ATHABASCA — Following on the success of the online reading of A Christmas Carol in December, the Alice B. Donahue Library and Archives (ABDLA) has decided to try out other programs that bring people together while still staying at home.
Cheryl Andrews, the program coordinator for ADBLA, said that last year the library had been doing a Reader’s Theatre program in coordination with the Athabasca and District Senior’s Society, right before the pandemic forced everything to shut down.
“We were doing it in March, and then we only had a few weeks so, we were thinking about new ways to do programming,” Andrews said in a Feb. 11 interview. “And some of those seniors that were participating are comfortable to try and online format.”
That led to other adults asking if they could take part, so now the Adult Reader’s Theatre has been born.
“Some seniors are uncomfortable with being online, but it’s just not safe to start back in person yet,” she said. “So, it’s what we can do right now.”
Andrews said the reader’s theatre format is good for online because it is more of a table read than having to memorize lines, figure out where to stand on the stage, and whether you are exiting stage left or stage right.
“It's mostly for fun — to get together.” said Andrews. “And we're going to be doing some drama games and some improvisation. We'll be doing character development and reading scripts. But it will depend on the participants, whether they want to gear up toward a final invited-audience performance of something. Or not, it may just be for fun.”
There is no hard and firm commitment, but Andrews is hoping whomever signs up will attend as often as possible and is planning on offering it for 45 minutes over the lunch hour – from 12:05 to 12:50 p.m. on Wednesdays for six or more weeks.
“I think it could be, on the high end 10 weeks, but because we’re getting into spring at that point we don’t want to be going into summer,” she said. “So, it might be a little bit fluid on whether or not we’re going to have a final performance. We’re going to start with meeting and if it ends up being more of a drop-in with new people every time, that’s what it becomes.”
Another program Andrews is working on, hopefully in partnership with the Athabasca Royal Canadian Legion #103, is a trivia night on the last Friday of every month starting in March. It may be in the works, but she said the hosts are already picked out — Town of Athabasca mayor Colleen Powell and her son David Powell, a local musician, and the president of the Athabasca University Faculty Association (AUFA).
“So, that's kind of in the works, kind of next coming up,” Andrews said. “We're hoping to in the coming months to have an event called One Book, One Community. So, we've got a group coming together to pick the books, pertinent content for our community and community members.”
And if that wasn’t enough to keep you entertained and informed, ABDLA is collaborating again with the Athabasca University librarians to follow up on the popular online workshop, ‘You Can’t Get a Degree from “Google University” which was presented in October with a ‘Facebook: Fact or Fiction’ webinar.
“(It’s) specifically targeting Facebook because there's going to be some content about if the information is reliable, how Facebook works, why do you see what you see, how do you evaluate those sources,” she said. “And we're hoping to sort of tailor it to an older generation.”
Andrews noted the library is still open to request books for curbside pick-up and new items are added to their website athabascalibrary.ab.ca, and for the children they are live streaming story time every Friday morning at 10:30 a.m. on their Facebook page.
E-mail Andrews at [email protected] for information or to sign up for Reader’s Theatre.
Board members needed
Technically, the Alice B. Donahue Library and Archives is closed to the public because of the COVID-19, but it still needs direction and vision and community input — and it needs it immediately.
The Athabasca Library Board is looking for four new board members, as soon as possible, to fill upcoming vacancies. The commitment is one meeting per month, and they’ll even train you. You can make a difference.
Coun. John Traynor is the town’s representative on the board and informed town council of the predicament at the Feb. 16 meeting.
“We're in need of community members to come and be a part of their library board. Their help would be greatly appreciated,” he said.
Mayor Colleen Powell commented further during her monthly online “Town Talk LIVE!” segment with the Athabasca Advocate.
“Please, if you are interested, put your name in, they meet, in the evening, once a month, and they need your input. Everyone needs to know what users are thinking,” she said, adding that the last time she looked there were over 1,500 members.
And all of those users are provided with services to suit their needs. Like most libraries, Athabasca’s is a community hub that offers not just books to read on a shelf, but access to computers and Wi-Fi, children and adult programming, and more.
For instance, Powell said she likes to go to read various newspapers that are not available on local newsstands.
For more information, or to apply, contact the library at [email protected] or call 780-675-2735.
