Vincent J. Cardinal is an accomplished director, writer, producer, and acting coach.
Cardinal served as the Artistic Director of Connecticut Repertory Theatre, where he was recognized as one of the top five directors in the state by CBS-WFSB Connecticut. He was also an Associate Artist with the Circle Repertory Company off-Broadway and Director of the Circle Rep School of Theatre.
Cardinal holds a degree in Playwriting from the Yale School of Drama, where he was honored with the ASCAP-Cole Porter Award for Best-Collected Work. His plays have been produced and performed internationally, including his play The Colorado Catechism, which premiered at Circle Repertory Company and later went on to win Drama-Logue awards for Timothy Daly and Amy Van Nostrand in the Los Angeles production. Cardinal also directed the premiere of his play King Dusyanta: A Tale from Kalidasa, starring Tony Award winner André DeShields, at the Oasis Theater Company.
Throughout his career, Cardinal has directed over 90 productions across the country, including King Lear starring Anthony Heald and The Comedy of Errors by William Shakespeare, The Foreigner by Larry Shue, and Every Brilliant Thing by Duncan Macmillan with Jonny Donahue at the Tony Award-winning Utah Shakespeare Festival. His production of Every Brilliant Thing was recognized as "Production of the Decade" by Broadway World.
He has also directed numerous other productions and notable actors, such as Terrence Mann in My Fair Lady and Man of La Mancha, Pat Sajak in The Odd Couple and The Drowsy Chaperone, Steve Hayes in A Funny Thing Happened..., Jerry Adler and Richard Kline in The Sunshine Boys, and Leslie Uggams in Gypsy.
In addition to his work as a director, Cardinal is a successful producer, having led over 150 productions, including Les Miserables with Terrence Mann and Ariana DeBose, Spamalot with Richard Kline, and The Music Man with Barret Foa and Courtney Balan. He has also served as the director of The Curious Case of Phineas Gage with the Split Knuckle Theatre Company, which has been produced at various venues, including the New York International Fringe Festival.
Cardinal is currently a professor in the School of Music, Theatre, and Dance at the University of Michigan, where he previously served as the Arthur and Martha Hearron endowed professor of musical theatre and chairman of the Department of Musical Theatre. He has also held positions as the Chair of the Department of Dramatic Arts at the University of Connecticut, the Associate Dean of Performing Arts at Adelphi University, the Chair of Theatre at the University of Miami, and the Artistic Director of the Jerry Herman Ring Theatre. Additionally, he served as the Director of the School of Theater and Head of the MFA Playwriting Program at Ohio University.
Outside of his professional work, Cardinal serves on the Board of Directors for the Encore Musical Theatre Company in Dexter, Michigan, where he recently directed Fun Home and The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee and will direct Bat Boy: The Musical and The Importance of Being Earnest in the coming season.
(Cardinal) is reinvigorating CRT, which could quickly become a true contender in Connecticut's lively regional theater scene.
Cardinal's national reputation as a theater artist of talent and high standards and as an esteemed educator are clearly attractive to veteran and up-and-coming performers and creative collaborators.
…he (Cardinal) has struck a theatrical trifecta, drawing on big-name artists, early and mid-career professionals and recent graduates from theater programs around the nation. The cast sings, acts and moves as a cohesive ensemble and has a great time, winning the audience from the start.
- The Hartford Courant
