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Biography
Vincent de Tourdonnet is a writer and director of musical theatre.
Currently, Vincent is adapting Andrew Moodie's play The Real McCoy, about the black Canadian inventor who helped revolutionize the steam engine. This electronic, beat-based musical is a battle between science and death. Co-created with composer Rosalind Mills, Andrew Moodie and other artists.
Vincent's epic historical musical Pélagie, adapted from Antonine Maillet's acclaimed novel, is about a French Acadian mother leading her family homeward to Nova Scotia after The Great Deportation, crossing the war-torn landscape of the American Revolution. Co-created with Allen Cole, Pélagie went from Canadian Stage to the National Arts Centre, to a CBC radio broadcast, and de Tourdonnet directed the eastern Canada tour for Two Planks and a Passion, with performances alternating between English and French. Pélagie has received numerous college productions, with another this April 21-23 at St. Clair College in Windsor.
His Joan of Arc musical Jeanne, with music by Peter Sipos, asked difficult questions about the religious legacy of that warrior heroine. Initially premiering at Montreal's Saidye Bronfman Theatre (Now the Segal Centre), it went on to large-scale production at Montreal's Place des Arts and then Le Theatre de la Capitole in Quebec. It was also performed in both English and French, with the French version by Antonine Maillet.
Snappy Tales, Vincent's collection of short musicals with themes of anti-authoritarian satire (one adapted with Kurt Vonnegut's permission), received 7 Dora nominations for the Toronto premiere, which Vincent also directed. And his satire on the medical profession, Strange Medicine, was both a critical and public hit in his native British Columbia, attracting appreciation and alarm from doctors for highlighting challenges within their profession. A new version of that show is scheduled for 2024 at Nova Scotia's Two Planks and a Passion. Vincent directed the Ontario tour of his Chekhov-based musical comedy How to Get Rid of a Monster. It was created with composer Jane Miller, for Tom Carson of Smile.
While in New York studying musical theatre writing at the BMI workshop under Maury Yeston and others, Vincent taught musical theatre writing at Long Island University. He directed a workshop of the Herr/Reid musical Nearby Faraway, starring J.K. Simmons, and will direct the premiere in summer 2022 at Lake George, NY.
Vincent's work started with a number of adaptations of Brecht/Weill, including a modern version of The Threepenny Opera which he produced at McGill as his honour's thesis, which he then re-worked for Vancouver's Touchstone Theatre.
Vincent coaches, facilitates and does simulation-based training in English and French across Canada and the U.S. with the training companies Plays That Work and Practica Learning. He has facilitated for theatre conferences including The Director's Lab North and given masterclasses in musical theatre, most recently for Eclipse Theatre.
An advocate for cycling and other forms of clean active transportation, de Tourdonnet's writings include a chapter in On Bicycles, 50 ways the New Bike Culture Can Change Your Life and articles for Momentum Magazine. He helped upgrade the surface of The Millennium Trail, having moved to Prince Edward County, Ontario with his partner, Beth Easton, in 2016.
There are no productions for this artist in the Season Schedule of Performances which currently only dates back to 1991.
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Artist Information
All information is derived from OPERA America's Season Schedule of Performances and titles databases which date back to 1991. OPERA America is constantly updating this data. If you feel that a work or an artist has been omitted or that information is incorrect, please use the linked forms below. Title Information Form Artist Information Form
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