Ian Pratt

Ian Pratt is an Associate Professor Emeritus in the UBC Dept. of Theatre and Film. First employed there as a stage technician in 1961, he joined the faculty 10 years later and taught stage lighting, scenery construction and other stage crafts until his retirement in 2004. From 1974 to 2003 he was the Technical Director of the Frederic Wood Theatre at UBC, contributing to more than 150 stage productions. During his summers, Ian was the Technical Director of the Vancouver International Children’s Festival for its first 24 seasons, co-founder and first TD of the Vancouver Childrens’ Circus (now Circus West), TD/SM at the WildHorse Theatre, Fort Steele, for 11 seasons and at the Palace Grand Theatre in Dawson City for 3. Ian was very active in the area of health & safety for the Performing Arts; involved with WCB regulation revues, certification of entertainment industry electricians and Federal gun control and pyrotechnics regulations. He participated in the founding of SHAPE (now ActSafe) and sat on the Performing Arts Steering Committee and the Board of Directors of that organization until his retirement. He was a long-time member of both the Canadian and U.S. Institutes for Theatre Technology, and was a board member of the CITT-BC Section until 2005. Ian is a recipient of “The Frannie” Award from the Canadian Institute of Arts for Young Audiences and the Dieter Penzhorn Memorial Award from the CITT. He was elected to the BC Entertainment Hall of Fame in 2003.