Moving Bravely Toward Liberty | Robyn Bishop-Marin: A Girl Far from Normal

By Gus Mollasis | Header Photos by David Steiner | September 2023

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When talking with Robyn Bishop-Marin, one of the first things you notice about her is her forthright attitude. It’s something she wears with ease—like the tasteful and smart black dress she chose for our interview.  

In our interview, the conversation, just like the coffee, also flowed with ease. Her words not forced, but genuine and heartfelt.

And why wouldn’t they be? Her words were born from pain and a broken heart.  

She speaks with wisdom of the time when her romantic comedy of a life veered off track sending her happy ending, at least momentarily, onto life’s cutting room floor. And while her story is far from original, it’s what she’s done with the material that makes her story. Her play, A Girl far from Normal, is an inspirational story worth telling.

Jolted by a sudden break-up she didn’t see coming after years of marriage, this mother of three boys was faced with a choice—one forever immortalized in the classic film Shawshank Redemption: “Get busy living or get busy dying.”   

First a little background. 

A self-proclaimed American mutt, her parents’ “meet cute” happened when her mother from India met and married her father, an American Air Force man. 

She describes her upbringing as simple and innocent. “My parents didn’t over concern themselves with their children. All we had to do was be home before dark. Mom dropped us off for dance on Saturday mornings and picked us up late. It was very carefree upbringing. Your friends were everything.”

Yet theirs was not storybook romance. Her parents would divorce and her “normal” was gone.  

“We moved from Normal, Illinois (yes, that is the name of the town!) to San Diego in 1975 when I was 13. Back then, San Diego was a lot like Sarasota today, one of the best places to live in United States. Dad was a stockbroker and mom was a stay-at-home mom.”  

“When I was 15, my mom called one Saturday and said she wasn’t coming home for a couple of weeks and that I should tell my dad.”

At the time, her brothers were four- and nine-years-old. Not a normal situation for most, still the girl from Normal did what she was quickly learning—adapt.  

“I grew up fast. I’ve always been an independent creature and I was born with a happy gene.” That happy gene would come in quite handy throughout her life and allow her to adapt to new places and new faces.

A self-proclaimed fanatic of romance movies and romantic comedies, Robyn watched them over and over because, she said, “They always have a happy ending. They’re a sure thing and I’ve always loved them. I love When Harry Met Sally as much as Pride and Prejudice.”

As she states in her play, A Girl Far from Normal, “Do you know what you call a play without a happy ending? A crap movie.”

She remembers the first time she fell in love with movies. “I saw Sound of Music when I was seven. When I saw the captain, (Christopher Plummer as Captain von Trapp) I knew I was going to marry someone exactly like the captain.” 

Robyn met her husband when she was 19 and married him when she was 21. “I believe that love saved me from a lot of heartbreak. I was enveloped in love early in life,” she shared.

“So, I had this real life rom-com life (romantic comedy). We had a great life together, rich, and interesting. Then one day he told me he wanted to take a marriage vacation. He gave me no reason but told me that I would be fine because I was the strongest person he knew.”

“It was like a hurricane. I was left alone after 33 years of living with somebody I considered my best friend.”  Robyn’s normal was shattered. Her husband did not turn out to be her captain. 

During her years as a stay-at-home mom, she fell in love with yoga and opened yoga studios in LA and Sarasota. She tried to cope with her breakup by embracing the yoga philosophy of becoming a whole person, incorporating mind, body, and spirit. 

“My days were fine. I taught yoga during the day and that’s all about giving service to others. I’d get through the days, teach class, and then lock the doors and cry under my desk. The evenings were a problem for me. That’s when the alone time happens.”

One evening, she received her wake-up call from a friend’s mother in Russia. She told Robyn she would die from heartbreak and that she couldn’t let it kill her. Robyn Googled can heartbreak kill you. Finding that on rare occasions it can, she was faced with a choice.  

“I thought to myself, my husband may not be with me anymore, but he’s not going to kill me. I’m going to figure out how to cure my heartbreak. So, I started writing a brochure with things like: “How to Divide by Two and Remain Whole” and “How to Survive a Fatal Stab Wound to the Heart and Still Make your Morning Meeting.” 

Robyn filled her nights with activities she never thought of trying in places she had rarely been. On a path to meet new people, she signed up for classes, so she’d be busy Monday through Saturday nights. “I filled up my dance card.” She signed up for two classes at Florida Studio Theatre: No Fear Acting, and a monologue class called Going Long. Other nights were filled with ballroom dancing, singing and even cross fit training, which she hates.

