Prominent Canadian playwright-director Paul Thompson will return to Huron University College, this afternoon, to receive his alma mater's first medal of distinction. "It's a lovely thing and the news knocked me right out," says Thompson, 63,who was working on a theatre exchange project in the Republic of Georgia (formerly part of the Soviet Union) when he received the e-mail telling him of the honour.

The Charlottetown, P.E.I., native, who grew up in Southwestern Ontario ("mostly in the Atwood-Listowel area") completed his honours BA, in English and French, at Huron College in 1963 before spending a year at the Sorbonne in Paris, on a scholarship from the French government.

In 1965, he returned to France and joined the Theatre National Populaire in Lyon.

"The ironic thing is that I got involved in the theatre there to improve my French -- and then I got hooked by theatre," recalls Thompson who, as Theatre Passe Muraille's artisitic director from 1970 to 1982, presented dramas with strong Canadian roots and devoid of pretence and elitism.

Toward that end, he also helped pioneer the "collective creation," a process in which actors and directors develop a script through improvisation, research and interaction with their subject matter.

The process has produced such classic Canadian dramas as The Farm Show, Maggie and Pierre, Barn Dance Live, Them Donnellys, The Piano Man's Daughter . . . And Others, and The Outdoor Donnellys, which was the spectacular hit of the Blyth Festival's 2001 and 2002 seasons.

"I love Canada and always want to do the kind of theatre that connects with it and reaches as broad an audience as possible," he says.

Currently a member of the Blyth Festival board, he's preparing to direct another script he co-wrote, Hippie, which will launch its one-month festival stay July 23.

The medal winner and his wife, actor Annie Anglin, will attend today's convocation award ceremony, which begins at 1 p.m. in Huron's Kingsmill Common Room.