GO WEST TEAM chapter 196

I loved summer tours with the Portrait Players. Some of the reason was totally selfish. I had written the main play and wanted to see how audiences would respond. The College preferred that we split the tours with another professor so we are not away so long. That was a good thing, as I think my wife would have preferred that I didn’t go at all some years. My trade off college rep was Norma Bailey. She was always terrific and a great help. In the first year she took the first half of the four-week tour.

The team went to Western Canada. It was fundamentally the same tour I made with the college choir years before. We had already taken the play to a number of churches near the college so it actually began closer to Alberta.

I wanted to learn and so took some notes and made some observations along the way. First and foremost was that a play in the church was a strange thing. We were opening most of the churches to the concept of drama in the church. Many were not sure about how to respond to even the idea let along the presentation. Some congregations were a little hesitant, but seemed to warm up by the end of the show. Pastors were a little more reluctant. They were less concerned about how most of the congregation responded they worried about that one parishioner who might object.

We had a pretty simple presentation. We hauled the few props, but used whatever seating might be available at each stop. We had no lighting. So did not haul a trailer. There were some semi-pro groups making their way around the country with the same drama premise. They usually did a number of short pieces so could adjust the length of their presentation. We were doing a play and the time was set. The Maze ran just under an hour.

The response made me wonder if a play was the right approach. We did a play because I wanted to tell a story that called for a response. Most short skit presentation was open-ended simply causing the observer to think about a response.

The second thing I learned was that churches really wanted college tour groups to come Sunday mornings when they get the most people, but neither they nor us knew how to handle a “play” on a Sunday morning. It was perfect for a music group, but it was terrible for a play. No matter what we said, they always wanted to do what they normally did on Sunday morning: 20-30 minutes of singing, 10-15 minutes of announcements and offering and then turn it over to us for the next 40 minutes. We could not cut the play down to fit the remaining time. It was not unusual to see a few people leave before the play was over. I felt bad, but didn’t know what to do about that.

For most churches, the only “play” they had ever seen done was a Christmas pageant or choir cantata. I knew we were pushing boundaries. Every church was kind and very accepting of us with one exception. Morning services were always a problem. The pastor always said they didn’t know how long it would be. I kept my mouth shut and took their comments. We had sent written instructions and I verbally explained it again when I arrived and then again Sunday morning trying to make sure they understood.  They didn’t.

They team often talked about the play and continued to find new interpretations. Some people grasp the deeper spiritual meaning of The Maze, some found it funny, some saw both sides, some only one. It did not connect as deeply as I had hoped. When I got home and was evaluating the process with Rev, Rose told me how to open the drama door to drama in the churches. “Tell a missions story.” He said. I immediately began to look for a story to tell and ran into the book No Time for Tombstones.

PROMPTNESS chapter 195

We have to wonder at times from where some of our attitudes, habits, and perspectives come. At least I do. By the time I began my ministry in Saskatoon, I had a very low tolerance for lateness. I don’t remember that being an issue is my home, while I was in high school or college, but it was huge in me by the time I got to Saskatoon. When I said I was going to leave, I wanted to leave at that time. The problem for others was that I did leave when I said. I taught my group to be on time. Whether that was the right approach or not is debatable. Maybe they had a good reason for being late. If they did, I never knew about it.

I do remember being annoyed in high school when a buddy who was going to pick me up was late. But he had the car and I had nothing so I did a slow burn and accepted it.

I don’t recall the issue during my time in Vancouver or Long Beach. However, I didn’t have to wait for them as we never all pilled into the same vehicle(s) to go anywhere. But I did many a slow burn as a teacher. I could barely tolerate the students who regularly walked in late to class. Initially I always started the class after stalling for about five minutes while waiting that normal for the stragglers to grace us with their presence.

