In 1984 one of the two performance spaces at the Pumphouse was named in honour of Joyce Doolittle. If you’ve ever caught a children’s show in a Calgary park or a night at the Pumphouse, her name belongs somewhere in that story.
Doolittle was born on April 5, 1928, in Morgantown, West Virginia. She moved to Calgary in 1960. Four years later, in 1964, she joined the University of Calgary to teach acting and creative drama through the Continuing Education Department. Creative drama, taught to grown-ups, at a young university in a growing city.
A few years after that, the university formed a Department of Drama inside the Faculty of Fine Arts, and she became one of its first members. She kept teaching there until she retired in 1988. That’s a long run of showing up, week after week, for students who wanted to learn how to stand on a stage and mean it.
Her work reached well beyond the classroom. Along with Kathleen Foreman and Brian Dorscht, she’s named as one of the originators who developed Wagonstage, the children’s theatre that has toured Calgary parks since 1971. If you haven’t read about the Pumphouse yet, our piece on the Pumphouse Theatres is a good place to start.
A theatre space with your name on it is what happens when a community decides you mattered. People walk through those doors without knowing why the name sounds familiar, and they get a slice of her story anyway.
In 2018 she received the Order of Canada, one of the country’s highest civilian honours. Pretty good for someone who first arrived to teach a continuing education class.
Follow the thread through all of it. A Wagonstage actor who spends a summer in the parks might end up in a university classroom or on a bigger stage. Teaching and performing keep feeding each other here, and Doolittle sat right in the middle of that exchange.
This story has no single big night on a famous stage. She built a program and helped create a touring show for kids, and she kept showing up the whole time.
To see her legacy for yourself, look up Wagonstage’s next park tour or check what’s on at the Pumphouse.
Sources: University of Calgary, Joyce Doolittle; University of Calgary, A Half Century of Wagonstage.
Calgary’s Stagehands Union Began With 18 Names in 1911 pairs nicely with this one, and Theatresports Was Born in Calgary, and Keith Johnstone Did It is close behind.
If this one hooked you, we think Calgary Gets a Full Halloween Horror Season From CUFF and The Werklund Centre build is rolling and it is a good sign are a good next read.
Quick answers
Joyce Doolittle was a drama teacher who moved to Calgary in 1960 and joined the University of Calgary in 1964. She became one of the first members of its Department of Drama and taught there until she retired in 1988. A Pumphouse performance space was named for her in 1984.
Wagonstage is a children’s theatre that has toured Calgary parks since 1971. Joyce Doolittle, Kathleen Foreman and Brian Dorscht are named as the originators who developed it. It brings plays to families outdoors, and its park tours are the best way to see it.
Joyce Doolittle received the Order of Canada in 2018, one of the country’s highest civilian honours. Her name also lives on at the Pumphouse Theatres in Calgary, where one of the two performance spaces was named in her honour in 1984.
