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Lance Woolaver

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Name
  
Lance Woolaver

Role
  
Author

Movies
  
The Outlaw League


Lance Woolaver wwwgaspereaucomimageswoolaverbjpg

Education
  
University of Paris, Acadia University, Dalhousie University

People also search for
  
Bob Brooks, Jean Beaudry, Andre Melancon

Books
  
Brindley Town, Christmas with the Rural Mai, Christmas with Maud Lewis, Maud's country, Change of Tide

Maud Lewis The Heart on the Door video



Lance Gerard Woolaver (born 1948) is an award-winning Canadian author, poet, playwright, lyricist, and director. His works include Maud Lewis The Heart on the Door, Maud Lewis - World Without Shadows, and Portia White - First You Dream.

Contents

Biography

Woolaver was born in Digby County, Nova Scotia, in 1948. He attended Acadia and Dalhousie universities and the Sorbonne. Woolaver's first stories were published in the 1970s in Canadian literary magazines, including the Wascana Review and The Fiddlehead.

As a child, Woolaver had seen Maud and Everett Lewis, and their tiny painted house. He noticed tourists stopping to buy paintings, but kept his distance from the local characters. However, what he had seen inspired him to pitch an article on Maud Lewis to Chatelaine. The article was accepted on the condition that Woolaver co-write the article with a female author. He wrote with his mother, and the resulting article, The Joyful Art of Maud Lewis, published in December 1975, was purchased for $700, a sum he considered "a fortune" at the time, and that allowed and encouraged him to devote time to writing.

Woolaver lives in Halifax with his wife, Martha (Spencer) of Saskatoon. They married in 1967, have two children, and two grandchildren. Woolaver enjoys flyfishing in the Canadian Rockies, and on the Margaree River in Cape Breton Island.

Literary Career

Woolaver has written and contributed to many books, plays and films, including, with the photographer Bob Brooks, the book and documentary film The Illuminated Life of Maud Lewis. That film and book have won numerous awards, including, with Brooks, the Dartmouth Book Award and the Atlantic Booksellers Award. Lance’s original play Maud Lewis - World Without Shadows has been produced by professional and community theatres, including Neptune Theatre (Halifax), King’s Theatre of Annapolis Royal, Ship’s Company Theatre of Parrsboro and the Blyth Festival. It has also been produced as a CBC Radio national broadcast. Maud Lewis - World Without Shadows won the Merritt Award as Nova Scotia’s outstanding play in 2003. The play The Poor Farm, under the direction of Christopher Heide of Mahone Bay, Nova Scotia, was the first in Nova Scotia to engage actors of Mi’kmaq, White, Black and Acadian heritage in the same production. Woolaver's collection of Christmas songs, The Noel Cantata, was recently produced in Norway. His script adaptation of his novel The Outlaw League was shot in Restigouche, New Brunswick and produced in Montreal as La Gang des Hors la Loi; it won the Vancouver Reel to Real Film Festival in 2015. The most recent production of his play Portia White - First You Dream, about Portia White, Nova Scotia resident and Canada's first black singer to win international acclaim, is in Petrolia, Ontario.

Maud Lewis

Woolaver is best known for his work on the life and work of Maud Lewis. He wrote a picture book of Maud’s life, a biography, a documentary film of Maud’s life for the National Film Board of Canada and an original stage play. The play about Maud Lewis and her miserly husband Everett Lewis, Maud Lewis - World Without Shadows, has been produced across Canada and broadcast by CBC radio. It tells of Maud’s struggle against juvenile rheumatoid arthritis, her triumph as an artist, her struggle against poverty, and her longing to be loved. It has been a box-office success wherever produced. Canadian actor Nicola Lipman, known for her appearances in the films Lie with Me and Marion Bridge, played Maud to great acclaim in the 1990’s Ship’s Company Theatre and Neptune Theatre productions.

The 1996 book The Illuminated Life of Maud Lewis, with photographs of Maud and her works by Bob Brooks, has been in continuous print since 1996. The cover image Maud Lewis in the sunny corner of her tiny house has been recognized as a classic portrait ranking with the work of Yousuf Karsh. Woolaver's 2016 biography of Maud Lewis, Maud Lewis The Heart on the Door, also features a portrait of Lewis, but this is a darker picture, taken by Brooks in 1965. In this Brooks’ portrait, Lewis appears frightened and fearful. This is appropriate to the darker tone of the full biography, in contrast to the sunnier portrayal of the recent film Maudie.

