Cynthia Grant is a Canadian theatre director. Grant was a founding member of

Nightwood Theatre Nightwood Theatre is Canada's oldest professional women's theatre and is based in Toronto. It was founded in 1979 by Cynthia Grant, Kim Renders, Mary Vingoe, and Maureen White and was originally a collective. Though it was not the founders' o ...

and served as the company's first

artistic director An artistic director is the executive of an arts organization, particularly in a theatre company or dance company, who handles the organization's artistic direction. They are generally a producer and director, but not in the sense of a mogu ...

. Grant later co-founded Company of Sirens.

Career

Grant, along with co-founders Kim Renders,

Mary Vingoe Mary Vingoe is a Canadian playwright, actress, and theatre director. Vingoe was one of the co-founders of Canadian feminist theatre company Nightwood Theatre and later co-founded Ship's Company Theatre in Parrsboro and Eastern Front Theatre in ...

and

Maureen White Patricia Maureen White, more commonly known as Maureen White, is a specialist in international humanitarian affairs and a fundraiser for the American Democratic Party. She is a senior fellow at the Foreign Policy Institute at Johns Hopkins Schoo ...

, started

in 1979. Though Nightwood began as a collective, Grant served as its founding artistic director. It is unclear at what point Grant officially assumed the title. At Nightwood, Grant occasionally acted in shows such as

Peter Handke Peter Handke (; born 6 December 1942) is an Austrians, Austrian novelist, playwright, translator, poet, film director, and screenwriter. He was awarded the 2019 Nobel Prize in Literature "for an influential work that with linguistic ingenuity has ...

's ''Self-Accusation'' (1980) and

Ann-Marie MacDonald Ann-Marie MacDonald (born October 29, 1958) is a Canadian playwright, author, actress, and broadcast host who lives in Toronto, Ontario. Life and career MacDonald is the daughter of a member of Canada's military; she was born at an air force ...

's ''Nancy Drew'' ''(Goes in Search of Her Missing Mother)'' (1984). Grant directed many shows at Nightwood including ''The True Story of Ida Johnson'' (1979), Mary Vingoe's ''Ten Seconds After Closing'' (1980), ''The Yellow Wallpaper'' (1981), ''Flashbacks of Tomorrow'' (1981), ''Mass/Age'' (1982), ''Antigone'' (1983), Brian Metcalfe's ''Pink Flies!'' (1984), ''Love and Work Enough'' (1984, with Mary Vingoe),

Baņuta Rubess Baņuta Rubess (born 1956) is a Latvian-Canadian theatre director and playwright. She co-wrote ''This is For You, Anna'' as a member of the Anna Project. Rubess was a co-recipient of the 1988 Floyd S. Chalmers Canadian Play Award for children's ...

' ''Pope Joan'' (1984),

Amanda Hale Amanda Hale (born 2 October 1982) is an English actress. Early life Hale is one of four children born to Irish immigrant parents in northwest London. Her cousin is scientist Martin Glennie. She had been due to go to University of Oxford to s ...

's ''The Medical Show'' (1984), and

Jovette Marchessault Jovette Marchessault () (February 9, 1938 – December 31, 2012)

's ''The Edge of the Earth is Too Near, Violette LeDuc'' (1985). She left Nightwood Theatre in 1985. Around the time of Nightwood's founding, Grant was on the board that founded The Theatre Centre in Toronto. Grant wrote, performed, and directed ''Psycho Nuclear Breakdown'' at the spring 1980 Rhubarb! Festival. In 1986, Grant co-founded Company of Sirens with Lina Chartrand,

Aida Jordão Aida Jordão is a Portuguese-Canadian playwright, theatre director, and academic. She is a co-founder of the feminist theatre group, Company of Sirens, and she co-created '' This is For You, Anna'', a germinal Canadian feminist theatre play. ...

, Catherine Glen,

Lib Spry Lib Spry is a Canadian director, playwright, and academic. She is a co-founder of Company of Sirens and Straight Stitching Productions and served as the artistic director of Passionate Balance. Career In 1986, Spry co-founded the feminist the ...

, and Shawna Dempsey. Company of Sirens was founded as a feminist theatre company with a focus on developing productions to inspire social change. In 1991, Company of Sirens produced ''Djuna: What Of The Night'', a piece co-created and performed by Grant and Svetlana Zylin and inspired by the life and works of

Djuna Barnes Djuna Barnes ( ; June 12, 1892 – June 18, 1982) was an American artist, illustrator, journalist, and writer who is perhaps best known for her novel '' Nightwood'' (1936), a cult classic of lesbian fiction and an important work of modernist lite ...

. From 2003 to 2005, Grant was a faculty member of

McMaster University McMaster University (McMaster or Mac) is a public research university in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. The main McMaster campus is on of land near the residential neighbourhoods of Ainslie Wood, Ontario, Ainslie Wood and Westdale, Ontario, Westd ...

's School of the Arts. While working at McMaster, Grant directed several shows including ''The Destruction of Eve'' by Svetlana Zylin in 2004.

Plays

* ''Peace Banquet: Ancient Greece Meets the Atomic Age'' - co-written with Micah Barnes,

Sky Gilbert Schuyler Lee (Sky) Gilbert Jr. (born December 20, 1952) is a Canadian writer, actor, academic and drag performer. Born in Norwich, Connecticut, he studied theatre at York University in Toronto, Ontario, and at the University of Toronto, before b ...

, Dean Gilmour, Charis Polatos, Kim Renders, Judith Rudakoff, Philip Shepherd, and Maureen White * ''Psycho Nuclear Breakdown'' * ''Djuna: What Of The Night'' - co-created with Svetlana Zylin

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Grant, Cynthia Canadian theatre directors Canadian women theatre directors Canadian artistic directors Date of birth missing (living people) Living people Academic staff of McMaster University Feminist theatre Year of birth missing (living people)