The Journey of Books

by Heather Oberlander and Janine Sobeck, dramaturgs

Do you love to read? Is your home or office full of books? In a world where books can be delivered instantly to your e-reader, it's hard to imagine a time when reading a book was a rare privilege. And yet, throughout the history of time, the wondrous stories and important information contained within the pages of books have not been always available to everyone. To see how far we have come, check out our brief look into the journey of books.

1200 B.C.

It is around this time that the Phoenicians created the first known alphabet.

The first known use of writing was in Sumeria. People used clay tablets to record information about mining and crops.

1154 B.C.

It’s not known exactly when scrolls began to be used, but it was sometime around 1154 B.C. Scrolls were made out of stretched animal skin called parchment.

The next form of the book was the codex. It was 2 pieces of wood bound together and covered in wax. The writing would be scratched in to the wax. The Codex was so important that it is still the official name of a bound book.

1 A.D.

Paper was invented in China around 1 A.D. They folded it in to books accordion style. It took quite a while for this discovery to reach the rest of the world.

7 A.D.

Eventually people started putting parchment pages in to codexes. People start making copies of books called manuscripts. These copies are made by hand, usually by monks. It can take weeks or months to copy one book.

1439 A.D.

Johannes Gutenberg invented moveable type print. Now after a page of a book is created it can be “stamped” onto paper multiple times.

1605 A.D.

Don Quixote is considered the first western novel.

1754 A.D.

Benjamin Franklin created the first editorial comic urging the colonies to fight together.

1837 A.D.

The Adventures of Mr. Obadiah Oldbuck, considered the first comic book, was published in North America.

1935 A.D.

IBM creates the first commercially successful typewriter.

1971 A.D.

The creator of e-books sends everyone on the internet a copy of the Declaration of Independence. It is the first known example of a computer virus!

1995 A.D.

Amazon.com is launched as an online bookstore.

2004 A.D.

Sony releases the first e-reader to use electronic paper technology.

2005 A.D

Princess Academy by Shannon Hale is published.

2015 A.D.

What does the future hold?

Tags

Princess Academy

data-content-type="article"

by Shelley Graham, dramaturg [caption id="attachment_7692" align="aligncenter" width="960"] Director Tim Threlfall works with four actors in an early rehearsal.[/caption] Each performer in this production had a unique opportunity to create a character in ways we've never tried before. Such singular opportunities bring with them challenges. I reached out to our performers in the middle of blocking and choreography rehearsals, to see what they thought about the process. Here's what a few of them had to say. One of the challenges I've experienced with this production is the need to exactly replicate every inflection in my dialogue. People speak and inflect the same words differently in different contexts, on different days, and for endless reasons. Because we recorded the audio before filming, the challenge was to match our performance with the inflection we had on the recording day. I'm a fairly emotive person, and I rarely say things exactly the same way twice. In order to be successful with this production, I had to spend a lot of time listening to the recordings of myself, a strategy I've not used in preparing for roles in the past. Brendon French During this process, it was a challenge to not have in-person rehearsals when learning the score. I personally learned how to plunk out my notes on the piano, worked with those in my vocal part, and was able to meet privately with Korianne [Johnson, music director] to confirm that I was on the right track vocally, and that I was ready to record in a group! This has been such a wonderful experience despite the challenges! I have learned so much and am grateful to be a part of this production Riley Holmes I think an obvious challenge is covid. It's been affecting this whole process! The worst part about it is that not everyone can be on the stage, so I feel like it is a little more difficult to be able to react to the other actors that are "on stage." You just have to imagine that they are there! Luke Gonzalez I think the biggest challenge for me was having to learn everything alone, without any guidance or direction from either the vocal or acting directors at first. It was super interesting and a great learning opportunity, because I got to put my own spin on everything before it was altered by the directors, but it was still really hard. I think the way that I overcame this challenge was just lots of time putting into memorizing and learning and practicing. Practice makes better! AJ Klomp Highlights from Gilbert and Sullivan's Pirates of Penzance is live streaming March 31, April 1-2 at 7:30 pm. Don't miss it!

overrideBackgroundColorOrImage= overrideTextColor= promoTextAlignment= overrideCardHideSection= overrideCardHideByline= overrideCardHideDescription= overridebuttonBgColor= overrideButtonText= promoTextAlignment=