Professor Ches Skinner he has been teaching at the University of Lethbridge since 1976 till his retirement in 2010. A devoted CATR member, Ches served our organization both as its board member and as its President (1996-2000), being one of the flagmen of our scholarly, moral and theatrical values and standards. Pedagogy, sharing one’s knowledge and learning from others, is Ches’s special gift, which we must celebrate today. Not only Professor Skinner played an important role in the development and growth of the University of Lethbridge’s Department of Drama, even after his retirement he continued his teaching career, now  at the Akademi Seni Budaya Dan Warisan Kebangsaan (ASWARA) in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia and in 2014 as Professor in the Faculty of Theatre and the School of Post Graduate Studies.

Ches’s other passion is theatre directing: In 1978, when he just started at the university, Ches directed Jack Heifner’s play Vanities, and in 2008 his production of To Kill a Mockingbird marked his twentieth and final production for the school. Remarkably, even during the decade when he served as Dean of Fine Arts, he continued directing and came back to the Department to work on four more plays.

We are honored to celebrate this passion: Ches’s work, his love for teaching and his passion for directing, remains an incredibly high standard, huge shoes, which all of us, here at Lethbridge and across Canada, are still trying to fill.