Eileen J. Wilson, the English-born actress and playwright who cofounded the Vineyard Playhouse 28 years ago and saw it through a series of painful financial struggles, all the while unwavering in her vision for a professional community theatre populated by a mix of Equity actors and Vineyard amateurs, died on May 24. She was 81.

The playhouse opened in the summer of 1982 in the same building where it is now housed today on Church street in Vineyard Haven, under the direction of Mrs. Wilson and her partner Isabella McKamy; both women had been summer residents of the Island since the 1960s. The first play was a production of Oscar Wilde’s classic comedy The Importance of Being Earnest.

“I’ve always loved the Vineyard, and always thought how wonderful it would be to combine the two things of the theatre and the Vineyard. And it is an enormous amount of work, but it is satisfying. I find it very satisfying,” she told the Gazette in a 1989 interview.

Born and raised in England, she spent most of her adult family life in the United States, living in Texas, Connecticut and West Tisbury.

She grew up in the north of England, in Gosforth, a suburb of Newcastle, as the youngest of three children. Her school years were marked by World War II, in which her brother served and her father was a member of the Home Guard. Eileen was head girl at her public school in Gosforth, an honor she earned for being so talented in so many areas, including academics, arts and athletics. She attended Durham University, where she received a bachelor of commerce, majoring in economics at her father’s urging, despite an extremely strong creative bent. She then made her first trip to the U.S., working as an au pair in Virginia and Texas, before returning to England where she worked for several years for the BBC in London.

During her teen years, Eileen began to be involved in little theatre, the English term for community theatre. She met her husband, Robin, while doing amateur theatricals in London. They were married in Nassau, in the Bahamas in 1958, where they both participated in local theatre. They immigrated to the U.S. in 1963 to live in Westport, Conn., with their three young children.

In Westport, Eileen became involved in community theatre, where she had multiple roles. The theatre group at that time had no permanent home, and she was instrumental in convincing the town to convert part of a closed elementary school into a community arts center. With her friend Ed Spires, and the collaboration of the Westport Arts Council, they designed a flexible use space that included a 150-seat black box theatre that could be converted into gallery space for visual arts. The theatre space has been in continuous use since its design in 1978.

On the Vineyard, in partnership with Isabella McKamy Blake, Eileen bought and converted the former Masonic Lodge on Church street into the Vineyard Playhouse in the early 1980s. Here too, she designed the upstairs space as a black box theatre with flexible staging options and the downstairs as an art gallery and reception area.

The theatre opened for its first summer season on July 2, 1982. The shows staged that summer were an eclectic dramatic mix that would set the marquees for the playhouse of the future; in addition to the Wilde play, in July there was a one-man show based on George Bernard Shaw called My Astonishing Self, performed as a benefit by Broadway actor Donal Donelly. August brought a production of Jules Feiffer’s comedy Knock Knock, followed by the musical Godspell performed by the Connecticut Theatre Acting Company, and concluding with an original cabaret written and directed by Ms. McKamy titled Billie and Steve. Mrs. Wilson and her partner called in all their chips as they toiled to launch the playhouse of their dreams.

“We can do most anything,” she told the Gazette in an interview at the outset of the third summer season for the playhouse.

“Efforts don’t count. When people come to sit in that seat, they don’t care about what went into it,” added her partner Ms. McKamy. “It’s magic out here. We enter this room to feel. I think it’s the same reason we come to Martha’s Vineyard, to be natural, to be ourselves. With theatre, it’s the same.”

Three years later the partnership between Mrs. Wilson and Ms. McKamy foundered when the playhouse suddenly found itself facing foreclosure and a sale of the building at public auction. A fund-raising campaign to help pay down a $48,000 mortgage on the building (purchased from the Masons for $80,000) had fallen far short. On top of that the 1833 building, originally built as a Methodist meeting house, needed a restoration overhaul with an estimated price tag of $350,000. The outlook was bleak. “Mrs. Wilson said her business partner is no longer committed to the playhouse,” the Gazette reported.

Literally at the eleventh hour, the playhouse was saved, and in the process the business relationship between the two women was dissolved. “We’ve got to rehang the lights,” an upbeat Mrs. Wilson told the Gazette in October of 1988.

Mrs. Wilson remained as artistic director of the playhouse until 1994, when she turned the role over to M.J. Munafo, who remains as artistic director today.

In 1997 she resigned from the board, charging that Ms. Munafo had mismanaged playhouse finances by living too richly, producing expensive plays such as August Wilson’s Fences, which today is enjoying a critically acclaimed revival on Broadway.

But the dust-up was short-lived, and Mrs. Wilson’s legacy endures today at the playhouse, where her vision and dream have become a reality in a year-round theatre that includes Actors’ Equity summer stock, community and children’s theatre. Mrs. Wilson assisted in introducing Shakespeare to the Tisbury Amphitheatre, now a summer staple of the theatre scene. And countless young actors and theatre professionals got their start at the Vineyard Playhouse under her mentorship and guidance.

With her friends Mary Joy Stewart-Bergstrom and Lee Fierro, she helped develop a permanent collection of plays at the Vineyard Haven Public Library in honor of Lillian Hellman, as a local memorial for Ms. Hellman, one of the greatest American playwrights, who lived on the Island.

In addition to her community work, Mrs. Wilson was assistant director for the Off-Broadway premiere of David Mamet’s A Life in the Theatre. She wrote three plays: two mysteries, Dead on Cue and The Color of Murder; and one drama, ’Til the Boys Come Home, based upon her family history in Scotland during World War I. She also wrote a children’s musical, Christmas for Jenny, and one musical, She’s Our Man, based upon the life of Victoria Woodhull. All of her plays and musicals have been produced either professionally or in University Theatre. Additionally she authored a book, The Dogs of Summer, about canines in her West Tisbury neighborhood. She was a member of the Actors’ Equity Association, the Screen Actors’ Guild, and the Dramatists Guild.

She is survived by her brother and sister, Gordon and Margaret, both still living in England; her three children, Toby, Sarah and Adam Wilson and his wife Lynn; two grandchildren, Aaron and Eva; and many loving friends and associates.

A memorial celebration of her life is planned for Sept. 25 at the Vineyard Playhouse.