Marilyn Bird
Sitting in the light and airy living room of the house she shares with husband Rob, Marilyn Bird, Dart Music Festival Committee member, is in a reflective mood.
“Sometimes things go against you in life and you have to reinvent yourself and go through periods of change. We’ve done it and many others have too. Every life has high and low points” At this point she grins, “the Music Festival this year was definitely a high point!”
Marilyn was born into a family with performance in their genes: her father was a gifted pianist who made a living as a performer on the mighty Wurlitzer, her aunt was a violinist and grandfather a cellist, the whole family enjoyed making music together. Her father managed Granada Cinemas and Theatres for many years.
“When I look back at my upbringing, I now realise that being surrounded by music and film fired my passion for the arts, “ she said. “When my father worked for Granada I was lucky enough to go with him whilst setting up stage shows and previewing films and meeting some amazing people”.
“Going round the theatres with my father watching shows from the projection booth, a bit like “Cinema Paradiso”, meant I grew to love it all”
When Marilyn was 9 her family moved to the Welsh Borders and she attended school in Shrewsbury – before going on to study fine art. In college she joined the local theatre group – where she became a performer and even toured in Yorkshire with a production of the John Arden play Ars Longa, Vita Brevis.
Marilyn then went to Birmingham University and her experiences inspired her choice of course: specialising in Theatre Design. During her holidays she worked at the Birmingham Rep in the production department and on graduation felt she was ready for a career in the theatre.
“I went to London looking for work and got a job as a resident Designer at the Arts Theatre Club in Leicester Square. It was the late Sixties and I was in the heart of London – it was just a thrilling place to be,” she said. “I ended up freelancing at many of London’s Repertory theatres and during this time struck up a great relationship with a very talented man who was an armourer – he also helped to make the first Dalek! He would create blades for weapons and I would create the design for the hilt and scabbards. I worked on many of the props used in Roman Polanski’s film of Macbeth. "
"One of the most thrilling moments of my early career was seeing a bus with a massive poster on it advertising the film and it was MY dagger!”
Now established in the world of the West End, Marilyn began to get more varied and interesting work – something she reveled in.
“It was always a great challenge to be asked to create something and not know how you might achieve it, ” she said. “But I loved to work it out and make something everyone was happy with. I was once asked to create a massive cooked breakfast for the BBC, one that ‘looked realistic’. I ended up making two-foot-wide eggs and four foot-wide sausages on a giant plate! I have many happy memories of working in a team for massively long hours, often sleeping between the rows in the theatre but loving it and helping to create some wonderful productions.”
Marilyn was also involved in the 1971 Royal Ballet film of the Beatrix Potter Ballet working with Dubijinski – hand sewing the animals’ fur into the intricate heads and beautiful costumes.
Marilyn was then offered the chance to get involved in a new restaurant venture.
“I was asked to become part of a new club in the city – learning about wine and food which I loved. The wonderful thing about this was they would keep my job for me if I went off on tour which was an incredible opportunity.”
At that time Marilyn met Rob, and the two became friends. Later on, they fell in love and started their own delicatessen in Guildford. The business was a big success but Marilyn kept connections in the London theatre scene and kept working.
The couple visited Devon one summer and walked along the Dart – as they walked, Dartmouth came into view.
“We looked at each other and I think we both knew – this is somewhere we’d love to be,” she said.
They bought a house in the town and then disaster struck.
‘The recession in 1992 took almost everything we had,” Marilyn recalls. “We had to adapt and opened the house in Dartmouth as a guest house. Then Joyce Molyneux at the Carved Angel asked us if we could offer midweek breaks with her restaurant providing the evening meals. This was the start of our recovery.”
Since moving to Dartmouth full time Marilyn and Rob have been strongly involved with the community – joining and then running the Film Society for 13 years, performing in the Shakespeare Week at Dartmouth Castle and also using Marilyn’s design skills to help the productions. The couple has now joined the newly formed Dartmouth Rock choir too.
Marilyn has also been heavily involved with the Dart Music festival organizing the Classical Music programme.
“The whole music festival this year was a joy to be involved with,” she said. “It was wonderful to see so many people enjoying the amazing array of music. Personally I was very pleased with the Classical programme and especially the young Ji Liu on his way to becoming an internationally-renowned concert pianist, he was simply sensational.”
“We feel lucky to be in such a beautiful town and putting our energy into so many wonderful things, like the Music festival – we love our town and our home!”
First Published July 2014 By The Dart