I Owe My Marriage to Theatre!
Member Stories
On stage, backstage and in the audience, we fell in love through shows
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Welcome to our latest Theatre Lovers essay. Today, Tina talks about the leading role theatre has played in her personal and professional life. If you’d like to submit your story for consideration, email TDF Stages.
I met my husband, Tarmo, my freshman year of college in 1978 in an acting class at C.W. Post – Long Island University. He was so handsome and well-dressed—I was smitten immediately. We became fast friends and spent a lot of time together, performing on stage and working backstage at the school’s Post Theatre Company and going to see shows in New York City.
I had the great fortune to assist Lily Tomlin and Jane Wagner on their show The Search for Signs of Intelligent Life in the Universe. Lily loved Tarmo and always said that he looked like a performance artist. While working for her, Tarmo and I decided it was time to tie the knot as we had known each other for eight years. We had a small wedding in the backyard of the Long Island house we still live in. It was one of our greatest theatrical productions. We planned every detail, made all the food, designed the deejay’s playlist, I even made my own wedding gown! Tarmo joked to everyone that I made his tux, too.
Four years ago, we produced our “wedding revival” on a little Mexican island called Isla Mujeres. We wrote our renewal vows, my sister officiated, and our son played his acoustic guitar and sang our song, “You.” Both the original production and the revival were magical.
On September 7, 2020, we celebrated our 34th wedding anniversary. Our life together includes 40-plus years full of wonderful theatre memories as audience members, as performers at various Long Island theatres, as producers of a script-in-hand series at our local library and as proud parents sharing the stage with our son, Zachary, from time to time. Truly our greatest production, Zachary is a jazz musician and teacher and inherited our love of the arts. I have worked in some aspect of theatre my entire professional life—as an event coordinator for Night of 100 Stars II and the 1985 Tony Awards; as a production assistant for Lily Tomlin on her show; as a commercial talent agent; and as a box office manager at Long Island’s BroadHollow Theatre Company, sadly one of COVID’s casualties. For the last 23 years, I’ve been an executive assistant at TDF. To say that theatre has been an important part of our life as a family is an understatement. Theatre IS our life and we long to return to it.
Have a great tale for our Theatre Lovers series? Email your story to TDF Stages.
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Tina Marquis-Kirsimäe has been an executive assistant at TDF for 23 years and loves her job. In addition to her love of theatre, she is passionate about travel and can’t wait to return to both. Besides her husband and son, Tina lives with two rescue dogs, two parrots and a rescue parakeet.
Top image: Tina Marquis-Kirsimäe and her husband during their vow renewal ceremony. Photo courtesy of the author.
TINA MARQUIS-KIRSIMÄE