News and activities at Norma Marion Alloway Library, Trinity Western University

Category: Theatre (Page 1 of 11)

40 Years of TWU Theatre Productions

This academic year will be the last for TWU’s Theatre Department. To honour over 40 years of thought-provoking productions there are now over 1,300 images related to theatre in TWU Archives and Special Collections database. Over the past year, a total of 938 images of TWU theatrical productions have been described and uploaded into the database, spanning from 1996-97 “Star Spangled Girl” to 2018-19 “Anne of Green Gables” are now searchable online.

In addition, there are digitized theatre posters that showcase past TWU performances. For a complete list of known TWU theatrical productions see the ‘Scope and content’ field under Fonds 21.02 – Academic Faculties and Schools: Department of Theatre > Series 02 – Production Records

Productions in promotional image from left to right: “Patient A” (2001), “As You Like It” (2010) and “Picture This!” (2012).

New Titles Tuesday, August 30

Here is a selection of recently added titles in our collection:

 

 Jesus and the manuscripts: what we can learn from the oldest texts /Craig A. Evans. Evans introduces readers to the diversity and complexity of the ancient literature that records the words and deeds of Jesus. This book critically analyzes important texts and quotations in their original languages and engages the current scholarly discussion. Evans argues that the Gospel of Thomas is not early or independent of the New Testament Gospels but that it should be dated to the late second century. He also argues that Secret Mark, like the recently published Gospel of Jesus’ Wife, is probably a modern forgery. Of special interest is the question of how long the autographs of New Testament writings remained in circulation. Evans argues that the evidence suggests that most of these autographs remained available for copying and study for more than one hundred years and thus stabilized the text.

 Learned, experienced, and discerning: St. Teresa of Avila and St. John of the Cross on spiritual direction /Mark O’Keefe, OSB. Insights into the qualities that should mark a good spiritual director-learned, experienced, and discerning-as demonstrated by the spiritual texts of Teresa of Avila and John of the Cross.

 Muslim sources of the crusader period: an anthology /edited and translated, with an introduction, by James E. Lindsay & Suleiman A. Mourad. Drawn from greater Syria, northern Mesopotamia, and Egypt, the sources in this anthology–many of which are translated into English for the first time here–provide eyewitness and contemporary historical accounts of what unfolded in the eastern Mediterranean and the Near East between the eleventh and fourteenth centuries.   In providing representative examples of the many disparate types of Muslim sources, this volume opens a window onto life in the Islamic Near East during the Crusader period and the interactions between Franks and Muslims in the broader context of Islamic history.

 On being human: essays in theological anthropology /by Ray S. Anderson. Anderson focused on the person as determined by and sustained by the creative power of God. He explored the the implications of a biblical understanding of personhood for such critical issues as human sexuality, family relationships, abortion, and death. He broke new ground in relating pastoral care and counseling to contemporary issues which challenge Christians and their understanding of the meaning of human life.

 On pandemics: deadly diseases from bubonic plague to coronavirus /David Waltner-Toews. Waltner-Toews, gathers the latest research to profile dozens of illnesses in On Pandemics. On Pandemics shows the greater impact of animal-borne diseases on our world, and encourages us to re-examine our role in pandemics, if not for our own health, then for the health of our planet. This book has been updated in light of the COVID-19 pandemic.

 On the six days of creation /St. Gregory of Nyssa ; translated by Robin Orton. This is the first complete English translation of St. Gregory of Nyssa’s treatise On the Six Days of Creation (In Hexaemeron). It incorporates Gregory’s own observations on the Genesis text, which reflect his desire to show the consistency between Scripture and the philosophy and natural science of his day. A notable feature is Gregory’s presentation of God’s creation of the world as what has been called a substantification of God’s own will, creatio ex Deo rather than creatio ex nilhilo. Other ideas of Gregory’s seem interestingly to foreshadow those of modern science.

 Quasi-experimentation: a guide to design and analysis /Charles S. Reichardt. This book explains how to use modern approaches to quasi-experimentation to derive credible estimates of treatment effects under the demanding constraints of field settings.  Reichardt provides an in-depth examination of the design and statistical analysis of pretest–posttest, nonequivalent groups, regression discontinuity, and interrupted time-series designs. Comparing quasi-experiments to randomized experiments, Reichardt discusses when and why the former might be a better choice than the latter in the face of the contingencies that are likely to arise in practice. Throughout, mathematical equations are translated into words to enhance accessibility.