I had heard a number of stories as to how Dr. Cramer handled the latecomers with sarcasm. When he did so, he seemed to always get a positive response and laugher. I thought I could do that so tried it once and only once. No one laughed. That was stupid. The problem was so pervasive I realized I was going to develop an ulcer if I didn’t let go of the insane tension I was creating by holding on to that desire. It wasn’t life or death. It may have been rude or inconsiderate (it was) but making it so important was only hurting me.

One year the Portrait Players tried to teach me a lesson on the subject during a stop in Hamilton, Ontario. Yes, I was hard on them also. When I wanted to leave I just wanted to leave. In Hamilton, Ontario Con Hild and I were staying at the same home for the evening. We knew we were having trouble with a tire on the van so left our home early to get the tire checked or get a new one, whichever. We got held up having the tired checked and by the time we were ready to leave, we were an hour late. I had tried calling the church, but no one answered the phone. So we were late — very late. No one had ever been that late.

When we arrived at the church, we found everyone’s luggage just inside the front door with a note saying they had left without us because we were so late. Would we please bring their luggage? Of course the idea was absurd as we had the van and how would they get a ride for eight people to go anywhere. But the thought was good. They did make one big mistake. The girls also left their purses. It was very doubtful they would go on without those.

We looked around for a bit but could not find them in the building. They had to be hiding outside. Con and I decided we would load the luggage in the trailer then tried to take off as fast as we could. We were just about out of the driveway when they came running out from some trees waving their hand and screaming for us to stop. Of course we picked them up and Con and I tried to explain the situation but got no sympathy at all. They certainly drove home the point that there were extenuating circumstances at times. I never left anyone on tour. I knew they were all at the mercy of their hosts, and not all were not prompt.

I solved my emotional problem in the classroom, by giving the class all the assignment and exam information for future classes in the first five minutes of the class. It didn’t solve the problem, but it did calm me down and released my tension.

In the end, God gave me a family that I could not regularly urge to be on time. No my wife, she was terrific, but two children, neither of which was ever in a hurry. God has a way of correcting out bad habits if we listen.

THE “NEW” CAMPUS chapter 190

Chapter 190 was on my blog but still sitting as a draft (not published). It is very difficult to get things in order, so here is ti now. Thanks to my ancient, but still good friend for noticing. I didn't have a clue that it wasn't there.

When I was a CBC student the hallway from the administration basement to the girls dorm had an apartment on the left and offices on the right. Miss Johnston lived in the apartment. The apartment has been converted to offices and the faculty lounge. Actually the lounge was used for all kinds of meetings. I used to a meet with the Youth Conference Planning committee.

The rest of the space was offices related mostly to Christian education. There were four decent sized offices with space for a small secretarial pool in the front. I was surprised how big the offices were (12x12). Most of my offices in churches were smaller.

In the first year, Bob Rose was in the first office Norma Bailey was next, and then my office was third. I may be wrong, but I don’t believe anyone was in the fourth office. Bob was the chairman of the department. The parties were generally in Norma’s office or in the common area.

There was a new music classroom building and gymnasium. As I recall, the dining room was still under construction. Who knows, maybe the gym was still under construction as well, but it was completed before the year was out.

The old library was now a classroom. So was the old chapel. It was strange to see it tiered and turned sideways. It was the only space that would hold the freshmen. It just felt weird, but I came to love the space and the dynamic I experienced with freshmen. It also became the primary rehearsal space for the Portrait Players.

If it is true that the dining room was not completed, students were still eating in the pit with the “Tuck Shop” where it was when I left school. When the new dining room opened, the Tuck Shop was relocated to the old dish room and kitchen. Across from Tuck was a very nice bookstore. The rest of the space was turned over to a student lounge. Mailboxes had been moved downstairs to the new lounge,

The school had grown and the expanded space was appropriate. They wanted a chapel, but the money did not stretch that far at that time. Parts of the school were new other parts remodeled. To me it still seemed like the same ‘ole school. The old dorms were still there and they stunk even worse than when I lived in one. I have gone on line to look at the old campus from Google earth. It looks like they are still standing. How can that be? They were near death when I lived in one.

