Marty Durlin: A Life in Story and Song
The second half of this week’s show celebrates a true local treasure: longtime journalist, playwright, and KVNF contributor Marty Durlin.
Durlin is preparing for a special performance at the Blue Sage Center for the Arts in Paonia — a retrospective cabaret titled 50 Years of Songs by Marty Durlin. The free show takes place Friday, September 19 from 5 to 7 p.m. and features 24 original songs from a career that’s touched nearly every part of the North Fork arts community.
“I always aspired to write plays and perform them,” Durlin said. “But nobody ever really wanted to produce them… so I went to my community and said, you can sing, you can play — come be in this play.”
And they did. From small-town stages to public radio newsrooms, Durlin built a life out of community storytelling. She’s written more than 20 musical plays and managed three radio stations, including Boulder's KGNU and Moab's KZMU. She’s also contributed stories to the North Fork Times, High Country News, and, of course, KVNF News.
The upcoming show brings it all full circle. It was Sally Kane, former KVNF general manager, who suggested the idea of a musical retrospective. It quickly grew into something much bigger — a family-and-friends cabaret with 24 local performers singing and acting out scenes from her work.
Even the cheerleaders are making a comeback — characters from one of Marty’s most beloved plays, Back in the Dreamtime, about a 47th high school reunion. And the show truly is a family affair: her granddaughter Poppy Lightfoot will perform, her sister is flying in from Connecticut to perform, and her cousin helped fund the production.
Durlin says the joy comes from seeing her work performed on stage — not just writing it down.
“There’s nothing like the feeling of sitting in an audience and hearing them laugh and cry and applaud for your work,” she said. “Much more than performing myself — it’s just really satisfying.”
