Tabitha Long Ricks Gently Closes the Door to Her Position as Outreach Coordinator. Brylee Perry Appointed Set Director. Imaginarium Theater

 

     In August 2018 Mr. James Porter appointed Tabitha Ricks to the position of Space Center Outreach Coordinator. In doing so, he relieved himself from the day to day work of overseeing the Center's volunteer program. That decision has been regarded by most to be the best decision he's made in his career as Space Center Director.  Tabitha took the job and ran with it. 

     Running a volunteer organization isn't easy, and I speak from years of experience, especially during a massive upheaval to an organization. During her reign the Space Center was demolished and a new Center constructed.  With the new Center came six awesome simulators and a planetarium - all of which needed a steady flow of volunteers.  The volunteer core needed to expand, and quickly.  

     In addition to the volunteer organization, Tabitha was tasked with creating new departments to support the Space Center's programs.  The Engineering and Acting Departments were created with a few more in the works.  

     Now, with all that in her "In Basket" Tabitha got married to Matt Ricks, another Space Center legend. The family has grown to three with the arrival of a cute baby girl.  It was then that a little voice in Tabitha's head told her it was time to pass the torch to someone else and devote more time to her family and other interests (Matt does need a bit of extra care :) 

     And so, it is with heavy heart that The Troubadour announces that Tabitha Ricks will be stepping down from her position as Outreach Coordinator.  She is NOT retiring from the Space Center as was previously reported by an inept reported who needs to get his facts straight before posting (honestly, the guy should be fired), she is only trimming back on a few of her duties.  A rest well earned for sure.  

    So we will still see Tabitha at the Center doing an undecided number of things, one of which will be staring uncomfortably over the shoulder of her replacement to ensure the well oiled machine called Outreach continues to run smoothly.  

Brylee Perry Named Planetarium Set Director at the Christa McAuliffe Space Center

Brylee with Husband Jordan (Both Certified Space Center Legends)

     The Space Center's Planetarium was placed in the caring hands of Brylee Smith last week.  Mr. James Porter made the announcement was given over the Center's intra communication system and intercepted by The Troubadour's agents at our listening center near Point of the Mountain.  What does "placed in the caring hands" mean?  It means that Brylee is the planetarium's Set Director.  

     Brylee's time at the Space Center is split between the Galileo and the Planetarium.  With this new responsibility, the Galileo will see less of her so Orion will need to learn to cope.  Personally I think it is a brilliant idea to put a flight director in a planetarium management role.    

      We can rest assured that Brylee will lead the upstairs people (planetarium) down to the dark recesses of the Center where the downstairs folk can be found lurking in the shadows in and around the simulators. I feel assured that both groups will find new and creative ways to collaborate.

Imaginarium Theater

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What a Difference We Can Make! This Week's Imaginarium Theater

 

Hello Troops,
Below this paragraph is a testimonial and thank you letter I received from a teacher several years back when I was the director. I'm reposted it today as a reminder to everyone in our line of work that what we do can and does make a difference in young people's lives.  

We don't get a lot of feedback from our teachers, students and campers. They cheer and clap after a field trip, private mission or camp and they leave. It is nice when someone takes the time to send an email telling us they appreciated the experience and how it affected them. Letters like this energized us and make us want to work harder to created the best field trip and camp possible with our limited resources. After all, what are we after? World domination of course........Is that too much to ask?

Mr. W.

And Now the Teacher's Letter:

Dear Space Center,
It is has been 7-8 years since I took a classroom to Space Camp. Of course, I haven't been teaching all that time. As a matter of fact, I have just gotten back into the field. I teach seventh grade homeroom at a conservative private school in American Fork. I am looking into the possibility of taking both seventh grades next year and was excited to hear that the curriculum would be the same as it was the last time I went.

Because I had recently heard about Space Camp, I decided to see if it would fit the curriculum of the private school I worked for back in 1999. The principal was excited about it, so I sent off for information. We were thrilled that the book I had chosen for my sixth grade that year was The Diary of Anne Frank and that the Camp curriculum was going to cover that same book. I set up a date for us to go in November of that same year. Our principal decided that the small seventh and eighth grade would accompany us.

I worked with that teacher to set up the curriculum to include Science, Math, Language Arts, Music, Art, Literature, Spelling, Orthography/Penmanship, Speech/Oratory, Social Studies, Leadership and "Followership" Skills and PE. We started the day school started preparing our students for this experience. Although we used different student books and manuals, we were able to adjust the curriculum.