I had the opportunity to walk the entire campus before students arrived. They were still installing desks in the rooms. I had to take another look. I walked over by the desk with the draws not yet inserted. There was an electrical outlet located at the standard height from the floor right where it appeared the drawer would open. I had the sense that once all the electrical gadgets were plugged into a plug expander, one would have to unplug everything just to open the drawer. Maybe that wasn’t a problem. I never heard anyone complain about it. With my limited background in architecture, I wondered why it wasn’t above the desk? That’s where I would have wanted it. Yes, I blame the architect.

Former students of mine were on staff: Ray Matheson was now dean of men, Mel Bowker was in the music department, Richard Reichert was director of athletics, Bob Rose was the chairman of our department, Dorothy Taylor was assistant to the president, Velma Warnock was an assistant cook. In addition were a number of staff and faculty still at the school or ones who have returned. It sort of felt like home.

COLLEGE AND QUIZZING chapter 194

I really thought that once I got back to Regina my connection to quizzing would end. We began attending a small church on the Westside that had no youth. You need youth to have Bible Quizzing. Even if there had been the people, I don’t know whether I would have had the time. My wife tells me I would not.

My life increased intensity as the year went on. It tricked me in December. It let me get comfortable and then just piled things on. First there was the Portrait Players. That program built to the Christmas program. There was a reprieve. The Christmas break came along just in time and we headed to Red Deer, Alberta to spend time with Della’s family. Back to driving in the snow, yuck!

Early in the break I got a call from Dan Rinker asking if I would be the quizmaster for Internationals. Bill Berry had quit a couple of year earlier, and his replacement, Ted Mock, was unable to do it in the summer of 1975. I said yes being unable to anticipate what was about to happen to me. The quizmaster writes all the questions for the meet. I knew how to do that. I had done it each year for the quiz practices. It takes time, but is not that hard. Just agreeing to be quizmaster did not mean I immediately jumped on the task of writing quwstions.

Immediately after the Christmas break, everything became a rush. Youth Conference suddenly seemed to take over my life. Rehearsals for the Portrait Players summer tour production of The Maze began in earnest as well as rehearsals for Youth Conference. Then there were still classes and I was a first year teacher still trying to get his sea legs. Della wondered at times if I even remembered I was married with children,

Writing quiz questions would have to wait. And wait it did — until after schools end and the tour was over, That meant my summer was rapidly disappearing making my wife less than thrilled.

But I made my way off to St. Paul Bible College and Bible quizzing to complete the circle from quizzer, to coach, to quizmaster. I expected I would know several of the coaches and maybe even a few quizzers. Here’s a piece of the report for Alliance Life about the 1975 International Quiz Competitions

The final competition to determine the number one team in the United States and Canada was keen. The suspense was exciting. The audience shouted loud and long. Clyde Walker frequently raised his hand. After two quizzes it was over. South Pacific had taken first place; West Central, second; and Northwestern, third.

 I tried to calm the audience for the last question of the final quiz so everyone could hear, but also to get control of my own nerves. In the finals were the South Pacific team and some of them I had coached the previous year. I could not mess this up and mostly I could not show favoritism. These were my quizzers. Bill and Faith were there once again to coach the team. We talked strategy before the meet began and we agreed not to talk about that again until after the meet.

The quiz was tense with the lead changing hands several times. It was another one of those quizzes coming down to the wire. The South Pacific was ahead by ten points going into question 20 (the last one). With each question worth 20 points, they had to get the question to hold onto their lead. John Keihl (SP) got the jump and came to the mic. He took so long I was sure he was going to miss it. I could see Bill and Faith dying in the front bench. Then finally, without hesitation he got it right and pandemonium reigned. South Pacific became the International champs for 1975. I nearly collapsed myself. Being quizmaster it the most tense job in the whole program.

