Chances are, you heard Connie Dey’s voice before you ever saw or met Bermuda’s arts and culture dynamo.
Beginning in 1956, when she joined the cast of the popular Tuesday night radio drama, Kindley Air Theatre, Dey has been an integral and popular figure in Bermuda’s arts community. She spent four years acting on radio, playing a different part each week in the 30-minute dramas broadcast live from the ZBM studios on Bermudiana Road in Hamilton.
In 1965, she began voicing the ‘What’s on in Bermuda’ recording—a compilation of the island’s arts and cultural events available by dialing ‘074’ on the telephone. She also voiced radio ads for some of Bermuda’s leading retailers. “Even today, I meet people and they say: ‘Now, where do I know your voice from?’” she chuckles.
Dey was born in Malden, Massachusetts to father Russell, an electrician, and mother, Ruth, who raised Connie and her brother, Donald, before working as a secretary to a realtor. A charming and witty woman, Ruth had been involved in dramatics during high school and often entertained at church and lodge functions with amusing skits and dramatic readings.
Inspired by her mother, Dey took elocution lessons as a teenager, was involved in the drama club at Melrose High School, and studied drama at Emerson College in Boston. Leaving Emerson after a year for financial reasons, she took a job as a commercial copywriter at Boston radio station WORL while continuing night courses at Emerson.
This copywriting experience was put to good use later, in Bermuda, when she wrote radio and television commercials for department store Trimingham’s from 1959 to 1963.
A vacation to Bermuda brought dramatic changes to her life—she met future husband Joseph, a lover of the classical arts, aboard the Queen of Bermuda cruise ship. “His love of the arts was part of the reason I married the man,” she says. “He had lived in New York and was very much into classical music, opera, ballet, and he just loved the theatre. We seemed so sympatico, it was an instant attraction. In my little hometown of Melrose, there was no opera so our honeymoon in New York was the first time I saw opera, ballet —and it was my introduction to classical theatre.”
Settling in Bermuda—Joseph worked at Kindley Air Force base as housing officer— Dey began acting with the Kindley Air Theatre and joined the Bermuda Musical and Dramatic Society (BMDS) in 1958. Dey appeared in three plays during that first year, and has been active in BMDS ever since. Her name appears in some 70 BMDS programmes—including 19 Christmas pantomimes—not always as a member of the cast. Dey has supported many productions by writing copy, selling advertising, and compiling programmes, handling publicity, or working as an usher, house manager, box office, or production assistant. After playing only dramatic roles for many years, in 1975 Dey discovered the fun of being a pantomime “baddie” or comic: she was the wicked step-mother in early productions of both Snow White (1975) and Cinderella (1977) and played her last comic role in 2010 as the Tour Guide in Firebird. “I have never played a good fairy,” she chuckles. “That might ruin my image!”
In recognition of her service to the BMDS, Dey was made an Honorary Patron in 2005.
As an actress, she also appeared in the “Bermuda Shorts” nightclub act at Elbow Beach Surf Club (1961-63) and over the years has appeared with nearly every drama group on the Island, most of which no longer exist: the St. George’s Players (1959-60), Bermuda Junior Service League “Follies” (1962-63), Bermuda Theatre Guild (1965 & 1976), Donel Productions (1973), David Dill Players Dinner Theatre (1991-92), Linda Paynter Productions (1993-94), Jabulani Repertory Company at the Hamilton Princess Hotel (1993-95) Waterspout Theatre (2002), and Jargan Theatre (2006). The Gilbert and Sullivan Society (1980-81, 1991-92) is still going strong.
Some of Dey’s favourite roles, with BMDS and other groups, included Lady Olivia in Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night (1964), Blanche in Tennessee Williams’ Streetcar Named Desire (1966), Amanda in Glass Menagerie (1993), Mother Superior in the musical, Nunsense (1994), multiple roles in The Dining Room (1991-92) and Melissa in Love Letters (1992-93), both by A.R. Gurney, as well as Ouisa in Six Degrees of Separation (1993), by John Guare.
Reviews typically described Dey’s performances as “magnificent”, “outstanding”, “splendid” —and critics praised her for “her usual artistry and sheer professionalism”. A 1965 review of Jean Kerr’s comedy Mary, Mary in The Royal Gazette said: “With zest and zeal, Connie Dey carried this witty but meaningful comedy along as though she was a wave and the play a surfboard. She could, in fact, have probably carried it off entirely by herself.” Added reviewer Bryan Darby: “The best actress of the year? I plump for Connie Dey in Mary, Mary.”
Dey expressed her interest in dance through performances of mime roles in many ballets. She first played the Mother in Giselle during Bermuda Ballet Week (1959), and has twice reprised this role. Other performances included Bermuda Ballet Season (1961), Bermuda Civic Ballet (1973) and Mother Gigogne in the National Dance Theatre’s full-length Nutcracker ballet staged for the Bermuda Festival of the Performing Arts (1993).
Dey was invited to join the board of directors of Bermuda Dance Theatre upon its formation in 1977, and as it grew into the National Dance Theatre of Bermuda, she served as the organisation’s vice-chair for 15 years. She is an Honorary Board Member of its successor, the National Dance Foundation of Bermuda.
“I love acting because it allows you to get out of yourself and become another person, someone you might wish you could be,” Dey says. “There is nothing to compare with hearing an audience, getting that feedback across the footlights. I love hearing the laughter, or feeling a sense of emotional empathy. I like to give an audience something to think about. The bottom line: if the audience leaves the theatre happy, then I am happy. That’s what it’s all about, isn’t it?”
