NORTH RUSTICO, P.E.I. - Watermark Theatre has announced that Charlotte Gowdy will direct “Crimes of the Heart” by Beth Henley in its 2019 summer season.
Born and raised on P.E.I., Gowdy has been performing, directing and teaching at theatres across Canada and internationally for the past 20 years.
Having grown up here, she caught the performance bug early as a dancer at Dance Umbrella in Charlottetown and playing violin for the Singing Strings.
“I am absolutely thrilled to be back home again this summer, in the land that makes my heart sing,” said Gowdy.
She is a graduate of the National Theatre School of Canada’s acting program and the Stratford Festival’s directing program, as well as trained extensively as a performer at Ecole Philippe Gaulier in Paris, France.
Her work includes multiple seasons at the Stratford Festival and Shaw Festival, shows at Canadian Stage, National Arts Centre, Manitoba Theatre Centre, Thousand Islands Playhouse, Tarragon Theatre, Factory Theatre, The Grand Theatre, St. Lawrence Shakespeare Festival, Neptune Theatre and the Blyth Festival, among many others.
Gowdy is an artistic adviser for the National Arts Centre, English Theatre, as well as an associate artist and core member of Troubadour Theatre Collective in London. She also spent two years as the associate artistic director of the Thousand Islands Playhouse where she led the TIP Young Company on two, provincewide touring shows.
She is a professor of acting in the music theatre department at Sheridan College and a professor of clown for the theatre conservatory at Fanshawe College. In addiitopn, she is a guest instructor at schools across the globe, including Queen’s University (Kingston), Wheaton College (Boston), Holland College’s SOPA program, UPEI and at Unversidad Andres Bello (Santiago, Chile).
Last summer Gowdy had the great pleasure of directing “Myth of the Ostrich” for Victoria Playhouse, which received rave reviews and much success at the box office.
Plot at a glance
What: Warmhearted, irreverent, zany and brilliantly imaginative, “Crimes of the Heart” teems with humanity and humour as it examines the plight of three young Mississippi sisters betrayed by their passions.
Characters: The play brings you into the Mississippi household of the Magrath sisters. Babe has just shot her husband because she didn’t like his looks. Meg is back in town after a failed attempt in the music business and a nervous breakdown. And poor Lenny – everyone has forgotten her 30th birthday…plus, her pet horse was just struck by lightning! Bad luck certainly runs deep among the Magrath clan. But with warmhearted laughs and touching family moments, the sisters forgive the past, face the present, and embrace the future in this contemporary American stage classic.
Awards: Winner of the Pulitzer Prize and the New York Drama Critics Circle Award,
