Article

Johnson, Audrey St Denys

Published Online January 7, 2013

Last Edited December 12, 2013

Audrey St Denys Johnson (born Wood). Music and drama critic and columnist, poet, director, born Toronto 21 Dec 1915, died Victoria 12 Aug 1993; piano teachers' LRSM 1932. Her family moved to Victoria, BC, in 1920, and there she studied piano (with Stanley Shale), singing, and violin.

Johnson, Audrey St Denys

Audrey St Denys Johnson (born Wood). Music and drama critic and columnist, poet, director, born Toronto 21 Dec 1915, died Victoria 12 Aug 1993; piano teachers' LRSM 1932. Her family moved to Victoria, BC, in 1920, and there she studied piano (with Stanley Shale), singing, and violin. In 1944 she joined the Victoria Daily Times as a columnist, and in 1956 she became a full-time member of staff. In the 1940s and 1950s she was closely associated with the Victoria Little Theatre (now Langham Court Theatre). She contributed to the Christian Science Monitor, Opera Canada, and Weekend Magazine. In 1959 she directed Johann Strauss' operetta Die Fledermaus for the Victoria Operatic Society and a performance in Christ Church Cathedral, Victoria, of Menotti's Amahl and the Night Visitors. In 1987 she retired from the Victoria Times-Colonist as the senior performing arts critic.

Suggested Reading

Funke, Betty Gordon, "Audrey St. Denys Johnson: she fought Victoria's culturally dead," Tweed Curtain Pioneers (2004)