issue 19// vol 47

Meet old friends and new at
theatre alumni reunion

» Douglas College anniversary sparks event and free performance

Cheryl Minns
Senior Columnist

 

T° celebrate Douglas College’s 50th
anniversary, the theatre and stagecraft
& event technology departments will host
an alumni reunion for graduates of the
programs and their guests.

“Tam excited to attend the alumni
reunion,’ theatre alum Adam Tatelman said
to the Other Press in an online interview.
“There are many people, not just from my
year but from years above and below, that
I worked with who I’m looking forward to
seeing again.”

“It’s a good chance to see where people
are now,’ theatre alum Julia Siedlanowska
said to the Other Press in a phone
interview. “Life takes you in many different
directions. Maybe youre not in theatre
anymore, but I’m sure that has been a
foundation for whatever you choose to do
for the rest of your career.”

Siedlanowska and Tatelman have
found their theatre training to be useful in
their current careers.

“[Instructor] Thrasso Petras has
incredible vocal techniques that I apply
with my students today as I teach arts
and drama,” said Siedlanowska, who is
an instructor at a private academy in
Vancouver.

“Memorizing and repeating pages of
material, speaking clearly and confidently,
and being unafraid to present in front of
large crowds are just as useful in litigation
as they are to a stage actor,” said Tatelman,
who is pursuing a career in law.

The alumni reunion will be followed

by the opening night performance of Ann-
Marie MacDonald’s Goodnight Desdemona
(Good Morning Juliet)—a comedic play
that follows Constance Ledbelly, an
academic at Queen’s University, who is
transported to the tragic moments of
William Shakespeare’s Othello and Romeo
and juliet. She tries to save Desdemona
and Juliet, while also trying to fit into the
old-fashioned world of sword fights and
dances. Tickets to this show are free for
alumni.

“Tt’s really suited to what we're doing
in the department because it’s a great
combination of Shakespearean text with a
contemporary twist to it,’ Thrasso Petras,
the play’s director and theatre program
coordinator, said to the Other Press ina
phone interview.

“Tt’s actual text from Shakespeare
and then the rest of it is mostly written in
iambic pentameter. You get the experience
of working in that style of heightened
language, while at the same time it’s a
contemporary. It’s a really nice mixture.”

The departments’ plays come with
program booklets for attendees that
delve deeper into a production. Previous
program booklets have included pieces
written by Douglas College instructors in
different fields, such as philosophy and
English, according to Petras.

“We tell them what play we're doing,
then they'll come and watch rehearsals,
then read the play, and then give a little
reflection from their perspective,” he said.
“This year, because it’s the anniversary, we
invited alumni Adam Tatelman and Julia
Siedlanowska to contribute and they both

 

did.”

Siedlanowska wrote a piece for the
Goodnight Desdemona (Good Morning
Juliet) program booklet where she draws
on her own experience playing Juliet in the
departments’ previous performance of the
show in March 2012, as well as an interview
with Natalie Peters, the actor who plays
Juliet in the current production.

Tatelman’s piece will be in the
program booklet for the upcoming
production of Hal Coase’s Jekyll, opening
March 13. The piece will include his
interview with Madelyn Osborne, the
play’s director and an alum of the theatre
program, as well as his own thoughts on
the play.

“That Thrasso would think of me after
all this time shows, I think, that Douglas’
professors are invested in their students as
individuals,” he said.

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When? Where?
The reunion will happen at 6:15 p.m. at the
Douglas College New Westminster campus
at 700 Royal Avenue on Friday, March 6.
Goodnight Desdemona (Good Morning
Juliet) will follow in the Laura C. Muir
Performing Arts Theatre at 7:30 p.m. After
the show, a gala reception will take place
outside the theatre with the cast and crew
in attendance.

Goodnight Desdemona (Good
Morning Juliet) will run March 6 to 13
in the Laura C. Muir Performing Arts
Theatre on the fourth floor of the Douglas
College New Westminster campus. Free
tickets for alumni to the reunion and
performance are available at eventbrite.
ca. For non-alums, tickets are available at
GoodnightDesdemona.bpt.me at $10 for
students and $20 for general admission.

Therapeutic Recreation celebrates 40 years

» Program mirrors the history of Douglas: A growing, active and passionate community

Atiba Nelson
Staff Reporter

 

early 100 therapeutic recreation

faculty members, retired professors,
preceptors, students, and alumni gathered
on the ninth floor of the Anvil Tower
to celebrate a program that embodies
Douglas’ history.

On February 29, Therapeutic
Recreation celebrated its 40 years in
existence with an educational day and
reunion. Attendees were welcomed to the
gathering by the Master of Ceremonies,
Janice Spencer, the therapeutic recreation
program co-coordinator.

The first three speakers of the
morning detailed the storied history and
achievements of the therapeutic recreation
program at Douglas College.

Starting in 1979, the therapeutic
recreation program was initially delivered
in portables on the barely decade-old
Douglas College campus in Surrey until a
move to the newly built New Westminster
occurred in 1983.

“Back when the program started,

a semester of classes in the therapeutic
recreation program cost one hundred

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dollars a semester,” remarked Karla
Gronsdahl, Dean of the Faculty of Child,
Family & Community Studies—the faculty
that oversees the therapeutic recreation
program—when detailing the history of
the program.

Each speaker documented their
personal history with the therapeutic
recreation program. Dave Seaweed,

    
 

a honourary Therapeutic Recreation
practitioner and current Indigenous
Coordinator, detailed his connection

to the program as he started the first
therapeutic recreation club recognized by
the Douglas College student union, while
Thor Borgford, Vice President Academic
and Provost at Douglas College, revealed
his link to therapeutic recreation through

marriage.

“Tt is extremely important to get the
word out about what therapeutic recreation
is,’ said Borgford when addressing the
attendees. “As [graduates of this program]
are the individuals who turn patients back
into people.’ A sentiment that was well
received by those in attendance.

Borgford’s speech also received
applause when the Douglas employee
revealed that the college and the
therapeutic recreation program are
planning to start offering the Bachelor of
Therapeutic Recreation degree online, with
plans to start in 2021.

The passionate community around the
therapeutic recreation program was excited
about prospective students throughout the
province being able to obtain the highly
flexible credential.

“I volunteered in long term
care facilities doing song circles with
seniors,” said Skye MacLeod, a third-year
Therapeutic Recreation student, “but when
I learned about the therapeutic recreation
degree it spoke to me.”

“You can help people through music
to sports, or whatever people like to do,”
commented MacLeod.