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Spotlight: Local theater 'royal' Beth Marshall says goodbye after 30 years

Beth Marshall speaks to participants in her annual "Play in a Day" project, where writers, actors, directors, and production teams are challenged to stage a play in 24 hours. "Play in a Day" was one of many productions Marshall offered from her own company, "Beth Marshall Presents" (BMP).
Beth Marshall
Beth Marshall speaks to participants in her annual "Play in a Day" project, where writers, actors, directors, and production teams are challenged to stage a play in 24 hours. "Play in a Day" was one of many productions Marshall offered from her own company, "Beth Marshall Presents" (BMP).

After 30 years creating art in Central Florida, Beth Marshall is heading for the hills…well, the mountains, actually - she’s moving to Colorado. She leaves behind a boundary-smashing body of theatrical works, most recently a Top Teens arts incubator and the Inclusivity Project, which does what the name suggests. WMFE's Nicole Darden Creston asked her how she wanted to be remembered in the Central Florida arts scene.

Beth Marshall:
I guess if there’s a simple answer that kind of weaves through any hat that I've worn, it would simply be to amplify the voices of unheard artist, period, whether that's teens, whether that's folks of color, whether that's folks of varying ability, whether that's folks of varying body sizes, giving platform to other artists to do their thing as much as me doing my own platform. And I would say that my heart lends toward social and political work - theater for social good, change, bridging a gap for emerging artists of any age to go to the next level, whatever that next level is for them. So pick a place in the almost three decades that I've been here. I would say that kind of through line is what you'd find.

Nicole Darden Creston:
You did some work around the Trayvon Martin situation. And you very recently, were doing some work - you mentioned Top Teens. And you were also doing some work bringing in non-traditional artists and artists of color very recently. Is that something that's going to continue here in your absence?

Beth Marshall:
While I sure hope so. I mean, I have always put people of color in roles that white America has not necessarily seen those folks in. I've always done that. That [inequality] is not new to Trayvon, that is not new to George Floyd. People notice different now after George Floyd because…I don't know, they've seen a video, but this has been going on forever. And so change is on the rise, but it's still not anywhere near where it needs to be. And the same thing goes with folks that are varying in ability. The Inclusivity Project is a project that was started during the COVID lockdown, and it brought people of varying abilities together through Zoom to create art. And now I've got people coming in, most recently from Montreal - I had an artist who was doing her first solo show in the United States at age 36, and she has cerebral palsy. We did a piece at the Orlando Fringe [annual theater festival] last year - we got an inclusivity award - where we brought in artists with seen and unseen disabilities to work every aspect of the show, and make that happen. So this is the “now” of art, it should have been the past of art. And I think we're all learning and at different levels of education on this. But I would definitely encourage all art makers to continue this. And I will of course continue to bring art here that follows with that message.

Nicole Darden Creston:
You will continue to bring art here [Orlando] or to the world?

Beth Marshall:
Yes and yes.

Nicole Darden Creston:
Okay, good! (laughter) You've been known as Dame Beth Marshall, you're known as Mama Beth, you're known as an artist's artist. But I've also seen you make the transition to doing administrative work and fundraising work and some work that artists can really bumble up and find onerous and terrible. (laughter) I'm not excluding myself there. How did you do that?

Beth Marshall:
I don't know. I think maybe I was just the most responsible actor in the room at some point got thrown into that position. I really don't know. (laughter) Because it's so interesting - all of these old pictures of me acting are coming up and I sometimes forget that I'm an actor, because it takes, for me, so much more. Like when I'm acting, all I want to do is just act. That's it, that's all my brain and body will let me do. But when I'm producing, I can produce and direct and teach and coach and admin. And, and, and. It's all kind of in that same side of my brain. But man, when I'm acting, that's, you know, all I want to do and sadly, it pays the least.

Nicole Darden Creston:
Yes, yes. Do you have any theatrical projects lined up in Colorado?

Beth Marshall:
I do. Imagine that! My first directing thing with them will be in July of 2023. It's Curious Theater, a 25-year-old “new works theater.” So that is my first thing that I'm doing on the artistic world that I know of! That might change, we'll see.

Nicole Darden Creston:
Why are you moving to Colorado? There?

Beth Marshall:
There's many reasons. Let's start with my son who is a man now but he is there getting his BFA, and I want to be closer to him. That's one. And two, I terribly miss seasons. I miss cold weather, I miss snow. And the beauty…you can be in any part of Colorado, and be in the most divine mountains and beauty. And we now are going to be living in Blackhawk, which has a population of roughly 104 folks. Yeah, my son said that I will know everybody by the end of the day.

Nicole Darden Creston:
I believe that to be true.

Beth Marshall:
And, you know, you can look out our window and see the literal Great Divide. It's amazing. So we're going to live in a log cabin for at least six months. And then we're going to decide what part we want, if we want to build and stay out in the land and be a mountain woman (laughter), or if we want to go into the city, now would be into Denver or Boulder. So three, the politics. I would be lying to you if I said that the politics of the state of Florida aren't a very real reason for me to want to leave here, go further west to a place that's going to be way more expensive to live. But, you know, you get what you pay for sometimes. And as a woman, with many of the scary setbacks that are happening in women's health care, particularly with abortion, and as a bisexual woman, the attacks against the drag community, the trans community and the entire LGBTQ plus community are alarming and sickening. The attack on artists and censorship and the lowering of the age for gun laws and the potential of open carry…you know, the list grows every day. And the fact that we have really deep-rooted, heavy-hitting right wing politicians, that all kind of are here. I mean, they're here. Florida is not this moderate place. There are pods in the state like Orange County that are a little more blue. But I have to be in a blue state! I've only ever lived in red states. So I before I die, I want to be in a state that every step has blue representation running the state. And for those that are not blue, they're smoking some weed legally, so they’re chill! (laughter) Is that gonna get cut?

Nicole Darden Creston:
Not for the web version. (laughter)

Beth Marshall:
I didn't cuss! (laughter) Oh, so the Dame Beth Marshall thing, that was a silly thing at Fringe that I got knighted. And they created that name. That's how that stuck. And the Mama Beth thing is just kind of…the Top Teens started calling me that, and the kids and the people in my life call me that. It just sort of stuck. I'm a mother at heart. Honestly, that's what I am. Really. That's what I want to be remembered for.

Nicole Darden Creston:
Dame Mama Beth Marshall, thank you very much for your time today.

Beth Marshall:
Thank you my friend.

Nicole came to Central Florida to attend Rollins College and started working for Orlando’s ABC News Radio affiliate shortly after graduation. She joined WMFE in 2010. As a field reporter, news anchor and radio show host in the City Beautiful, she has covered everything from local arts to national elections, from extraordinary hurricanes to historic space flights, from the people and procedures of Florida’s justice system to the changing face of the state’s economy.
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