Lance Gerard Woolaver (born 1948) is a Canadian author, poet, playwright, lyricist, and director. His best-known works include books, film and biographical plays about Canadian folk artist Maud Lewis, including Maud Lewis The Heart on the Door, and Maud Lewis - World Without Shadows. His plays include one about international singer Portia White, who was born in Nova Scotia: Portia White - First You Dream.
Biography
Early life
Woolaver was born in Digby County, Nova Scotia, in 1948.
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 these local characters. However, he was later inspired to pitch an article on Maud Lewis to Chatelaine magazine. He later wrote a book and two plays about Maud Lewis.
Woolaver published earlier stories in the 1970s in Canadian literary magazines, including the Wascana Review (which ceased publication in 2012) and The Fiddlehead.
Marriage and family
Woolaver lives in Halifax with his wife, Martha (Spencer) of Saskatoon. They married in 1967, and have two children, and two grandchildren. Woolaver enjoys flyfishing in the Canadian Rockies, and on the Margaree River in Cape Breton Island.
Woolaver's play Maud Lewis - World Without Shadows has been produced by professional and community theatres, including Neptune Theatre (Halifax), King’s Theatre of Annapolis Royal and Ship’s Company Theatre of Parrsboro in Nova Scotia, and the Blyth Festival of Ontario. It was also adapted and produced as a CBC Radio national broadcast.
His play The Poor Farm, was produced at the Chester Playhouse under the direction of Christopher Heide of Mahone Bay. It was the first play in Nova Scotia to engage actors of Mi’kmaq, White, Black and Acadian heritage in the same production. It dealt with the politics of poverty and the system of provincial poor farms.
Woolaver's collection of Christmas songs, The Noel Cantata, was recently produced in Norway.
His young adult novel The Outlaw League (1991) was adapted for film, and he wrote the screenplay. Based in his hometown, it was shot in Restigouche, New Brunswick. It was produced in Montreal as La Gang des Hors la Loi; it won the Vancouver Reel to Real Film Festival in 2015.<!-- Source does not support this; it's just the theatre website. -->
His newest novel, The Halflife of Evil, will be published by Spencer Books in June 2018. It is about Maud Lewis, the provincial Poor Farm, and the policies of imprisonment of the poor.
Maud Lewis
Woolaver is best known for his works on the life and art of Maud Lewis.
His play The Return of Her Child deals with issues related to the adoption of Maud Lewis's daughter Catherine by Mamie Crosby.
Woolaver's recent full biography, Maud Lewis The Heart on the Door (2016), features another Brooks' portrait of the artist, taken in 1965, in which Lewis appears frightened and fearful. This is appropriate to the darker tone of this work, as Woolaver explores many issues in her life. His account contrasts also with the portrayal of Lewis in the independent feature drama film, Maudie.
The novel was adapted as 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.