Career
He is known for large-scale historical musicals, as well as intimate, cabaret-style musicals. He frequently also serves as stage director De Tourdonnet"s current historical project is The Musical McCoy, adapted from Andrew Moodie"s award-winning hit play The Real McCoy, based on the life of Elijah McCoy, the 19th-century African-Canadian inventor who helped revolutionize the steam engine.
De Tourdonnet’s epic musical Pélagie, co-written with Allen Cole, premiered at CanStage in Toronto and The National Arts Centre in Ottawa, and de Tourdonnet directed an Eastern Canada touring production of Pélagie, produced by Two Planks and a Passion with a bilingual cast alternating performances in French and English.
His first production of Snappy Tales, Short Satirical Musicals, (book, lyrics & direction) at the Factory Theatre in Toronto, was nominated for 7 Dora Mavor Moore Awards. De Tourdonnet’s largest musical to date was the Joan of Arc musical, Jeanne.
Initially, he and composer Peter Sipos developed the work at the BMI Lehman Engel Musical Theater Workshop in New New York lieutenant premiered to strong critical acclaim in 1995 in Montreal at the Saidye Bronfman Theatre, (co-directed by de Tourdonnet) and then went on to large-scale, $4.5 million production at the Place des Arts and Louisiana Capitole in Quebec City in 1997, and was seen by over 100,000 people.
lieutenant was directed by Martin Charnin, and the French translation was created by Antonine Maillet.
Book & lyrics for other shows go back to 1985, including Strange Medicine and The Good Person for the Caravan Farm Theatre in British Columbia, and adaptations of The Threepenny Opera with APA in Montreal and for Touchstone Theatre in Vancouver. While living in New York City, de Tourdonnet taught musical theatre writing at Long Island University. Currently he resides in Toronto.
An environmentalist, de Tourdonnet also advocates for cycling as transportation.
He contributes to Momentum Magazine and has written a chapter on the recumbent bicycle for the book On Bicycles: 50 Ways the New Bike Culture Can Change Your Life. Vincent is Vice Chair of the board of directors of Transportation Options, and is active in Cycle Toronto.
In 2013 he completed a program of meditation teacher training with Samagrapath.com.