 Reading Evangelicals: how Christian fiction shaped a culture and a faith /Daniel Silliman. A historical examination of Evangelical identity through a close look at five best-selling Evangelical novels and the Christian publishing and bookselling industry they helped build

 Resurrected to eternal life: on dying and rising /Jürgen Moltmann ; translated by Ellen Yutzy Glebe. In this daring meditation, Moltmann interrogates dying, the nature of death, and the hope of eternal life. For Moltmann, the living soul that awakens to eternal life is not a ghost in a machine, but the Lebensgestalt, the shape and story of a life. Seasoned readers will find here a capstone to Moltmann’s career of theological exploration, while those new to his thought will find a concise and elegant entry point into his work.

 The Christ party in the Corinthian community /Ferdinand Christian Baur ; with an introduction by Ernst Käsemann ; translated by Wayne Coppins, Christoph Heilig, Lucas Ogden, and David Lincicum. For the first time Baur’s ground-breaking essay appears in English translation. Baur argued for a diversity of views in the earliest strata of the Christian tradition that shaped the modern study of Paul in lasting ways. Baur’s work revealed a tension between Pauline, gentile Christianity, on the one hand, and Petrine, Judaizing Christianity.

 The divine imprint: finding God in the human mind /Russell Stannard. Those who think the evidence for God is found in the world around us, says Russell Stannard, are starting in the wrong place. Instead, we must begin by looking inside ourselves – into the inner recesses of our own consciousness, where the ultimate source of all consciousness has left his imprint.

 The fall of the Roman Empire: a new history of Rome and the Barbarians /Peter Heather.  The death of the Roman Empire is one of the perennial mysteries of world history. Now, in this groundbreaking book,  Heather proposes a stunning new solution: Centuries of imperialism turned the neighbors Rome called barbarians into an enemy capable of dismantling an Empire that had dominated their lives for so long.

 The five dysfunctions of a team: a leadership fable /Patrick Lencioni In this book, the author turns his keen intellect and storytelling power to the fascinating, complex world of teams. The author’s story serves as a timeless reminder that leadership requires as much courage as it does insight. Throughout the story, he reveals the five dysfunctions that go to the very heart of why teams, even the best ones, often struggle. He outlines a powerful model and actionable steps that can be used to overcome these common hurdles and build a cohesive, effective team.

 The idea of a Christian college: a reexamination for today’s university /Todd C. Ream and Perry L. Glanzer. Ream and. Glanzer account for changes in how 21st century people view the Church and themselves as human agents, and propose a vision for the Christian college in light of the fact that so many Christian colleges now look and act more like research universities. Including topics such as the co-curricular, common worship, and diversity, they craft a vision that strives to see into the future by drawing on the riches of the past. First-year students as well as new faculty members and administrators will benefit from the insights in this book in ways previous generations benefitted from Arthur Holmes’s original efforts.

 The need for creeds today: confessional faith in a faithless age /J.V. Fesko. A leading Reformed theologian offers a brief, accessible invitation to the historic creeds and confessions, making a biblical and historical case for their necessity and utility today.

 The post-quarantine church: six urgent challenges and opportunities that will determine the future of your congregation /Thom S. Rainer. From thousands of surveys of church leaders and in-person consultations, Rainer and his Church Answers team have gathered the essential wisdom you will need to face the challenges and opportunities that the quarantine crisis creates for the local church. This book is valuable for those looking for local church and pastor resources to enhance church leadership, grow your church, and serve digital and online church communities in the post-quarantine world.

 The power of pictures in Christian thought: the use and abuse of images in the Bible and theology /Anthony C. Thiselton.  Part One considers key philosophical and aesthetic evaluations of literary images and symbols.  theories of symbol, metaphor, and visual representation must be examined. Part Two discusses visual representation in the Old Testament, the teaching of Jesus, pictures and analogies in Paul, and the Book of Revelation. This shows the range of authentic visual representations.  Similarly, sermons and prayers today can be enriched with pictorial images, but some can be misleading and unhelpful for the life of the Church.

 The robot will see you now: artificial intelligence and the Christian faith /edited by John Wyatt and Stephen N. Williams. Contributions from a number of international experts explore a range of social and ethical issues raised by recent advances in AI and robotics. Considering the role of artificial intelligence in areas such as medicine, employment and security, the book looks at how AI is perceived as well as its actual impact on human interactions and relationships. Alongside are theological responses from an orthodox Christian perspective. The Robot Will See You Now offers a measured, thoughtful view on how Christians can understand and prepare for the challenges posted by the development of AI. Whatever your level of technical knowledge, The Robot Will See You Now will give you a thorough understanding of AI and equip you to respond to the challenges it poses with confidence and faith.

 The three arrows ; and, The servants and the snow: plays by Iris Murdoch. These two plays concern problems of political power, and in particular the nature of sovereignty. They are also dramas of romantic love.