In 1959, Bermuda’s Trade Development Board—predecessor of the Department of Tourism–staged a series of theatrical productions to mark the Island’s 350th anniversary. As an actress with executive secretarial training, Dey was a natural for the position of secretary to the series’ director, Connie Bainbridge, and producer, Elsbeth Gibson. That led to a long association with the Department of Tourism and Chamber of Commerce, planning, organising, and carrying out annual events for the Rendezvous Season programme, Floral Pageants, College Weeks, and two Tall Ships Races. This was also the beginning of a life-long friendship with Gibson.
The Rendezvous Season Activities began in 1960 and continue to run weekly from November to March, now under the aegis of the Department of Community and Cultural Affairs. Dey became associated with this programme in 1964 as organiser and artistic director of the Tea and Fashion Show held every Monday at City Hall–in the space that now houses the Bermuda National Gallery. Chamber of Commerce retailers loaned merchandise for Dey’s static displays, and for the fashion show produced by Gibson, and visitors sipped tea during the fashion show.
While events have changed over the years, Dey continues to play a role in these Rendezvous activities. She has been guide for the St. George’s Walking Tour since 1980, and when Gibson retired as commentator for the Bermuda Islands Pipe Band’s Skirling Ceremony in 2002, and as hostess for the Gombey Revue in 2004, Dey took on each of these roles.
Her association with Gibson also included becoming a model for ‘Holiday Fashions’ which played at hotels and cruise ships until the late 1990’s. Dey also regularly filled in for Gibson as commentator whenever needed.
The Bermuda National Trust became a part of her life after the birth of her sons, Russell (born 1968) and David (born 1971) when she was asked by a friend to volunteer for their public relations and membership committee—and in 1982 she became the second full-time member of their staff, as administrative assistant to the director, William S. Zuill. As the Trust began to host cultural visits to Bermuda by historical societies, garden clubs, museum associations, and the like, Dey’s duties increasingly included planning their itineraries and serving as their on-island study leader.
Thus, in 1992, Dey became the Island’s first Cultural Tourism Officer, a post she held until her retirement in 2003.
Though officially retired, she continues to serve as a guide for visiting groups, including conventions, especially on tours of St. George’s, and the National Trust’s museums. She is a regular volunteer for the Trust as receptionist at Waterville, and works as a museum guide when and where the need arises.
Dey was made an Honorary Life Member of the National Trust in 2005.
Dey credits much of her success as a walking tour guide, study-tour leader, fashion model, and commentator, to her theatrical training and stage experience. Every time she steps up to the microphone, or begins a walking tour, she is “on stage”, she says—and every event is a performance, as she endeavours to entertain as well as educate our visitors.
“As long as I am capable, I will continue to help Bermuda put her best face forward to our visitors,” she says. “Our best advertising is a happy visitor who will go home and spread the word.”
The Visitor Industry Partnership recognised her long years of service to Tourism by voting her the ‘Best Tour Guide’ in 2008.
Through the years, Dey has had the opportunity to portray many historical characters, primarily for the Trust’s annual Christmas Walkabout in St. George’s, but also at the invitation of Ruth Thomas for her ‘Mosaic’ presentations and for various Emancipation Day celebrations organised by the Department of Community and Cultural Affairs. She has also served on the Department’s Heritage Advisory Committee since 1999, assisting in the organisation of the annual Heritage Month activities, including the Bermuda Day Parade. She is also a long-serving judge of the floral floats in the parade.
During the 1970s, Dey helped introduce children to the joys of theatre as a teacher at the Bermuda National Youth Theatre summer school.
She served as guest host of the television programme, Good Morning Bermuda, for a month in 1981, and on other occasions when popular television personality Marlene B. Landy was on holiday.
Some of Dey’s other long-term community commitments include membership in the Bermuda Foundation for the Arts, a registered charity that gives financial aid to individuals or organisations involved in the performing arts; volunteering with the Bermuda Festival of the Performing Arts; commentator for the Floral Float Parade held during the annual Agricultural Exhibition until the introduction of Heritage Month; and, thereafter, she was also commentator of the Bermuda Day Parade for television audiences until 2010. Since 2005, she has been hostess/commentator for the Glamorous Granny Contest, and she has been a loyal volunteer for the Bermuda National Gallery since its inception in 1997.
Dey has lifetime or honorary lifetime membership in the BMDS, Bermuda National Trust, St. George’s Historical Society, Bermuda Audubon Society, Seniors Learning Centre, Age Concern, and the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals—and annual membership in 14 other organisations, including the Bermuda Society of Arts, Masterworks Foundation, the Bermuda National Museum and the Gilbert and Sullivan Society. She regrets that “there isn’t enough time to volunteer for all of them, but I try to help wherever I can.”
She was astonished to receive the Bermuda Arts Council Lifetime Achievement Award in 2010, not being quite sure she should receive an award for the privilege of doing what she loves. As she puts it: “I don’t feel as if I’ve actually worked a day in my life!”
She is grateful to have had so many opportunities to give back to her island home. “Living in Bermuda has been wonderful,” she says. “This island offers us all so much— we are able to become involved in so many incredible projects. I believe in the Island, I believe in our arts, our environment, our history, and our culture. We are all so lucky to have such a great place to call home.”
