2-time Governor-General Award-winning Calgary playwright Sharon Pollock dead at 85

Calgary playwright Sharon Pollock died April 22, 2021. (Credit Twitter)

CALGARY — Calgary playwright Sharon Pollock, who twice won the Governor-General Award for Drama, died Thursday night at the age of 85.

Theatre Calgary, where Pollock was once the artistic director and the theatre that produced her final play, Blow Wind High Water, a drama about the Calgary flood, paid tribute to Pollock on Twitter Friday night.

"Theatre in Calgary, and Canada, has lost a giant," they tweeted. "Tonight we mourn the passing of renown playwright and former TC Artistic Director Sharon Pollock. She was a fierce, bold and groundbreaking artist whose work helped shape the Canadian landscape. Our love to her family."

Mayor Nenshi, a prolific theatre-goer, weighed in as well Friday, saying, "Very saddened to hear of the passing of Sharon Pollock, one of the most important voices in Canadian theatre. She told us our stories in new ways and forced us to look at ourselves differently. What a legacy. Much love to her family, friends, and the innumerable people she changed."

Pollock won the Governor-General Award for her 1981 drama Blood Relations and then again in 1984 for Doc.

She was also one of founding figures of Calgary's professional theatre scene in the early 1960's, when the city's theatre community consisted of passionate amateurs and touring productions.

Pollock, along with the late John Murrell, were the two Calgary playwrights whose plays were produced nationally in the 1970's and 1980's, and both stayed in the city, helping to grow its theatre scene and mentor young artists.

She was named to the Order of Canada in 2012.