Marilyn Prince, Actor

Marilyn Prince is a 5th generation San Franciscan whose love of acting began in the 1950’s, when her parents took her to see plays at many of the small theaters in The City. She has a B.A. in Theater from UCB and a Masters Degree in Theater from SFSU. She was a founding member of Eureka Theater, where she performed in many plays. She also has performed in various companies throughout the Bay Area and Southern CA. These venues include South Coast Repertory Theater, The Berkeley Shakespeare Festival, The Napa Valley Wine Train, The Renaissance Faire, and the Dickens Christmas Fair. She also was featured in the film “Sirens of the 23rd Century” which premiered at the Castro Theater. Marilyn has taught and directed theater and Commedia Dell’Arte to students from kindergarten through college. For many years she taught in public schools, partnering with her good friend Felecia (Poppy) and her husband, Jim (Howler). She is honored to have been invited, along with all these wonderful actors, to help produce Jim Skiba’s project.

Three ways in which water has had a significant impact in my life:

I’m a water sign, so I love water. I love listening to it, I love looking at it, I love smelling it, I love swimming in it. I love creeks, waterfalls, lakes, rivers, the ocean and outdoor swimming pools. 

My very favorite is rain. I love how it smells and looks when it rains in gardens or in the forest; the drops sliding down green leaves in miniature waterfalls, and dripping from tree branches. The longer and harder it rains, the happier I am. I even love camping and hiking in the rain. I should have become a meteorologist because I can always tell when it is going to rain by the smell in the air. I’m right every time, even when people insist that it is not going to rain. When I was growing up, my room was at the top of the house. When it was stormy, the rain was so loud! And I adored listening to it. I loved, and still love, sitting by a window, listening to the rain and reading. 

I grew up in a place where the summer weather was nothing but cold, thick fog. The fog was so thick that we could not see the house across the street. I resented the fact that my entire summer was that way. But actually, I loved that thick, wet fog. It smelled of the sea. And the sound of the fog horn was lovely. I hiked in the fog, and went horseback riding in it, and sat on the beach in it. The fog had a way of amplifying sound, and sometimes we could even hear the sea lions. I remember visiting people in old houses on cliffs that dropped down to the ocean, and the foggy nights were beautiful and romantic. We could be in our own world, wrapped up in a cold, wet cloud that smelled of ocean and seaweed. 

Up in Pinecrest, there is a place called “Cleo’s Bath.” We had a difficult hike to get up there, sometimes clamoring over the boulders on the side of the mountain. When we finally arrived, the area was all flat granite where we could sun ourselves. The granite also formed bowls which caught the water that flowed down the mountain. One bowl was a huge lake of water that fed into a creek with waterfalls. The first waterfall was a smooth, natural granite slide, and we would slide down it, ending up in a deep bowl filled with water we would swim in. The water then went on to become another waterfall, and then another all the way down to Strawberry Lake.