A-Gift-of-Time

A Gift of Time

Presented at Knox United Church

Durham, Ontario.

October 28 & 29, 1999

Written by . . .The Rev. Donna Mann

Produced by . Lawrence Hastie

Directed by Lisa Tunney

Supervision for young children

available in Sunday school rooms.

CAST

Tawnya Schlosser

Judy VanGeen

John A. Bell

Bill McMeekin

Dana Bell

Abby Gardiner

Lenora Bristow

Mae Watson

Lee Neuman

Shirley Greenwood

Jean Allen

Luke Woods

Doug Woods

Bob Dowling

Lee MacDonald

Shannon Tunney

Cameo appearance of Evan by

Cole Hollands

Father Time: David Krauter

AUTHOR'S COMMENTS

First of all, thank you to the cast and crew of A Gift of Time. Without all of you, these words would only be in my head and on paper. You have both given them life and brought them to the stage for others to enjoy.

The vision for this play grew out of lively discussions of memories at the Thursday afternoon Prayer Group. I would often hear prayers of gratitude and thanksgiving for the church family, for people who had served and contributed, for the vision and dreams of the early settlers who sacrificed and handed their faith and mission down through the ages.

I am always mindful that all of us not only need help to remember those old stories, but we who have the privilege of hearing the stories need to find ways to share them..

I remember the day I came home from Prayer Group thinking that we must find a way to preserve the gift of time we are given. Thus, the play began and took shape over the next few days.

The drama is historically accurately in terms of dates, changes, and faith experience as noted in Mr. Thomas Binnie's account of Glenelg, January 27, 1879. Thank you sir for your personal witness: a treasure to behold..

THE GIFT OF TIME

DONNA j. MANN

(copyright October, 1999)

Sung by Father Time

God moves across the pages of time,

Giving all good thing to you

You've tasted joy and strife

It's all a part of life

in this special gift of time.

REFRAIN This day is yours, a gift for you.

How will you choose

To open up and use

This special gift of time.

Things we remember.

Times that we forget, friends

What works for you or lets you down.

Even as you will it so,

We're never on our own

In this special gift of time.

I wish for you friend, health and good fortune

And that your prayers will all be heard

Bring to life your love and laughter, you'll see after

How you've used that special gift of time.

A SPECIAL THANK YOU TO . . .

Padfield's Pro Hardware

Durham Furniture

Georgian Power Sports Inx.

Jalna Colquhoun

all who helped behind the scenes

DIRECTOR'S COMMENTS:

I'd like to welcome all of you to our play this evening. I hope you will enjoy our gift of time to you, the congregation and guests.

I don't think that many of us were aware of just how much time and effort this production would require. We've been practicing regularly since June and I would like to extend my personal thanks to all the members of the case for their time and dedication over the last months. A special thanks goes to Shirley Greenwood for coming in late, and taking on a male role.

I quickly found that directing a couple of children's Christmas plays for church had not equipped me for this undertaking and I'm really appreciative of the early support I received from Gretta Anderson and Sandra Hutchinson. I'd also like to thank Larry Hastie and all the behind the scenes help. The production this evening would not be taking place if it weren't for all of you. Because assistance was not finalized at program printing we didn't print any names, rather than leave some one out.

Last, but certainly not least, I'd like to thank Donna Mann for putting so much effort into writing this play and having enough faith in us to step back and let us put our own personalities into this production.

On the whole, we quite enjoyed putting together this play for you, our audience. We had lots of laughs - most of them at our own expense.

With much help from God, we present to you our "Gift of Time".

Lisa Tunney

EDITOR'S COMMENTS:

I'm going to give you the compliment of believing that you really want my criticism and not just to hear me tell you that it's a good play. It is a good play. The "Bonnie" character especially is engaging. She comes alive. I like the way you've tied in the life of the family with the life of the church. The best assistance I can offer you is to suggest that you're making some of the dialogue work too hard. In a play, dialogue is primarily used for the expression of emotion. You've got staging, costumes, make-up and props to do a lot of the explanatory work for you. .

. .

You have a couple of big time gaps in your play (1883 - 1925 - 1965). I realize that you are focusing on important dates for the church, but the family is your protagonist. I think you need a couple of vignettes to bridge those gaps.

I'd love to see the finished show. Thank you for the opportunity to read the script.

Melodee Lovering .

Thank you Melodee. This play is a better production because of your comments. Your encouragement to develop certain areas further opened the play to its fullness. DJM

A GIFT OF TIME

by Donna j. Mann.