Every once in a while we meet a very special person. My life has been made better by having known Marji Dodril. Marji was a woman of beauty, charm, kindness, talent and class. Marji died on March 17. A memorial will be held at 6 p.m. April 4 at Dobama Theatre, 1846 Coventry Road, Cleveland Heights.
It is only fitting that Marji should be memorialized at Dobama. That theatre was a major part of her life. It, ironically, was also where I met Marji.
Dobama’s second play was Benjamin Levy’s ‘RAPE OF THE BELT.’ Dobama had no permanent home, so they borrowed the performing space at Chagrin Falls Little Theatre. I was the public relations director for Dobama at the time, and I loved to just hang around and watch Marji, her husband to-be, Ev Dodrill, and Mary Jane Nottage cavort. She was wonderful in that play and in everything else in which she performed.
Whenever I saw her, I could count on a smile and a hug. Even when cancer was raging in her body she was radiant. Her last performance, was a commercial in support of Issue 31, a proposed arts tax which was recently on the ballot. She had little strength, but she needed to do what she could for a cause for which she had great enthusiasm. That was Marji.
Marji may have made her last entrance and exit in this life, but she will long be remembered by those of us who loved and respected her. Applause! Bravo! Curtain down!
