Pollock, Sharon (1936-2021), was a Canadian playwright who wrote for the stage, radio, and television. She won Governor General’s Literary Awards for two plays. She won the award in 1981 for Blood Relations (1980) and again in 1986 for Doc (1984). The Governor General’s Literary Awards are the highest national prizes given to Canadian authors. Pollock was also a director and an actress.
Pollock wrote historical and political dramas and works that deal with family relationships. Blood Relations is a psychological study of Lizzie Borden, a Massachusetts woman accused of murdering her father and stepmother in 1892. The play was a revision of an earlier Pollock drama, My Name Is Lisbeth (1976), in which she played the role of Lizzie Borden. Doc is an autobiographical play about the conflict between a writer and her father, a noted physician. Saucy Jack (1993) is a play inspired by the Jack the Ripper murders in London in 1888.
Pollock wrote three plays about the tragic lives of actual women. They are Moving Pictures (1999), about the Canadian silent film actress Nell Shipman; End Dream (2000), about the violent death of Jenny Smith, a young Scottish nanny (children’s nurse); and Angel’s Trumpet (2001), about Zelda Fitzgerald, the wife of the American writer F. Scott Fitzgerald.
Pollock was born on April 19, 1936, in Fredericton, New Brunswick. Her original name was Mary Sharon Chalmers. She attended the University of New Brunswick, but left before earning a degree. She married Ross Pollock, an insurance broker, in 1955. She spent much of her career as a playwright, actress, and director in Calgary, Alberta. In 2012, she was appointed as an Officer of the Order of Canada for her contributions to the arts and writing. Appointment to the order is one of Canada’s highest civilian honors. Pollock died on April 22, 2021.
