Marita Phillips

Marita Phillips's love of story-making began as a child. And some of her happiest adult moments today are spent sharing stories and enjoying  the freshness, honesty and humour of children's responses. She is an avid reader of children's literature.

With the composer, Harriet Petherick Bushman, Marita has written the book and lyrics for two children’s musicals. The Dream Dealer musical has been performed by schools and youth theatres world-wide, including at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. The operatina, Buzz – The Story of Glorybee was first performed in Kuwait and at Kew Gardens as part of the Jubilee Celebrations at Greenwich.

Marita wrote the libretto for the major opera Pushkin. With music by Konstantin Boyarsky, it was premiered by Novaya Opera in Moscow in 2017 and continued there in repertoire. The opera is based on the turbulent life of Russia's legendary poet, Alexander Pushkin. The British premiere was acclaimed at Grange Park Opera in 2018.

She has worked as a lyricist for many years. Her songs have been performed by artists such as Maria Friedman, Art Garfunkel, William Lovelady, Demis Roussos, and Peter Skellern. She first studied acting at The Guildhall School of Music and Drama, ballet at the Nesta Brooking School, before training as a mime with Adam Darius. She performed her one-woman show all over the UK and in many other countries worldwide. With Darius she founded and ran The Mime Centre, London.

Marita lives in Warwickshire with her husband. She has two grown-up sons, a daughter and five grandchildren.