The woman behind two of Nova Scotia’s better known theatre companies and a co-founder of the oldest professional women’s theatre company has one more accolade to her name.
Governor General David Johnston presented playwright, director, actor and producer Mary Vingoe of Halifax with Canada’s highest honour Friday, naming her one of 43 Officers to the Order of Canada.
After finishing her Master’s degree in Drama at the University of Toronto, she co-founder of the Nightwood Theatre in 1979 in Toronto, the country’s oldest women’s theatre company known for producing such acclaimed works as Good Night Desdemona (Good Morning Juliet) and developing the Groundswell Festival, a development program for female playwrights.
Vingoe’s theatrical efforts in Nova Scotia include starting up Parrsboro’s Ship’s Theatre Company, with Michael Fuller in 1984 and later Eastern Front Theater Company in Dartmouth in 1993, with Wendi Lil and Gay Hauser.
She has also worked with Neptune Theater and Mulgrave Road Theatre, both in Nova Scotia, Banff Centre for the Arts and from 2002 until 2007 she served as the artistic director for the Magnetic North Theatre Festival , presented by the National Arts Centre.
Her work has gained her a number of recognitions such as Toronto’s Dora Mavor Moore Award for best production, the Queen’s Jubilee Medal for Contribution to the Arts and Nova Scotia’s Robert E. Merritt Award for Achievement in Theatre.
Vingoe, born in Halifax, earned The University Medal in Theatre when she graduated from Dalhousie University in 1976, before moving on to the University of Toronto.
Governor General David Johnston presented Vingoe and 42 other Canadians with the Order of Canada Friday in Ottawa. Other recipients included actor Michael J. Fox and musician Robbie Robertson.
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