TLE Theater Back ‘IN’ the Air to Premiere Original Play Written for Second Life Stage

By: Alas Zerbino - TLE Official Blogger

She was perhaps the most brilliant mathematician and philosopher of her time. She refused sex and marriage. She spoke out loudly against the anti-Jewish activities of the local Christian bishop and was brutally murdered and torn apart by a lynch mob led by Christian monks. And now she is being celebrated through an exciting new play, Hypatia of Alexandria, making its world premiere 7 p.m. SLT July 11 at the TLE Educational Network Theater in Second Life. (see end of post for all dates)

But just as the real Hypatia lived an unusually creative life in 4th-5th century C.E. Egypt, so the play Hypatia of Alexandria is a uniquely creative production that powerfully brings to life the emotional drama of Hypatia’s life.

• It is an original play, written in and for Second Life by a Canadian writer and poet who is known as Skylar Smythe in SL.
• The play is written primarily in Shakespearean sonnet format, though in modern English and with exciting breaks of dramatic dialogue and suspense (a caveat for anyone who may be “scared off” by reference to the Bard).
• Attending the play will be an immersive experience that extends beyond watching a stage production.

How did a modern author with the moniker of Guerrilla Poetess come to write a play about a woman who taught at Ancient Egypt’s Library of Alexandria before it was totally destroyed?

It started when a friend gave Skylar a copy of Raphael’s painting The School of Athens to hang in her SL home.

“I was fascinated by the painting and began to study the historical figures found in the piece,” she said. “There, on the left side of the painting, stood a haunting female figure, who seemed to stare straight out at the viewer with a sorrowful and stoic expression. The figure was Hypatia of Alexandria, and this sparked my exploration into the history and mystery of the woman.”

As a writer, Skylar was deeply moved by Hypatia’s impact on the academic world. “She possessed incredible talent in science and mathematics and chose to apply her knowledge to the betterment of her society.”

A contemporary historian, Socrates Scholasticus, wrote that Hypatia “made such attainments in literature and science, as to far surpass all the philosophers of her own time.” She also lived differently from how women of her time were supposed to live. Scholasticus wrote, “On account of the self-possession and ease of manner, which she had acquired in consequence of the cultivation of her mind, she not unfrequently appeared in public. . . . Neither did she feel abashed in going to an assembly of men. For all men on account of her extraordinary dignity and virtue admired her the more.”

And yet, as so often happens to powerful women in history, she also became the scapegoat for ignorant, angry men. When Skylar read about Hypatia’s brutal murder, and the subsequent attempt to destroy all of her academic work, “I was infuriated as a Christian and deeply saddened as a woman, and the more I read about her, the more I felt moved to share her story.”

Once the play was written, the TLE Educational Network was similarly moved to host the play at the TLE Theater and sponsor its introduction to the world. As a free, virtual education center in SL, TLE’s mission of helping change the world through free knowledge and education aligns completely with a theatrical performance like Hypatia of Alexandria. (In fact, I strongly suspect Hypatia would be a major proponent of TLE’s mission.)

But there’s more to the play than just the performance. A highly creative, talented woman herself, Skylar and her cast and production company have built a special theater in the Second Life sky that draws you into the very times in which Hypatia lived and died. (The theater hovers over land owned by a TLE Educational Network staff member, aelwyn Fields, editor of TLE Publishing House, who is donating her “sky space” to TLE for the performances because of the collapse of the company that leased sims to TLE, which required the entire virtual education campus of TLE to be rapidly moved.)

When you arrive at the theater, you will find yourself standing before a building of ancient Egyptian design, set on the desert sand and framed by waving palm trees. Climb up the stairs into the building, and you’ll find yourself in a beautiful museum-like hall containing ancient artifacts and illustrations of Hypatia’s accomplishments. One of those is the very painting that inspired Skylar to write the play, which is “built into” the back wall of the museum area.

The painting literally invites you to walk into its scene – which is a good thing, because that’s how you enter the actual theater where the performance is held. You actually walk into and through this painting, and then you’ll find yourself at the top of the stadium seating with a view of the stage and its ancient Egyptian set.

In addition to writing the play, Skylar Smythe is also directing its cast of actors from three continents: Australia, Europe, and North America. In addition, she designed the entire setting, which was then built by Josue Habana, who says Hypatia of Alexandria is “a profound account of the life of a fascinating icon. Skylar does a remarkable job of personifying Hypatia on a feminine level and enabling the audience to relate to her.”