“I also always kept a journal. It was very helpful. The day my mother called and said she wasn’t coming back, it’s in my journal. That was the start of my writing. Journaling has allowed me to get it out. It’s like therapy for me.” 

“My class at FST(Florida Studio Theatre)on Thursday nights was called Spoken Memoir. I enjoyed the writing and documenting my life. And it was fun to get up on stage and do the acting.” 

During her campaign to say yes to fearful things, a friend told her about The Vagina Monologues. Robyn auditioned, bravely signing up, and learned the longest of The Vagina Monologues.

Once on stage, even she was surprised. “When those lights hit my face, I was like, what is this? I loved being on stage and loved commanding people’s ears and hearts.”

But Robyn needed more. “I wanted to go to places where I was almost invisible, with no labels—just a place where I could find liberty.”

Robyn sold her yoga studio, locked up her home on Siesta Key, took two suitcases, and moved to New York in 2017. She smiles when talking about that time. 

“When I moved to New York I nicknamed myself Liberty. What I did in New York is all about liberty. Because there is nothing more that I appreciate about this country than liberty. We still must proclaim it and fight for it. It’s all encompassing…liberty in our speech…liberty in our freedom to move. No one was looking for me. I thought I’m going to flip the script on this. This is not a bad thing, it’s a good thing.”

She attended monologue classes using pieces from her journal that other actresses wanted to borrow. Politely she declined their offers yet took their advice to transform these works into a play. 

“People would ask me what am I? A writer? A Producer? An Actor? I would tell them that I was nothing right now. I’m just writing, doing monologues, and want to write a rom com someday.”

Heeding their advice to write a play instead, she signed herself up at The Gotham School where she learned to write a play in 12 weeks.

A play reading followed. One week before her reading, wanting to work out a scene, she remembered something Jason Cannon, formerly at FST, told her: “If you ever go to audition, be a Ferrari. Peddle to the metal.”      

“I thought I don’t know anyone in this room. I could completely fail, but I’m going for it. I’m anonymously alone amongst eight million people. No one knows me here.” And that’s when she saw people in their chairs leaning into her story and performance. 

A fellow writer was impressed to the point that eventually he offered to send her material to his Hollywood contact, who in turn was so impressed, he offered to fly in from LA and direct her play.  

This was the end of 2019 and Robyn, who was new to the business had many questions, with one being, “When do you think I’m going to be on stage?”  She was told she needed two years to get ready—a big jolt. 

But she did understand. “I had no experience. They were putting up the money, so they wanted me to be good.”

“In December of 2019 at a doctor’s appointment, while filling out the line about my emergency contact, my pen stopped. I didn’t have anybody to put down, so I left it blank. I went outside and while walking around the block on that winter day, I remembered my friend asking me how I was going to handle the weather. A cold breeze cut through me. I was freezing. I had no emergency contact. All the love was in Sarasota and LA. And my play is not going on for two years. I’m out of here.”

“I moved everything from New York and Sarasota to California just16 days before the Covid-19 pandemic. No one knew Covid-19 was happening. I got locked down.”

Locked down, but not locked out of acting.

An acting coach encouraged her to put the play on in someone’s backyard. She did so, professionally producing the play twice during the lockdown while masking and social distancing groups of 40 and 57. Lockdown or not, the show went on. 

California’s stringent lockdown policies eventually burnt her out forcing the girl from Normal to make a normal ultimatum to her producer in New York City. 

“Put up or shut up. Either you’re my producer and you’re pushing the show forward, or I’m finding another producer.”

“We booked the Flea Theatre, which was developed with Sigourney Weaver. It’s considered off-off Broadway. For four nights, I sold out the intimate venue.”

In her words, she stumbled through, got a couple of good reviews and eventually took the play to The SoHo Playhouse where she became the play’s co-producer and had many well attended shows. In July of 2023, she closed the show.   

Not knowing where the play is going next doesn’t bother her. And it’s a safe bet you can figure out where she wants it to land in her plan—right here in Sarasota. That would be a happy ending just like the romantic comedies she loves. It’s where the themes of her play ring true: happy people trust; happy people believe, and happy people forgive. 

After all, the girl from Normal, Illinois is at heart a Midwest girl who loves “good people” and considers Sarasota to be her real home. Here she is surrounded by a community of good people who get her, have her back and hear her unique voice—a voice that continues to develop through all her life experiences. 

If you want a “when life gives you lemons, make lemonade” lesson from this independent and happy woman from Normal, it’s this.

And maybe that’s the best part of this story about the girl with the happy gene. Maybe her story can be the “new normal.” It’s one filled with much hope, inspiration, and heck of a lot of liberty.