Walter J. Learning (1938- ) has pan-Canadian theatre experience--as head of the Canada Council's theatre department, the Vancouver Playhouse, and the Charlottetown Festival. The Newfoundlander co-authored, with Alden Nowlan, the plays "Frankenstein: The Man Who Became God," "The Dollar Woman" (featured in "New Canadian Drama--Volume 2," 1981, Borealis), and "The Incredible Murder of Cardinal Tosca." Learning also founded several theatre groups, including Theatre New Brunswick.

New Canadian Drama - Volume 2, edited by Patrick B. O´Neill. "Through a skillful combination of comedy and pathos, mime and music, poetry and prose, Mirage chronicles seventy-five years of Saskatchewan life. The three generations of Rylands experience two World Wars, drought and Depression, Tommy Douglas and John Diefenbaker against the continuing claim of their ancestral farm." "Pogie has none of the bitterness one might expect to find in a look at the breakdown of family life wrought by chronic unemployment. Heide has captured the flavour of Maritime humour and mounted it in a cabaret display case." "The Dollar Woman carries us further back in time to the late nineteenth century, but the disturbing ulcer on our history which it reveals forces the audience to reconsider its current attitudes to social welfare in general ... the masterful characterization, the rich and vigorous dialogue, and the sustained theatrical awareness of Nowlan and Learning´s script make The Dollar Woman come alive on stage."