Mary Vingoe

Originally from Dartmouth, Nova Scotia,[2] Vingoe studied theatre at Dalhousie University in Halifax. She graduated with a bachelor of arts (honours) from Dalhousie in 1976 and was awarded the University Medal in Theatre.[3][4] Vingoe later attended the University of Toronto's Graduate Centre for Study of Drama.[5]

Vingoe co-founded Toronto's Nightwood Theatre in 1979 with Cynthia Grant, Kim Renders, and Maureen White.[6] Vingoe was the only founding member of Nightwood to be an Equity member at the time of founding. Vingoe served as Nightwood's first artistic coordinator from 1985, when Cynthia Grant left the collective, until 1987.[7] The position was created to fulfill the same responsibilities as an artistic director but with a title that better suited Nightwood's origins as a collective.[8]

Vingoe helped to collectively create works with other Nightwood collaborators, including 1979's The True Story of Ida Johnson and 1981's The Yellow Wallpaper.[9][10] She acted in shows such as The Yellow Wallpaper (1981) and Pope Joan (1984).Vingoe also directed several plays while working with Nightwood, including Love and Work Enough (1984), Sally Clark's St. Francis of Hollywood (1987), Margaret Hollingsworth's War Babies (1985 and 1987), and The Herring Gull's Egg (1987), which she also wrote.[11] Nightwood re-staged The Herring Gull's Egg in 1989 as directed by Maureen White.[12]

In 1984, Vingoe co-founded Ship's Company Theatre in Parrsboro, Nova Scotia with Michael Fuller. Their first production, You’ll be in Her Arms by Midnight and Other Parrsboro Stories, was performed on the M.V. Kipawo ferry.[13] With Ship's Company, Vingoe has directed several plays including Wendy Lill's The Glace Bay Miner's Museum. Vingoe directed The Glace Bay Miner's Museum again in 2012 for the National Arts Centre's English Theatre Company and served as an assistant director on the 1995 film adaptation of the play, Margaret's Museum.[14]

In 1993, Vingoe co-founded Eastern Front Theatre in Halifax with Wendi Lill and Gay Hauser.[5][3] In 2002, Vingoe directed a production of The Drawer Boy with EFT for which she was nominated for a Merritt Award for Outstanding Direction.[15]

In 2002, Vingoe was appointed the first artistic director of the Magnetic North Theatre Festival, a festival celebrating Canadian English-language theatre.[2] She stepped down from the position after the 2007 Magnetic North Festival.[16]

In 2010, Vingoe directed the world premiere of Colleen Wagner's play Home at the Bus Stop Theatre in Halifax.[17] The two founded HomeFirst Theatre that year with the intention of producing plays written by Atlantic Canadians.[18] HomeFirst Theatre has since put on such plays as Wendy Lill's Messenger in 2015 with Neptune Theatre and the premiere of Vingoe's play Refuge in 2013 with Eastern Front Theatre.[19][20][21]

Vingoe portrayed Wanda Greyson in the CBC radio drama Backbencher.[22] Vingoe directed Alden by Richard Merrill, a play about poet Alden Nowlan at the 2011 NotaBle Acts Theatre Festival in Fredericton, New Brunswick.[23] During Neptune Theatre's 2014/15 season as part of the Open Spaces program with Theatre Nova Scotia, Vingoe directed the Atlantic Canadian premiere of Catherine Banks' It Is Solved by Walking.[24]

In 2018, Vingoe directed the musical Urinetown as part of Chester Playhouse's summer festival in Chester, Nova Scotia.[25] Vingoe wrote the play Some Blow Flutes and directed its 2018 premiere at the Bus Stop Theatre.[26]

Vingoe was married to jazz musician Paul Cram who, before his death in 2018, worked as a sound designer on some of Vingoe's productions.[30] The two have two children, Laura and Kyle Vingoe-Cram.[31]

Vingoe was named an Officer of the Order of Canada in 2010.[53]