The students were not easy to handle, as many of them had been with each other for several years, some for seven years! We and they kept notebooks of our work. When the day came, we did our culminating activity and went to "after-school Space Camp."

It was fascinating to watch the class become a team during the two and one-half hour mission. However, what was phenomenal were the next days, the next weeks, the next months. These students had been somewhat surly in their approach to each other and me during the first several months of school. The next day, students who had had hard feelings, negative reactions to each other and to me, had been "re-born" because of this two and one-half hour experience. They were much more positive towards others in class and out. The looked for ways to help each other have positive experiences with learning.

They had a strong desire to learn, to be a part of a team, to look for ways to help me and they wanted to do their best. They were not little angels all the time, but they recognized that they could change and that it was a better change for them. I had
"new" students the rest of the year in more ways than one. Whenever a student came in who was new to seventh grade, my other students looked for ways to help them acclimate. They all gathered round those who had difficult or hard times during the rest of the year. It was a joy to behold!

Since this experience, I have had both parents and students of that seventh grade write to me expressing that this experience was a turning point in lives. Many of these
same students are now full-ride scholarship students at great universities, working on Doctorates. Others greet me on the street, telling me that that is one of the greatest experiences they have had in their lives, that they remind those with whom they come in contact with about this experience and are now "missionaries" for Space Camp, just like me!!!

What more can I say except what I have already said? I have said this in such a hurry that I hope that I have not been too incoherent!!!

ENGAGE!!!!! (as Commander Pickard used to say)

Mrs. Sharon S.

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Desolate Eden, A New Project from Celestial Horizons: See What Your Old Space Center Veteran Friends are Up To. It's Amazing. Get Involved. Imaginarium Theater

Happy New Year to everyone in the Space EdVenturing community! Have you ever wondered what some of the Space Center veterans  are doing these days?  Sure, they retired from Starfleet years ago but they're hardly past their "sell by" dates.  Many are living useful, productive lives planetside.  Some have found a way to keep their feet in the science fiction / space drama / simulation pool by joining Nathan Young's Desolate Eden Space Extravaganza! And what a production it is.  I listened to the first part and am impressed, nay amazed, nay floored by the quality and professionalism.  Well done to everyone involved.  

This is something which deserves your support.  Please read the following update written by Nathan Young - and when finished, join the Discord, listen to the tracks (the link is below) and if possible, donate some of that Christmas money you found in your stockings. 

To sum up, I'm calling the space center diaspora to find a way to support our friends in this endeavor.  

Victor

And Now, Nathan's Update...

      

Hey Vic,

We are SUPER excited to share Desolate Eden, our MASSIVE audio drama. We just put up the YouTube versions this week, though the Spotify, Audible, and Apple Podcasts versions have been up for a month or so now. I thought it’d be fun to share a few behind-the-scenes photos from the production process with your readers! (Not to mention brag about the cool Space Center people we roped into it!)

What is Desolate Eden? First, you can find links to your favorite platforms at https://celestialhorizons.io/.   And the good, old-fashioned YouTube release playlist can be found here:

https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PL7zi8NzIpNPYOHBgPaaDgpGHr3w8uUzIS

Desolate Eden is a history podcast from the future, where a trio of historians reconstruct the “truth” behind events that took place hundreds of years before they were born. Note, however, that these narrators may not be entirely reliable. Some of their sources are heavily redacted, and others are – by their own admission – entirely fabricated.

The narrative is brought to life by a large cast of voice actors, an original score, and unique sound design. The YouTube release has visuals that give new context for the events of the story.

To help make it easier to listen to, we broke it into 3 parts – each of them a continuation from the last.

THE STORY (Don’t worry, no spoilers here.)

During a golden age now long past, humanity spread itself amongst the stars. But while enthusiastic colonists were on their way to their new homes, mission control cut all communications with them.

Now, centuries later, their descendants are given the opportunity to return to Earth, to make contact with their lost cousins, and attempt to discover why they had been abandoned.

Desolate Eden is designed to stand alone, so although it ties in with other podcasts we’ve put out, you don’t need to know anything to be able to jump right in. We think of those other podcasts more as test runs as we were preparing to tell this story. That means that if you find you really like Desolate Eden, you can go back and get a more in-depth look at the events that led up to it!