The Outlaw League / La Gang des Hors la Loi

The Outlaw League is a young adult novel published by Nimbus Publishing in 1991. It is set in Woolaver's home town of Digby, Nova Scotia, and describes the role of baseball in bringing the people of the village together. It includes references to many of Woolaver’s childhood friends, and former Digby baseball teams including the Digby Ravens, the Bear River Blue Sox and the Freeport Schooners. The novel was turned into a 2014 film, La Gang des Hors la Loi, produced by Rock Demers of Productions La Fete, from a script by André Melançon, Jean Beaudry and Woolaver.

Books

Books written by Woolaver include the following:

  • Woolaver, Lance (2016). Maud Lewis The Heart on the Door. Halifax, NS: Spencer Books. ISBN 978-0-9950017-0-1. 
  • Woolaver, Lance (1999). The Poor Farm. Halifax, NS: Charles Press. ISBN 978-0-9685606-0-0. OCLC 41628419. 
  • Woolaver, Lance; Brooks, Bob (1999). Maud's Country : Landscapes that Inspired the art of Maud Lewis. Halifax, NS: Nimbus Publishing. ISBN 978-1-55109-314-7. OCLC 40534718. 
  • Woolaver, Lance; Brooks, Bob (1997). Christmas with Maud Lewis. Fredericton, NB: Goose Lane Editions. ISBN 978-0-86492-189-5. OCLC 37491578. 
  • Woolaver, Lance; Brooks, Bob; Art Gallery of Nova Scotia (1996). The Illuminated Life of Maud Lewis. Halifax, NS: Nimbus Publishing. ISBN 978-1-55109-176-1. OCLC 37519347. 
  • Woolaver, Lance; Woolaver, George Dillon (1996). Lance Gerard Woolaver's World Without Shadows. Le Have, NS: Stage Hand. ISBN 978-1-896161-09-9. OCLC 35942224. 
  • Woolaver, Lance; Burden, P John (1991). The Outlaw League. Newwaves. Halifax, NS: Nimbus Publishing. ISBN 978-0-921054-71-9. OCLC 22812322. 
  • Woolaver, Lance (1991). The Metallic Sparrow. Newwaves. Halifax, NS: Nimbus Publishing. ISBN 978-1-55109-033-7. OCLC 26852160. 
  • Woolaver, Lance; Gamble, Anna (1982). Change of Tide. Halifax, NS: Nimbus Publishing. ISBN 978-0-920852-18-7. OCLC 158998785. 
  • Woolaver, Lance; Lewis, Maud (1979). Christmas with the Rural Mail : a poem. Halifax, NS: Nimbus Publishing. ISBN 978-0-920852-04-0. OCLC 9750720. 
  • Woolaver, Lance; Lewis, Maud (1979). From Ben Loman to the Sea : a poem. Halifax, NS: Nimbus Publishing. ISBN 978-0-920852-05-7. OCLC 10707547. 

    • Plays

    Plays written by Woolaver include the following:

  • Woolaver, Lance (2000). Brindley Town : a two-hander in three acts. Wolfville, NS: Gaspereau Press. ISBN 978-1-894031-33-2. OCLC 44112925. 
  • Woolaver, Lance. The Poor Farm. 
  • Woolaver, Lance. Lord Strange. 
  • Woolaver, Lance (1996). Maud Lewis - World Without Shadows. Spencer Books. 
  • Woolaver, Lance. Portia White - First You Dream. 
  • Woolaver, Lance. Evelyn Richardson - The Keeping of Lights. 
  • Woolaver, Lance. Kenny Paul. 

    • Children's Books

    Children's books written by Woolaver include the following:

  • Woolaver, Lance. Duck, Duck and Duck. 
  • Woolaver, Lance. The Humble Mumbles. 
  • Woolaver, Lance. Christmas with the Rural Mail. 
  • Woolaver, Lance. From Ben Loman to the Sea. 
  • Woolaver, Lance; Gamble, Anna. Change of Tide. 
  • Woolaver, Lance; Tanner, Lee. Mr. Christmas. 
  • Woolaver, Lance; Tanner, Lee. Darwin. 

    • Libretto

    The following Libretto was written by Woolaver:

  • Woolaver, Lance. The Heart on the Door. 

    • Songs

    The following song was written by Woolaver:

  • Woolaver, Lance; Notteroy Church, Norway. The Noel Cantata. 

    • Scripts

    Film and Radio scripts written by Woolaver include the following:

  • The Poor Farms (Radio Documentary (with Ron Foley MacDonald)). CBC Radio. 
  • The illuminated life of Maud Lewis (DVD). Montréal: Triad Film Productions Limited in co-production with the National Film Board of Canada. 1998. OCLC 75269971. 
  • Maud Lewis - The Heart on the Door. 
  • The Outlaw League [La Gang des Hors-la-Loi]. 
  • The Noggins. 

    • References

    Lance Woolaver Wikipedia
    (Text) CC BY-SA