Saskatoon theatrical community mourns loss of actor, mentor Henry Woolf

The Shakespeare on the Saskatchewan festival has called the late Henry Woolf a pillar of the Saskatoon theatre community.

The former actor, artistic director and University of Saskatchewan (USask) drama professor passed away last week.

“Obviously, there’s lots of heavy hearts … even though 91 is an amazing age to get to, but I still find myself surprised. I think I somehow feel like he’s just going to keep on going,” co-interim festival curator Skye Brandon said.

“We owe him a lot just in terms of memorable productions and enthusiasm and just being a champion for theatre and for the city of Saskatoon as a whole.”

“The drama department and arts and science at large named what was called the North Studio after him. So now, in that lobby, we see Henry Woolfe Theatre every single day so I’m very grateful that happened for him before he passed.”

While Woolf was born in the United Kingdom, USask drama professor Dwayne Brenna said Woolf considered himself a Saskatonian.

“There’s a story that’s been going around about Henry and (wife) Susan. They met, of course, while they were doing a production of the Marat/Sade on Broadway in New York,” Brenna said.

“And the apocryphal story is that an old lady was asking Henry one day where he and his wife met and he said, ‘Well, we met on Broadway’ and she said ‘Broadway, where five corners?’

“Henry knew from that point on that he was a Saskatonian, he loved the place. I mean, he went back to London, of course, whenever he wanted to and to New York as well. But his home was here.”

Brandon met Woolf back in 1997 when he was a student at the USask drama department.

“My first year in the drama department as a drama student was his final year as head of the department before he retired,” Brandon said.

“(Woolf was) larger than life, even though his stature, as you know, many will say he was not a tall man, but just his persona, his warm heart, his stories. The word I think I heard used once: raconteur.

“I always found him as a really animated individual as well. Like, yes, he had a biting wit … I just found him physically impressive. He got people’s attention. He was flamboyant without being over the top.”

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Woolf was in the 1975 film The Rocky Horror Picture Show and had a USask performing space named in his honour, but Brenna said his crowning achievement was family and friends.

“I think his greatest accomplishment was his friends and relationships. I mean, if you were to have asked him, he probably would have said his family was his greatest accomplishment,” Brenna said.

“Henry was very much a mentor to me and later a friend.

“He was a marvellous experimenter. I mean, at one point, he would have been synonymous with the Royal Court Theatre, which was where new plays were and are developed in London … And that’s in fact where The Rocky Horror Picture Show as a stage play first took place.”

Both Brenna and Brandon said their mentor’s legacy will be the people he taught.

“Far-reaching. People that he’s taught or directed, they are now the ones that are leading organizations and are teaching … So I think it’ll be an ongoing legacy,” Brandon said.

“Film and theatre and in terms of playing six degrees of separation, you realize that this community actually is quite small and that you might be an artist from or based in Saskatoon but in just a matter of steps, you touch this long, deep historical legacy of theatre.”

“It was a great loss. Henry can’t be replaced. Not only just as someone with endless talent and exuberance for the profession. He had his hand in with every theatre in town, practically,” Brenna said.

“I think, the theatre has been a far better place because of his presence here and I think that that is his legacy. You will see actors working for the next 25 years who have come under Henry’s tutelage.