An invitation to visit Nerja taken up 40 years later

After just three weeks of living in Nerja, Bridget Peirson-Davis was "delighted" to be asked to provide entertainment "with a nautical theme" for the town's 41 Club summer party.

Bridget, a classically trained singer, sang a few of the classics from Rodgers and Hammerstein and I Am the Captain of the Pinafore by Gilbert and Sullivan "with a willing team of five gentlemen as my chorus of backing singers, complete with paper sailor hats and a rubber ring".

Bridget, 63, describes herself as "a singer, actor, and theatre director". In fact, it was through her work that aged 17, she first heard of Nerja. She explains that she was working with a lady called Janet Tate "who loved Nerja" and often holidayed there with her husband Arthur.

"She insisted I visit Nerja," Bridget recalls. She believes that Janet and Arthur eventually retired to the town but they lost contact when Bridget got another job and she never visited them. However, 40 years later, in 2021, Bridget "finally got around to visiting Nerja".

She quickly understood what the attraction was and "soon fell in love with the beauty of the place, the people and the warm weather," so decided to move to Nerja along with her son Thomas, five cats, three dogs, eleven birds and a fish. "This required a lot of planning," Bridget admits.

Originally from Luton, Bedfordshire, Bridget has a BA (hons) degree in Music and Drama and is a member of the actors' union Equity and the Association of Teachers of Singing (AOTOS). "From an early age I had taken singing lessons and was taught in the classical style. I sang in my first 'Eisteddfod', or music festival, at the age of nine. I had a wonderful singing teacher who passed on her knowledge of various genres of classical music," Bridget explains.

From there the performer moved on to musical theatre and got involved with an amateur operatic group in Bedford, landing her first lead role at the age of twenty-one as Sarah Brown in Guys and Dolls. The classical music teacher, who disliked musicals, "wasn't overjoyed", Bridget confesses.

However, it clearly pleased Bridget who went on to play lead roles in operas and operettas and her directing debut was Anton Chekhov's The Seagull. She's also directed musicals including Sondheim's Sweeney Todd, Arlen and Harburg's Wizard of Oz and her last job before moving to Spain was directing an adaptation of Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment.

Bridget has also lived in Belgium. In 2000 the family moved to Overijse, a Flemish town just south of Brussels due to her then husband's job. Bridget would remain in the country for 18 years. "My husband and I separated after just a couple of years, but as my son was at the British School of Brussels where I was also teaching singing I decided to stay put," she explains.

While in Belgium Bridget taught private singing lessons from her home and worked as a freelance voice-over artist for English language courses, museums, art galleries, churches, and post production film work. She eventually returned to the UK in 2018.

Something else Bridget did while in Brussels was take part in Belgium's Got Talent, having already participated in the programme in the UK. "I had a few goes at Britain's Got Talent. I got through to the second round on three occasions," she explains.

It was a friend who encouraged her to try the Belgian programme where they both got through to the finals which was recorded for television. In the end Bridget says that performance wasn't televised, but admits that "it was a great experience not to be missed."

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Now she's on the lookout for opportunities to continue performing and entertaining in Nerja and the surrounding area. "I hope there is a good pianist out there somewhere who'd like to join me with a view to presenting concerts of classical and musical theatre repertoire," she says.

While Bridget looks to make some artistic contacts, she says she also enjoys pottery and silver jewellery making and hopes to start selling her creations. When she's not making jewellery, she's either looking after all her animals or watching Star Trek with her son.