Would I do it again? Yes! I did it the next year as well. In 1977 Bill Berry returned. He was absolutely the best quizmaster. The team from the Canadian Midwest had suffered a terrible tragedy and needed a coach to fill in. In the spring the Regina team was driving to Winnipeg for a meet, hit black ice and their coach, Jan Neufeld, was killed in the auto accident leaving behind her husband and small child. The team was devastated but still wanted to go to Internationals. Rev. Orthner asked if I would take them to Internationals I doubted they would be in any emotional state to compete, but believed the trip would be good for the team and bring some healing. It did just that.

My next return to the Bible quizzing program would come in the summer of 1981.

YOUTH CONFERENCE chapter 193

I found my teaching schedule for my first year this morning. I was able to count my time with Portrait Players and Youth Conference as teaching hours (I think). My actual classes were Discover in Christian Education right after chapel. Then for some reason I was always given the first hour after lunch. I think it was a test to see if I could keep the students awake. I mostly succeeded. Lots of questions, small group discussions and story telling works – at least for me. The after lunch class was CE of Children, which alternated with CE of Youth. I also had a class called contemporary Issues in Christian Education. I have no memory of that class. The children’s class was my least favorite. I only taught it for one year.

I have been digging around to find the posters and workbooks for each of the six Youth Conferences I directed. I can only find three. I know I have them, but where? The story of my life! Later I will be looking for something else and then I will find them I regret that I don’t remember the theme or the leadership team for 1975. That really bothers me. I remember the process as I used it throughout my life. I learned it from Miss A while working on youth conferences under her leadership. It fits with my philosophy. The goal was always to involve as many people as possible and give everyone as meaningful responsibility as possible, using both volunteers and those recruited. If you are going to work in a church, not everyone who is capable and talented will volunteer. Learn to recognize them and win them over.

I began with twelve volunteers. After the first year it became a class limited to twelve. We always started with understanding the philosophy while learning and discussing our own strengths and weaknesses. Each member was responsible to lead another team that may have sub teams all the way down to worker bees. Everyone is important. Everyone is critical to the success of the ministry. Everyone deserves encouragement. If the committee succeeds, the team will get plenty of encouragement, but our teams may only get that from us. That means working with and understanding team relationships.

I came to believe that more spiritual grown may occur though serving God together than most preaching. Iron sharpens iron. Even the conflicts teach us a great deal.

From there we worked on a theme. That always took longer than any of us expected. Then we reevaluated the recommendations from the previous year and determine which of the previous committees we would need. Youth conference that was pretty well set from year to year. But once in a while we found another branch. The students carried the load. I acted as a coordinator. I wanted all of them to know everything I did so they would have the big picture.

We gradually selected all the committees: promotion, registration, housing, individual and group Bible study, programming, public services, set-up and take down, activities, entertainment and whatever else was needed.

We had the gym form large group meetings and sports. The biggest problem was it had to be set and taken down four times a day. The new dining room made coordination meals much easier.

The closer we would get to the YC more and more people would be drawn upon to help with all the details. The primary committee held training and information meetings for those working on their team. They often wrote and distributed directions and guidelines so everyone knew what was needed.

We began praying in September and when it was over we thanked God. We took several classes to celebrate, gather evaluations and put together a report for the next year’s committee. The program was the exam. I thing everyone always got an A. If they were not working hard enough, I pushed them until they did.

I remember for one entertainment section, the Portrait Players were performing Rinse the Blood of My Toga and got five or six laughs off one line with multiple double takes. Leon as a Greek toga-wearing detective said, “Lend me your ears.” Eric ran in appearing very humble with a paper bag and the laughs would started and came each time Leon and then Eric would look at the bag. Leon would finally say, “What’s in the bag.” Another laugh. Eric replied, “Ears.” And yet another laugh came. It was so anticipated it was hard to believe it was always so funny. It had a great deal to do with the actors. From then on their goal was to see how many laughs they could get out of that one line. I don’t remember the record, but I believe it was in double digits. The guys preformed it brilliantly.

