2018 Continuing Contribution Award

Librarian Emeritus Ian C. Nelson, former Head of Collection and Assistant Director of Collections and Budget, also became active in theatre as a bilingual actor, director, dramaturg, playwright, and adjudicator long before his 1998 University retirement. The 1996 recipient of the Janet Laine-Green Lifetime Achievement Award, he was the 2014 inductee into the Theatre Saskatchewan Hall of Fame for contributions to the development of English and French theatre in Saskatchewan.

In 2014 Ian received the SATAward for playwriting for his French play La Chambre blanche. Ian served active terms on the boards of Saskatoon Gateway Players, La Troupe du Jour (he founded the professional company’s precursor, Unithéâtre, on campus), D.D.F./Theatre Saskatchewan, the Saskatchewan Council of Cultural Organisations, the Cultural Advisory Committee and the Saskatchewan Playwrights Centre.

Ian has also served on juries for the Saskatchewan Arts Board. He adjudicates spoken word and musical theatre for the Saskatchewan Music Festival Association (SMFA’s “Art of Adjudicating” DVD). In addition to acting and directing at La Troupe du Jour, Ian has been animateur of Le Cercle des écrivains since 2001. He is well-known in the Fransaskois community for his playwriting and publications of flash-fiction micronouvelles. He is a member of the founding board of the online journal À ciel ouvert. A Fringe volunteer from its beginning, he is their semi-official website reviewer.