Evelyn Garbary fonds

Esther Evelyn Sara Owen Bowen was born in Cardigan, Wales, on 18 June 1911. For most of her life, she went by Evelyn Garbary. She married Robert Speaight in the early 1930s, and they had a son, Patrick. She and Speaight separated in the late 1930s. In February of 1939, Evelyn married Michael O’Donovan, an Irish poet and writer who wrote under the pseudonym of Frank O’Connor. They divorced in 1953. They had three children, Myles, Liadain , and Owen. Evelyn married Michael Garbary in 1956, and they had two children, Richard and David. She died on 4 November 1994, in Wolfville, Nova Scotia.
Evelyn lived in Wales until 1928, and in London from 1928-1932. She came back to Wales until 1936. From 1936-1956 she lived in Ireland, in the Republic of Eire. From 1956 onward, she lived in Canada, in Montreal and Toronto, finally settling in Nova Scotia.
Evelyn attended St. Winifred’s School for Girls in 1925, in Llanfairfechan, North Wales. She also attended the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art from 1928-1929. Later in 1976 she attended the Leningrad Theater School for advanced study. Evelyn received an Honourary Doctor of Letters from Acadia University, in 1979.
In the years Evelyn lived in London, 1929-1930, she performed and toured with the Old Vic Shakespearean Company. Evelyn founded the Welsh National Theatre Company, and was the director from 1933-1936. Evelyn wrote and performed on CBC Radio in the early 1960s. In 1967 she started working as the Director of Drama at Acadia University. Evelyn was the artistic director for the Inglewood Players in 1967, a Nova Scotian black theatre company. In the 1960s she began coaching Tessie Gillis with her writing. Through the 1960s and 1970s, Evelyn developed a close friendship with Ernest Buckler, and they collaborated on various plays, and wrote to each other often. In 1972, she co-founded Mermaid Theatre with Sara Lee Lewis and Tom Miller. She retired from Acadia in 1976, to pursue working with Mermaid Theatre as the artistic director. While working with Mermaid Theatre, Evelyn wrote several plays based on Mi’kmaq legends, as found in Silas Rand’s work. She started working on memoirs and reflections in the 1980s, and continued to write, and remain involved with theatre and arts until her death in 1994.