 Theodicy of love: cosmic conflict and the problem of evil /John C. Peckham. Based on a close canonical reading of Scripture, this book offers a new approach to the challenge of reconciling the Christian confession of a loving God with the realities of suffering and evil. Peckham offers a constructive proposal for a theodicy of love that upholds both the sovereignty of God and human freedom, showing that Scripture points toward a framework for thinking about God’s love in relation to the world.

 To think Christianly: a history of L’Abri, Regent College, and the Christian study center movement /Charles E. Cotherman ; foreword by Kenneth G. Elzinga. Cotherman traces the stories of notable study centers and networks, as well as their influence on twentieth-century Christianity. Beginning with the innovations of L’Abri and Regent College, Cotherman sheds new light on these defining places in evangelicalism’s life of the mind.

  Top girls /Caryl Churchill ; with commentary and notes by Bill Naismith.  Marlene hosts a dinner party to celebrate her promotion to managing director of ‘Top Girls’ employment agency. Her guests are five women from the past.  As the evening continues we are involved with the stories of all five women and the impending crisis in Marlene’s own life. A classic of contemporary theatre, Churchill’s play is seen as a landmark for a new generation of playwrights.

 Understanding climate change through religious lifeworlds /edited by David L. Haberman. Understanding Climate Change through Religious Lifeworlds offers a transnational view of how religion reconciles the concepts of the global and the local and influences the challenges of climate change.

 Who created Christianity?: fresh approaches to the relationship between Paul and Jesus /Craig A Evans, Aaron W White, editors. This collection of essays proposes a complementary work to the work of David Wenham and his thesis that Paul was indeed, not the founder of Christianity or the creator of Christian dogma, as such, but instead the faithful disciple and conveyer of a prior Jesus tradition.

Search TWU Theatre Production Posters Online

 Project Overview

My name is Sydney Dvorak and in the fall semester, I had the privilege of completing my history practicum in Trinity Western University’s Archives and Special Collections. My primary project was digitizing and describing all of the Department of Theatre’s existing production posters. This collection includes 122 posters spanning from 1973 to 2021. Clearly, Trinity has a rich history of theatre. In light of the institution’s recent decision to close the Department of Theatre, I proceeded with this digitization project seeking to honour the legacy of a program that has entertained and challenged our community for over forty years.

Procedure

Assorted theatre documentationThis project began with me spending time, lots of time, with the material.  When I got to the archives, posters, programs, promotional postcards, audition sign-ups, and other random theatre-related material that once adorned the halls of the university were all mixed together. The first few weeks consisted of me circling the viewing table, taking it all apart and sorting out what was what. While my project was centred around the production posters, I actually started my project by setting the posters aside. Instead, I sorted the theatre production programs chronologically by decade. This did take some detective work. Not all of the programs had dates, so I went searching through old yearbooks and Mars’ Hill publications to find them. I had some luck, but six programs had to be placed in the “Production Programs [n.d.]” file. In the end, I removed staples from 115 programs and added them to folders based on decades.

Organizing theatre documents

As it is with any practicum, this was a learning experience. At the outset of this project, I had to learn the Rules of Archival Description (RAD). This is the standard for describing records to which Canadian archives adhere. Archivists use RAD to define records, their context, content, physical characteristics, and relationship to the rest of the archive. To most this may sound like a boring process, but I have discovered I am one of those nerds that enjoys records management. Learning RAD allowed me to move on to the next step in the process, which was entering the production programs and materials into the archival database. Some of my favourites in the series include: You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown [1973], Fiddler on the Roof [1986], Hippolytus [1994], Pride and Prejudice [2008], and The Knowing [n.d.]. Check out the Production Program series here.

Once the programs were organised, I could move on to the posters. Much like I did with the programs, I sorted all the posters chronologically by decade. This involved a lot of pile-making and sticky notes to keep things organised. Once I got the hang of it, this part went pretty quick. Data entry took up the bulk of my time in the archives. I spent a lot of time in front of a massive spreadsheet, filling the necessary fields for RAD and describing each poster. By spending time with each poster and describing the physical condition as well as the design, I really got to know the collection. For example, I know that the first poster we have in the series is for a production of The Song of David, that at some point someone has written “drama” in the top right corner with a blue pen, and that there is an image from a twelfth century Bible redrawn by Gerald Baron in the middle of the poster.

