Andi Arndt, Penning’s roommate at James Madison University who has become an award-winning audiobook narrator, urged her to make the transition to audiobooks full-time. She got some coaching, learned about producing and created a home studio for recording. In 2020, the pandemic changed everything.
“Every other industry was shutting down, and audiobooks were ramping up,” she recalls. “I almost felt guilty to be able to continue working while the theaters were closed.” Becoming an audiobook narrator turned out to be a brilliant move. “I get to act every day in my basement at home, and I get to play all the parts,” Penning says. To date, she has recorded more than 200 audiobooks under her own name on Audible, and another 60+ titles under a romance pseudonym.
All her time spent in a basement studio paid off recently when she was recognized with a nomination by the Audio Publishers Association as “Best Fiction Narrator” at the recent annual Audie Awards, presented in Hollywood on March 4. Her performance of Sara Read’s Johanna Porter Is Not Sorry, about a messy soccer mom on the run after an art heist, was one of five nominees in the fiction narrator category that also included some famous names — Meryl Streep and Ethan Hawke — as well as two audiobook veterans Eunice Wong and Billie Fulford-Brown.
Penning wasn’t the winner, but she’s clearly playing in the big leagues. In a recent email, she told me, “If I had to ‘lose’ an Audie to anyone, I’m so happy it was Billie,” who she calls a dear friend. The community of people who make their living recording audiobooks is clearly a tight-knit world, offering lots of mutual support.
Penning works daily with John Detty, an audio engineer based in Dayton. She thinks of potential individual listeners — rather than an audience of theatergoers — when she’s recording. When she’s playing characters she recalls actors she’s worked with, including the colleagues she worked with year-round at Cincy Shakes. “I actually imagine that person in that role. So I have a wealth of characters from all the different company members at Cincinnati Shakes.” For instance, she mentions longtime company member Jeremy Dubin: “I actually use him all the time! I can actually envision him playing this character and I think how to say the lines without having to stretch to make up a full imaginary person. It’s almost like I cast the book in my head with performers I know.”
About her nomination, Penning says, “I’m floored. This is my first nomination, and to be included in the top five narrators of fiction in the country? Completely unexpected. I’m so honored.” It will come as no surprise if she’s back at the Audies before too long.
