Rachel Starr Thomson

One of the greatest things about truly classic stories is how well they lend themselves to being interpreted in more than one art form.  With every new form, artists can explore and enhance the themes of the story and communicate them to audiences in powerful new ways.

Right now, my days are doubly busy because I’m working to bring a classic true story to the Niagara region in the form of a ballet. The story is The Hiding Place, and in its own way, you could say the tale of Corrie and Betsie Ten Boom’s journey into the darkest places of the Holocaust is a reinterpretation, too — it’s a 20th century look at God’s age-old story of love, hope, and redemption in the midst of man’s greatest darkness.

The Hiding Place was written by Corrie Ten Boom in the early 70s. Since then, it has been made into a movie, performed as a play, and now given as a ballet. With its power to celebrate, mourn, and worship, I find dance an especially potent art form in which to convey such a heartrendingly, humbly awesome story.

Have a look at the event Web site to see what we’re doing to bring this story to Niagara (and if you’d like to help, you can donate or even buy tickets — we’d love to see you there!).

Coming next week — I’ll be looking at another reinterpretation of an old, old story: the tale of Arthur, king of the Britons, as told by Burns Family Studios. Pendragon is one of the most ambitious independent Christian films to date, and it was produced by a pair of homeschool families with the help of many an independent young creative like you and me. I plan to watch Pendragon with my own family tonight, and along with my review, I’ll be conducting an interview with Marilyn Burns. I’m excited!

This week’s “passage” is a movie, the first short from Lamplighter Publishing. In this “new dark age,” a few will defy the darkness. This is a must-see for everyone who uses words to shine light in our culture!

“With every word, with every page, with every story, we defy the darkness.”

What was printing like before computers, back in the days of Gutenberg, leather-bound books, and handmade characters? Firefly Press is still using old-fashioned techniques, as this fascinating video will show you. If you’ve fallen in love with the look and feel of books, you’ll enjoy this one!

Check it out here.

Thanks to Sheri Harper, who was in love with Shakespeare when I was still discovering the classics, for sending this to me!

Yesterday an editing client sent me a painting (digitally) that he had commissioned to go with his book. It is VERY cool. So I looked up the artist and also the studio he works for, and found that both keep clever blogs, and they blog about tea! And also paint with it. Not only does this post tell us the origin of tea and explain why it’s a mark of civilization, it also has tea paintings.

Let Them Drink Art

After that I surfed some more and found out that in Peanuts, classical music was a character in its own right. Schroeder wasn’t just playing around.

Listening to Schroeder: ‘Peanuts’ Scholars Find Messages in Cartoon’s Scores