Evelyn Bowen

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Evelyn Bowen
Born
Esther Evelyn Sara Owen Bowen

18 June 1911
Cardigan, Wales
Died1994
Wolfville, Nova Scotia, Canada
Other namesEvelyn Speaight; Evelyn OʹDonovan; Evelyn Garbary

Evelyn Bowen (18 June 1911 – 1994), was a Welsh actress and writer.

Biography[]

Esther Evelyn Sara Owen Bowen was born on 18 June 1911 in Cardigan, Wales to Evan Owen Bowen, a doctor and Elizabeth Evans. Her father died when she was three and her mother remarried Owen Davies. Her mother's father was mayor of Cardigan. The Evans family spoke Welsh at home. The Bowen's spoke English. Davies moved the family to Carnarvon in North Wales. Bowen was educated in St. Winifred’s School for Girls in Llanfairfechan before going to the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art until 1929. When in London, Bowen worked for the Old Vic Shakespearean Company.[1][2][3][4]

Later she was the founder of the Welsh National Theatre Company and was its director from 1933 to 1936.[3][4]

In 1956, Bowen migrated to Canada. In 1967 she was Director of Drama at Acadia University and artistic director of the Inglewood Players.[1][5][2][4][3]

Bowen was a writer as well as an actress. She wrote plays with Ernest Buckler, wrote for radio and coached Tessie Gillis. She wrote plays based on Mi’kmaq legends. In 1976 Bowen studied at the Leningrad Theater School. In 1979 she was awarded the honorary degree of Doctor of Letters by Acadia University. In the 1980s she wrote her memoirs. Bowen stayed involved in theatre and writing until she died in 1994.[1][2][3][4]

Personal life[]

Bowen lived in Wales until 1928 when she moved to live in London from 1928 to 1932. When she was twenty three she made her debut at court.

She married Robert Speaight at the start of the 1930s and were divorced before the end of the 1930s.[6] The couple had one son. Bowen married Frank O’Connor, an Irish poet and writer, whose real name was Michael O’Donovan, in February 1939 and lived in Ireland with him.[7][8] The couple had three children and divorced in 1953. Bowen went on to marry Michael Garbary in 1956 and moved to Canada. From then on she was known as Evelyn Garbary. The Garbarys had two children.

Bowen died in Wolfville, Nova Scotia on 4 November 1994.[1][2]

Notes[]

  1. ^ a b c d "Evelyn Garbary fonds - MemoryNS". memoryns.ca.
  2. ^ a b c d Cameron, Elspeth; Dickin, Janice (January 1997). Great Dames. University of Toronto Press. ISBN 978-0-8020-7215-3.
  3. ^ a b c d Welch, Robert (2003). The Abbey Theatre, 1899-1999: Form and Pressure. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-926135-2.
  4. ^ a b c d Rothkirch, Alyce von (15 June 2014). J.O. Francis, Realist Drama and Ethics: Culture, Place and Nation. University of Wales Press. ISBN 978-1-78316-071-6.
  5. ^ Cameron, Elspeth; Dickin, Janice, eds. (1997). Great Dames. University of Toronto Press. doi:10.3138/9781442675506. ISBN 9781442675506. JSTOR 10.3138/9781442675506.
  6. ^ "The Straits Times, 17 February 1935, Page 24". eresources.nlb.gov.sg.
  7. ^ "Perfectly Frank". independent.
  8. ^ "Writers on the highways". Irish Examiner. 10 November 2011.
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