The first issue I encountered was that of preserving and presenting potentially offensive material. In 2009, one of the productions performed was Bertolt Brecht’s The Good Woman of Setzuan. In light of the fact that this play contains offensive stereotypes, and that many universities have cancelled their productions of The Good Woman in recent years due to concerns about racism, I had to decide how best to proceed. The poster could not be shoved into a corner and forgotten about; doing that would mean being a poor steward of history. In order to avoid censorship the poster has to be added to the record. It was ultimately decided that the poster would be archived with a disclaimer, which would hopefully mitigate any further harm stemming from the material. Ultimately, I chose to add a general note to the description explaining “This performance of ‘The Good Woman of Setzuan’ included a predominantly white cast portraying Chinese characters. This play is known to include harmful stereotyping and racist connotations in ways that are no longer acceptable.”

Digitised postersAfter my descriptions had been entered and merged into the archives database and I began the process of digitising each poster. We used an Epson Expression 11000XL to scan the posters. The time it took to scan each poster depended on how large the poster was, and if it was black and white. Scanning took between five and twenty-three minutes per poster. The main challenges I faced during this project involved technology, the first barrier to pop up was to do with the scanning. The size of the scanning bed we have in the archives was too small to accommodate some of the posters. A total of twenty-one posters could not be scanned because the scanning bed was too small. Because of this, their images could not be uploaded to the database. Instead, I attached a general note to the description saying, “Due to the sizes of the scanning bed and the poster, this item could not be scanned.”

To view our complete collection of theatre production posters, click here.

Project Outcomes

On my final shift in the archives, I was reminded of why this project is especially important. I was given the poster and program for the most recent theatre production, Awake. This show was designed to honour the Department of Theatre and the ways in which it has shaped the lives of alumni and current students. With the closure of TWU’s theatre program, this digitization project preserves its history.

Beyond this practicum being an invaluable professional and academic experience for me, it was also a project imbued with the emotions of finality. By individually organizing, describing, and scanning each poster I was taken on a tour of TWU’s history. As Trinity grew and changed through the decades, the theatre productions reflected or pushed back on these changes. I hope through my project I have provided a home for the history of TWU’s theatre department, and a digital space to relive and remember for those whose lives have been impacted by the theatre closure. I also hope that the material I have gotten to know so well over the last few months can be used well by the community and potential researchers.

What We Were Reading Online January 2022

In the first month of the year,  some 1830 titles in  Alloway Library’s eBook collection had over  4,210  uses. Here are some of the most used items.

 Discover Your True North Leadership.; Organizational effectiveness.

Price: $48.00 Used 158 times.

 

 But Is It Art?: An Introduction to Art Theory  Art–Philosophy.; Aesthetics., Performance

Used 133 times.

 

 Logic As a Liberal Art: An Introduction to Rhetoric and Reasoning  Reasoning.; Rhetoric.; Logic–Textbooks.

Price: $34.95    Used 113 times.

 

 The Oxford Guide to Practical Lexicography  Lexicography.

Used 104 times.

 Prometheus Bound DRAMA / Ancient & Classical

Used 94 times.

Cultivating Professional   Resilience in Direct Practice: A Guide for Human Service Professionals  Social workers–Job stress.; Social services / Social Work

Used 90 times.

  Mathematics for Human Flourishing  Mathematics–Philosophy.; / History & Philosophy

Price: $36.92    Used 65 times.

 

 Employee Engagement: Creating High Positive Energy at Work  Organizational behavior.; Employee motivation. BUSINESS & ECONOMICS /

Used 64 times.

 The Essentials of Theory U: Core Principles and Applications  Organizational learning.; Organizational change BUSINESS & ECONOMICS / Leadership

Used 61 times.

 The Armchair Economist: Economics & Everyday Life  Economics–Sociological aspects.BUSINESS & ECONOMICS / Theory

Price: $90.00    Used 50 times.

  Religion, Religious Ethics and Nursing  Religious ethics.; Nursing–Religious aspects.; MEDICAL / Social, Ethical & Legal Issues

Price: $65.00    Used 45 times.

  Who Do We Choose To Be?: Facing Reality, Claiming Leadership, Restoring Sanity  Leadership. BUSINESS & ECONOMICS

Price: $59.94    Used 39 times.

  The New Leadership Challenge: Creating the Future of Nursing  Nurse administrators.; Leadership. MEDICAL / Family & General Practice

Price: $45.56    Used 33 times.

  Spirituality in Nursing  Nurse and patient.; Nursing–Religious aspects MEDICAL / Holistic Medicine

Price: $179.90    Used 31 times.

  Karl Barth’s Critically Realistic Dialectical Theology: Its Genesis and Development 1909-1936 Reformed Church–Switzerland–Clergy–Biography. RELIGION / Christian Theology

Used 29 times.

 

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