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Little red barn: a little too small
In the late ’90s a donor gave Trinity Western University a barn. The anonymous group gave the barn because they felt TWU needed more land in the campus area.
The barn is located off Glover road on 76th ave. It is on the other side of the 57 acres that TWU owns across the street from campus. The barn has been renovated with two floors. The top level has wooden flooring and mirrors all around. The bottom floor has two stand-alone rooms, a washroom and a small kitchen.
Paul Weme, the VP of Strategic Advancement at TWU was a catalyst to securing the gifting of the barn. He feels it hasn’t been well utilized on campus up until this point. Disciples Ready In Mobile Evangelism (DRIME) had been using the barn as a practice space up until their recent move to the Power to Change ministries in Langley.
As of Jan. 1, 2009, the barn was given to the theatre department to use full-time. Weme says, “They’ve always been punted around campus. The students of the theatre department are happy to finally have a place to hang their hat.”
Aaron Caleb is the production manager of the theatre department at TWU and the director of the upcoming The Good Woman of Setzuan. His show is the first to rehearse in the barn.
“It has its benefits; space is such a premium on campus. [The theatre department doesn’t] have conventional classes. We generally need an open space with no desks/chairs. We need a lot of space to run around, and [at the barn], we can do that and be as loud as we need to be.”
There are some logistics that get in the way of the barn being a fully beneficial space for the theatre department, such as transportaion. The full cast and crew of The Good Woman of Setzuan totals 25-30 people. Not everyone has vehicles, and the drive is a good ten minutes from campus. This adds extra lag time on either end of long rehearsals that amount to over 20 hours per week.
Being ten minutes from campus means the students can’t break to run over to the cafeteria for food either. Rehearsals require a lot of planning ahead.
Additionally, “The space can’t take the spiking,” Caleb said. Spiking is the act of placing tape on a stage or floor to assist with blocking out scenes for rehearsal. The space just isn’t big enough to mimic the real stage in Freedom Hall. With no access to the downstairs rooms in the barn, the entire cast and crew must stay upstairs the entire duration of rehearsals, four hours on weekdays and eight hours on Saturdays.
Caleb said, “The preference would be to have an on-campus space, but for now it is good to have the extra space, specifically when we’re running rehearsals [for several shows] concurrently.”
The barn doesn’t have everything the theatre department needs, says Caleb. Besides the size, the commute, and its isolation from cafeteria or shops, there are also other matters. Lighting isn’t up to par with what is needed, the space is not easy to heat, and there is only one bathroom for 30 people.
“We’re thankful for it, but a lot of things still need to be done. I think if and when they build a road (through the 57 acres) it will increase the access to the barn.”
Weme said that the barn, or “little red barn” as some call it, is like a clubhouse for the theatre students. Caleb says of the theatre students, “They’re good. They’re committed to this department and to the shows. They suck it up, but do they like the commute? No.”
I’m not so sure that the ” …students of the theatre department are happy to finally have a place to hang their hat.” I’m thankful the barn has been made available for us, but it’s certainly not an ideal space for rehearsal. As student who has been working in the barn this semester, I would say our “clubhouse” is very lacking in terms of what rehearsal calls for. Until the benefits of the space outweigh its shortcomings, I’m keeping my hat on, thank you very much.
Do you mean 76th ave or Labonte ave? I think you mean Labonte ave because the only 76 ave off glover goes to TWU itself.