Rachel Harken was one of the people who gave me feedback on the script, providing helpful comments like “ooooh Alice is SPICY,” “you should just throw all of this ((REDACTED)) out, cause it sucks” and “this scene was good, but it could be, like, 100x spookier. Get on it.” Legitimately helpful comments, all the way around! You have her to blame for that sequence.

Rachel from her Space Center days

In the words of the great Connor Larsen when flying “Escape” in the old Magellan, “Holy Cow, ya’ll.” We sent out a casting call on twitter... and were FLOODED with submissions from all over the world. In the course of 1 week, we had NEARLY 1200 submissions. This is a screenshot of HALF of the readings we had for ONE character...

This is what the actors would record and send to us – it's called a “side.” I designed it to serve as a litmus test – if the actor could nail (or surprise me!) with one specific line, I’d listen to the rest of their audition. They’ve got 3-5 seconds, (in some cases, two words!) to convince me they get it and can do it, and then I will actually listen to their take. I could teach a whole class on how to handle callbacks, but for brevity’s sake, I’ll say it left me looking like this:

It’s heartbreaking, having so many talented people to choose from, and having to make cuts based just on how you want all the parts to fit together. Casting is INCREDIBLY difficult for large pieces like this.

Our final cast has people from all over the English-speaking world, from New York to Canada to the UK to Australia. But a lot of them came from Utah! (Though many of them resisted sending me pictures...) Space Center people may recognize some of the names on there, including...

Natalie Brianne, the pen name for Natalie Anderson, former Odyssey set director, as Tasella Lamoreaux, first officer of the main ship we spend our time on in the show, who appears at the end of part 1.

Chris Call as Odyssey Set Director

Chris Call, the real name for Chris Call, former Odyssey set director, as Hession Poctoli, captain of one of the other ships in the fleet, who appears in Part 2.

Nathan Young and Natalie Anderson in the Odyssey

Nathan Young, the True Name for Nathan Young, former Odyssey set director, as Vasan Vandariel, appearing at the end of part 1.

Christine Appointing Emily as her Replacement Odyssey Set Director

Christine Smith, the married name of Christine Grosland, former Odyssey set director, as Zilnara, one of the other ship captains, appears in Part 2 (See a pattern here? No, I didn’t realize this trend until I was writing this up... but I will say, if there are any other Odyssey set directors who want to audition for anything of mine in the future, I’d say your odds seem to be in your favor...)

                                   Jon Parker Having an Idea on the Old Magellan

Jon Parker (who needs to introduction other than to note that he has never been Odyssey set director,) played one of the crew members in part 1.

Lindsey Hatch was a reporter in part 1.

Stacy Harken and James Smith were both additional voices in part 1.

Now that it’s all cast, I needed to give them notes, as everyone would have to record at home. Here are some samples of the things I would write:

I made a binder full of all of the themes. When it came time to score the whole thing, I’d listen to the dialogue, and play along with the scene. The goal was to create more of a “live” feeling to the performance, rather than something perfectly synthesized and static. I’d flip back and forth through the sheet music, improvising variations on each theme, and then would go back through and add new instruments, fix mistakes, and “put some meat on those musical bones.”

What’s next for us? Great question! Right now, I’m doing a lot of reading, research, and outlining. I’ve got a few smaller things (zoomed-in looks at different parts of the universe, like the Alice Corp., the situation back in Hypatia, and the head of the Cyprian state,) that I’ll be producing in the next few months. The proper sequel, however, is still very up-in-the-air.

It took me about 1350 hours to make this over the course of 8 months, on top of my day job. I probably won’t survive doing that again... (at least, not in any timely manner.) And while we produced this for easily 25x less than what it would cost a full production company to do, it still cost us a couple grand in tools, paying actors, etc., so we’re also kinda waiting until we can raise some more money. As fun as paying out-of-pocket for everything is, I’m running out of meals I can skip to make ends meet!

So if you enjoy it, be sure to like, share, subscribe, send it to your nerd friends, leave a review, etc. Also, if you have any rich eccentric relatives who are looking for somewhere to throw a lot of money, maybe send it to them too. We’ve submitted it to some competitions and award shows in hopes of increasing its visibility, so we’ll be sure to share any good news that comes on that front. The further we can spread it, the better the odds that we can do this again!

And if anybody wants to learn more about the production process, the project as a whole, or just say hi, feel free to join our discord server (link on the website) or shoot me an email at

nathan.young@celestialhorizons.io!

Nathan

Imaginarium Theater

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