Gabriel (Gabe) Prendergast was born in Ngaruawahia, New Zealand, to parents Maurice and Colleen on January 23, 1934.
He spent 4 years studying law at the University of Auckland before being bitten by the ‘theatre bug’. After a three month trip across Asia in 1960 Gabe discovered that he’d been accepted as a senior directing student at Bristol Old Vic Theatre School in England.
After graduation, with no real prospects for employment and a new baby, Gabe and wife Audrey decided to stay in Bristol at the Theatre School as an assistant stage manager and learn about every aspect of the theatre. During 11 months he played 20 different roles and in 1964 he helped run the company’s tour of Europe and Israel and also became company manager of the Little Theatre (a subsidiary operation of the Old Vic). In 1968 he moved to the Nottingham Playhouse as manager and stage director of the repertory company and helped produce 11 shows in 9 months.
In 1969 a teaching position opened up in the Drama Department at the University of Regina, Regina Campus. Though he knew nothing of Regina except ‘that it was a place of sub-zero temperature’ Prendergast accepted the job and he and his family moved to Regina.
Prendergast retired in 1998 from the Department of Theatre at the University of Regina. He taught stage management and technical theatre training courses, was involved in over 200 productions and was, for a time, the department head. Many of his former students have gone on to enjoy professional careers all across North America.
Gabriel shared the last years of his life with his partner Sharon Blue, enjoying his four daughters and his grandchildren, he retired in 1998.
Gabriel Prendergast, Professor Emeritus, was awarded the Canadian Institute for Theatre Technology (CITT) Educational Achievement Award in 2000, this annual award recognizes longstanding career achievement in a technical or related discipline within the Canadian cultural industries.
In 2002 he was inducted into the Margaret Woodward Memorial Saskatchewan Theatre Hall of Fame.
Winnipeg artist, Don Proch was born in Manitoba in 1944 and received a Bachelor of Fine Arts and a Bachelor of Education from the University of Manitoba in 1966. He taught from 1967 to 1970 and then won a purchase award for his submission "Asessippi Tread" and formed the Opthalmia Company of Inglis, a collective setting that was inspirational to Proch as well as to other artists.
Don Proch has been recognized for his substantial contribution to multi-media art in Canada and has won awards including those from the Canada Council and the Manitoba Arts Council.
Proch’s work can be found in major collections throughout North America including the Richardson Foundation-Greenshields Collection in Winnipeg, Manitoba; the Mancy Collection in New York; the Bronfman Collection; Crown Life Insurance Company; the Winnipeg Art Gallery; the Art Gallery of Ontario; the National Gallery of Canada; the Canada Council Art Bank; the Glenbow Museum; the Province of Manitoba Art Collection as well the Musee d’art moderne de la ville de Paris in Paris, France as well as many others.
Stanley (Stan) Rands was born in Fort Macleod, Alberta on July 20, 1909. His father was a Yorkshire coal miner and Stanley attended a rural public school and MacLeod High graduating in 1928. Rands married Doris Fraser of Pilot Mound, Manitoba on December 24, 1943 and had three children, Jeanie, Brian and Ailsa.
Rands received a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Alberta in 1931 and a Master of Arts degree in psychology and education in 1937. As a Rhodes Scholar, he attended Oxford University in England, and earned a Diploma in Theology in 1934 and a Bachelor of Arts in philosophy, politics, and economics in 1936.
From 1937 to 1942 Rands taught high school in Alberta and served as Dean of Alberta College for one year and Senior Instructor with the Correspondence School Branch for two years then moved to Winnipeg where he served concurrently as Assistant/Acting Director of Adult Education at the University of Manitoba and Western Regional Supervisor for the National Film Board. He was promoted to the National Film Board headquarters in Ottawa where he worked as Director of Research and Reports and Program Coordinator from 1945 to 1950.
He moved to Regina in order to work for the Saskatchewan Department of Public Health as the Director of Health Education from 1950 to 1951 and from 1950 to 1954 Rands was Assistant to the Director of Psychiatric Services; he acted as Deputy Director of Psychiatric Services from 1954 to1963.
During the time of the doctors' strike in Saskatchewan over Medicare in 1963, Rands left the civil service to serve as Executive Director of the Community Health Services Association (Saskatchewan), an organization dedicated to establishing community clinics throughout the province. In 1966 the funding for his position was no longer available but Rands continued to work on behalf of the Association on a volunteer basis.
In 1965 Stan Rands joined the University of Saskatchewan, Regina Campus staff serving as a sessional instructor lecturing in Psychology. Rands achieved the rank of Associate Professor in 1971 and formally retired in 1976 although he continued to teach as a sessional. He was name Professor Emeritus in 1977.
Throughout his career, Rands held many executive positions: the Canadian Mental Health Association in Regina, the Regina Defense Committee, the Regina Civil Liberties Association, the Canadian Public Health Association, Saskatchewan Branch, the Saskatchewan Psychological Association, Regina Pioneer Village and the Saskatchewan Federation of Home and School. He was an advocate of medicare, and community organizations in the areas of health, education, peace, civil liberties, and aging were areas of great interest him.
Rands was also a founding member of the Canada-China Friendship Association (Saskatchewan); and a founding board member, (serving a number of years as secretary-treasurer) of the Community Health Services Association, Regina and in 1972 was named as honorary board member of the Regina Community Clinic.
Stan’s book, 'Privilege and Policy: A History of Community Clinics in Saskatchewan' was finished by his friends and in 1994 was published posthumously.