Since I have no idea who reads this blog, if anyone happens to know the Youth Conference themes leaders from 1975-1980, would you drop me a line or comment in the comment section, I only remember what I remember because of the yearbook. If there are no photos, my mind goes blank.

INTRODUCTION TO PORTRAIT PLAYERS chapter 192

I definitely had an interest in working with the Portrait Players. I had no real background and no training or special skill. I just liked the idea. I considered myself a visual person. Plays and skits are visual things, right? That should work, shouldn’t it?

I wasn’t completely without experience. I wrote a mission’s play Columbia in Revolt while a student at CBC. I wrote Connie’s Choice in Saskatoon for a missions week show

I had preformed in skits while in high school and college. I had directed a couple of plays. I already knew I liked directing better than acting. I am terrible at remembering the lines. I want to ad-lib all the time. That does not help the other actors.

What I had never done was hold auditions. The thought of selecting some and rejecting others was depressing. I had not written a play for tour yet, but I knew what I was going to write. I knew I would need four women and four men. Now all I had to do was select them.

I have been trying to remember where auditions were held. I know it was a small out of the way room. There were only ten or eleven who showed up. I decided to pull out all the old Peanuts scripts I had used in Saskatoon. I wasn’t sure what I would learn, but I wanted both dramatic and comic actors. I had everyone do several skits and try various roles. I wanted to see if any could change characters and figured everyone was familiar with Charlie Brown, Lucy and the gang.

It was obvious that two girls were going to be terrific: Jeri-Lynne Hougestol and Norma Frentz were definitely in. Norma had a better sense of comic timing, but both could easily handle drama. Leon Throness was without doubt the comedian. These were the first three selected. Then I took Judy Linnen who could do anything and Christine O’Reilly. The girls seemed easy compared to the guys. I took Eric Greenway, Duane Patterson and a gentleman I did not know was on academic probation, He had to pull his grades up by the end of first semester or he would not be allowed to tour. I worried about my choice so approached Garry Tollefson with a strange proposal. I wanted him to begin practicing and if my first choice was removed from the group, he would be in. Even more strangely, he accepted.

I felt like I could not remove my first choice. I wanted him to have the challenge of tour to get his grades up. He did not succeed and Gary was in.

The previous years group did a great number of short skits and we worked on our own set. Our coming out party was Christmas. We did short open-ended skits. We may have done the program at the college, but we definitely performed at the Alliance Tabernacle.

While we were having a good time with short skits and getting ready for Christmas, I was writing The Maze. The play was based on a concept in Watchman Nees book The Calvary Road. He said no one comes to the cross except on his or her knees and that there are many normal, everyday things that block our freedom to communicate who Jesus is. My idea was a waiting room where people passed on their way to the normal things of life. A maid would be hostess to the room getting them coffee or tea and trying to make sure they were comfortable. We will help people, but not tell them about the Saviour.

The premise was set. Gwendolyn would wear a maid’s outfit and serve off a teacart at the front of the stage. The idea was that the cart had to be moved out of the way to see Jesus. Then characters wandered through with their problems. We did some reading, but casting was not set until second semester. The cast would rotate roles to give them a little variety and cover us in case of illness.

The team was finalized and Garry was in. Boy was in. Garry worked with the group all four years at CBC and one year at CTS. He became the go to guy who had the heart, patience and skill to be a guide to the rest. By year two he was my right hand man.

SOME PORTRAIT PLAYER PHOTOS APPEAR IN THE NEXT ENTRY

Portrait Player photos 1974-1975

A scene from our Christmas
program. Garry is on Santa's lap
sharing if greed for Christmas

There was no poster for tour. The floral
pattern is a piece off the tour shirts.
Wild!!!

"Rinse the Blood of My Toga" one
of the most popular skits the
group did. It reappeared often.

Norma and Leon as bickering spouces

Jeri-Lynne as Gwendolyn