Celebrating Women's History Month!
March is Women’s History Month and as it draws to a close, we want to acknowledge two women who have left an impact on the Calgary theatre community as well as our company.
Joyce Doolittle
“An icon of Calgary’s theatre.”
Born in 1928, Joyce moved to Calgary in 1960 with her husband, composer Quentin Doolittle. There were no professional theatres in Calgary when she arrived, so she joined the Allied Arts Centre and taught(?) drama to teenagers. In 1963 she initiated a children’s theatre. She also directed plays for the Musicians and Actors Club, the precursor to Theatre Calgary.
She began teaching acting and drama for the University of Calgary’s Continuing Education department in 1964, and later, for their newly formed Drama Department until her retirement in 1988. She was instrumental in the creation of Pumphouse Theatre in an old, abandoned pumping station by the Bow River. In 1984, the smaller of the two theatres was named in her Honour.
She was the first Canadian member of the International Association of Theatre for Children and Youth (ASSITEJ), where she eventually became the honorary president of the Canadian chapter. She specialized in youth theatre and co-authored a book entitled “A Mirror of Our Dreams: Children and the Theatre in Canada” in 1979.
Among numerous other awards, she received the Order of Canada in 2018 for pioneering the advancement of theatre in Calgary.
Sharon Pollock
Born in 1936, she studied at the University of Brunswick but left prior to graduating in 1954 to get married. In the early 1960’s, she returned to Fredericton with her five children and worked at the Playhouse. In 1966 she moved to Calgary and toured with the Prairie Players. In that same year she won the award for best actor for her performance in The Knack in the Dominion Drama Festival directed by Joyce Doolittle (small world).
She began to write plays in 1971, winning the Alberta Playwrighting Competition for her first work, A Compulsory Option. Since then, she has written many plays, one for us at Quest! Her play, Prairie Dragons, was written for and performed at Quest in 1988.
Her work has been produced across Canada and abroad and has won many awards including the Governor General’s Award for Blood Relations and Doc. She has been awarded 4 honorary doctorates and in 2012 she was admitted as Companion to the Order of Canada for her lifetime achievement in theatre.
Prairie Dragon by Sharron Pollock 1988, (l to r) Jan Derbyshire, Andy Curtis, Chris Youngren and Marianne Moroney, directed by Duval Lang, designed by Linda Leon.
As we celebrate these Women in History, we are always looking for women to watch. Stay tuned for our next post featuring a rising female star in the Canadian Theatre scene.
Also let us know what woman in theatre has inspired or made an impact on you!
written by Lizzie Rajchel