Sharon Pollock

1936-2021

Sharon Mary (Chalmers) Pollock is a playwright, actor, director, literary critic, and cultural activist. She was born in Fredericton, New Brunswick, on 19 April 1936. She graduated from King’s Hall School for Girls in the Eastern Townships of Québec in 1954 and began studying at the University of New Brunswick. She dropped out in 1955 when she married Ross Pollock, a forestry student, and the couple moved to Toronto. Pollock left the marriage in 1964 and moved back to Fredericton. Pollock began her theatre career as an actress. In 1966, she moved to Calgary, Alberta, and that same year she won the Best Actress Award at the Dominion Drama Festival for her role in Ann Jellicoe’s The Knack. One of her first plays, A Compulsory Option (unpublished), won the Alberta Culture Playwriting Competition in 1972 and was produced the following year by the Vancouver New Play Centre. Commissioned by the Vancouver Playhouse Theatre-in-Education programme in 1974, Pollock wrote nine plays for children, including Star Child, The Happy Prince, and The Rose and the Nightingale, none of which were published. She also wrote many other plays, including Wreck of the National Line (Calgary: Alberta Theatre Projects, 1977), Prairie Dragons (Calgary: Quest Theatre, 1987) and One Tiger to a Hill (Edmonton: Citadel Theatre, 1981). After serving as a visiting lecturer at the University of Alberta in Edmonton from 1976-1977, Pollock moved to Calgary, where she filled the position of Playwright-in-Residence with Alberta Theatre Projects (1977-1979). During this time, she spent her summers as head of the Playwrights Colony at the Banff School of Fine Arts (1977-1980). Soon after, Pollock was chosen as the Artist-in-Residence for the National Arts Centre in Ottawa (1980-1982). Her play Blood Relations (Edmonton: Theatre Three, 1980) won Pollock a Governor General’s Literary Award for Drama in 1981. Whiskey Six Cadenza (Theatre Calgary, 1983) was a finalist for the 1983 Governor General’s Literary Award. After serving as a dramaturge and assistant artistic director for Theatre Calgary from 1982-1983, its directors commissioned Pollock to write Doc (1984) which won Pollock her second Governor General’s Literary Award for Drama (1986). After a brief stint as artistic director of the Manitoba Theatre Centre in 1988, she moved back to New Brunswick to take on the role of artistic director at Theatre New Brunswick for two years. She resigned in 1990 and returned to Calgary. Apart from her published plays, Pollock has written dozens of radio and television plays for CBC, has directed well over twenty stage plays across Canada, and has continued to act, even in several of her own plays, including Getting It Straight (Winnipeg: International Women’s Festival, 1988) and Moving Pictures (Edmonton: Timms Centre for the Arts, 2004). She has received numerous awards in addition to her Governor General’s awards and nomination, including an ACTRA Nellie Award for National Radio Drama (Sweet Land of Liberty, 1979), a Golden Sheaf Television Award (The Person’s Case, 1981), an Alberta Achievement Award (1983), a Chalmers Canadian Play Award (Doc, 1984), a Canadian-Australian Literary Award (1987), a Japan Foundation Award (1995), and the Harry and Martha Cohen Award for sustained and significant contribution to Calgary theatre (1999). Pollock has also received honorary degrees from the University of New Brunswick (1987), Queen’s University (1989), the University of Calgary (2004), and the University of Alberta (2005). Pollock co-founded Calgary’s Garry Theatre (1992-1997). Pollock was elected president of the Alberta Playwrights Network (1998) and went on to become the organization’s playwright-in-residence and the director of the Playwright’s Lab (2006).

Predominant New Brunswick Residences:

Fredericton

Archival Material

• Sharon Pollock fonds
  ⌄
  Location

  University of Calgary Archives & Special Collections

  Website/Catalogue Record

  View Archival Record

  Retrieval Number

  F0009

  Date Range of Material

  ca. 1965-2011

  Extent

  2.6 m of textual records, 6 sound recordings, 3 videocassettes, 12 photographs.

  Scope and Content Note

  Fonds consists of the following series for MsC 54: correspondence ([19--], 1965-1984); manuscript ([19--], 1971-1984); audio ([19--], 1971-1981); works by other authors (1976-1984); and miscellaneous ([19--], ca. 1965-1984). MsC 295 consists of holograph thank-you to Dorothy Jones from S. Pollock; three typescript (photocopy) letters to Bill Millerd, Vancouver Arts Club, from S. Pollock; two production photographs of S. Pollock in Douglas College production of Lysistrata; and one production photograph of S. Pollock in Douglas College production of her own play, My name is Lisbeth. MsC 320 consists of compact disk recording of Canadian Broadcasting Corporation production of radio play Constance Kent by S. Pollock with S. Pollock in the title role, 1990. MsC 326 consists of letter from S. Pollock to members of Playwrights Union of Canada regarding contracts. MsC 331 consists of letter (June 23, 2001) from S. Pollock to James DeFelice. Filed with MsC 54.2.3. Acc 890/12.7 consists of correspondence; research material and manuscripts of stage plays, articles and speeches; collaborative projects including a scenario for a ballet; contracts; royalty statements; publicity materials; playbills; programmes and reviews; works about S. Pollack including biographical material; Interviews and newsclippings; and 3 videocassettes of various play productions.