Michele LeTourneau
Northern News Services

Yellowknife (Jun 16/00) - The theatre scene in Yellowknife has just been given a big boost.

The National Theatre School, one of Canada's most highly respected schools for theatre professionals, has donated almost 50 boxes of books to the community of Yellowknife.

Ben Nind, of Stuck in a Snowbank Theatre, graduated from NTS in 1994. At that time, he had a conversation with the chief librarian that would eventually bear fruit.

"We talked about the fact that there were very limited resources, for scripts, or anything to do with theatre production, in the North," says Nind.

"We are accessing the largest collection of theatre resources in Canada."

Last year, the books finally came. First Air arranged for transport from Montreal to Yellowknife.

"A home was found at the library at St. Pat's high school," explains Nind.

Housing all the books wasn't an easy feat.

"It meant rearranging the whole library, moving shelves and cataloguing each book," says library technician Francine Dennis. It took a year for Dennis to catalogue the collection.

The entire lot of books was designated as a special collection so they could be located in one area, rather than dispersed among other books within the library.

St. Pat's students have already been accessing the books, which are, incidentally, available to the public.

The official dedication of the new collection will take place in the fall and plans are already under way to bring in more books.