What You Need to Know to Attend Hypatia of Alexandria:

• Time: 7 p.m. SLT (Pacific time)
• Dates: July 11, 17, 24, 25
• Where: Hypatia of Alexandria Stage at TLE Educational Network; SLURL: http://slurl.com/secondlife/Wensley/136/149/1549
• Cost: It’s free, of course, like all events and classes sponsored by TLE

TLE Educational Network – Current Status & Future Plans

A great deal has happened @ TLE Educational Network over the past 6 weeks which has forced many changes in our plans and way of doing things. I am going to try to bring everyone up to date in this Blog Post, and explain exactly where TLE Educational Network is headed. This may not interest many of you, however, since we do use our Blog to disseminate information, this is the proper place to do it.

Past Events:

When TLE Educational Network was first created and began operations, none of us on the Board envisioned the success it would have. Of course, I personally had certain projections within the effort in Second Life but these were extremely conservative. As time went on, and due to the efforts and generous contributions from two of the Board Members, who understood and believed in the message of TLE Educational Network we were able to expand. However, we never sought out to purchase our own estate or Sims. This was due to many reasons, the most critical was that at each stage we were unsure what would succeed and what would not succeed. Today the membership of groups that TLE runs is near 12,000 members, which is an outstanding number for Second Life no matter how you slice the cake.

This also proved to be possibly a drastic mistake in not thinking pro-actively enough about the future.

As many know, TLE is not just striving for educational excellence in the Virtual World environment. Our plan was and still is, to incorporate the VW world of SL with Social Networking areas, such as Facebook. This is not as difficult as it may sound, nor is it an impossible task.

Another aspect of TLE, which began with our publications is part of the TLE Educational Network Publishing House was and is successful way beyond original projections.

Thus TLE grew and grew. And we experimented with different ideas and different layouts and different situations.

When TLE first established itself we decided upon Cove Islands. For a long time it proved to be a wise and good choice. Josue took care of us, and despite demands on the time and sometimes requests which took a great deal of time for him to do, he always had them done.

However, Cove Islands around two months ago, without any proper notification to any of their clients, began to fall apart. Swiftly. Josue left, and the two owners of Coves, one Jenee Marten in SL (in real, Jill (Ghilarducci) Jones) and Just Dinkin in SL (in real, Brad Ciszewski) never had the courtesy to inform TLE, their largest customer, that they were going to sell Coves. Just put a message up on SLEX and of course the word spread from there.

It is obvious that they were hoping to entice a buyer(s) by showing a fairly full Sim percentage of paying clients. While this is legitimate in and of itself, it becomes incredibly negligent when you do not bother to inform your current clients that you are selling what they paid you for.

At that time we began a short series of negotiations with Coves. However, not one of the offers that were made – made any financial sense to TLE in any sense of the term.

The Board quietly discussed other options we may have. But the next step that Coves took was beyond any ability to actually plan or do anything about.

TLE paid tiers on 2 full sims at Coves and purchased them from Coves with a full purchase price of 195,000L when they were first set up. This was beyond the weekly tiers we paid as well (obviously here the proper term is "leased"). One which housed the museum and the other which contained the Zoo. These sims were paid up for 3 more days when the following took place. (And since TLE paid its tiers on a weekly basis this is very regular and normal.)

I landed in SL and suddenly on the bottom right hand side of my screen blue messages kept on popping up about Moku Cove (the Museum) telling me that scripts were not working. So I made a TP over to the Museum thinking that perhaps it needed a reboot. To my utter astonishment and shock, what I found was that though our Tiers were paid, suddenly the whole Museum and the Zoo had been moved back to the ownership of Coves. In other words, though TLE was paid up, we were denied any abilities to do anything on these Sims.

This was done without, I repeat, without, any form of letter, or email, or IM. In other words, it was done behind the back of TLE, and if this is not Land Fraud I do not know what is.

So trying to be fair-minded, and thinking that simply some sort of mistake had been made I emailed Just Dinkin. When I had not received any sort of reply twelve hours later, I emailed him again. After 26 hours I received the following reply from Jenee Marten the owner of Coves:

Kitviel,

A TLE staff member informed us that you would be moving from Cove and when we saw your tier expiring we figured you were doing just that. And since you didn't take the opportunity to purchase the 2 sims you were leasing we decided to sell them off.

Sorry for any inconvenience this may have caused you.

1. I have no proof who this staff member is, that deigned to speak for me, nor do I care anymore.
2. I was not informed of any such sale.
3. The text of Jenee is a lie, as she sold off the sims more than 2.5 days before the tiers even began to expire, and I have all the emails with the headers to prove it including the emails of the Coveland Notifiers.
4. No matter what the case was, I should have been informed of the impending sale by email and IM and asked to confirm receipt of such information. This obviously was not done.
5. In other words, I am clearly stating here, that not only was this bad business practice, but it was cheating and fraud.

Another little aspect to this whole scenario, which made matters even worse for a bit, is by the time the above email arrived in my inbox, the Zoo and Museum had disappeared. They had been moved to new coordinates by Just based upon the request of the new owner.

Additionally, nothing was returned to my inventory. So what I was left with was the thought that TLE had just lost something bettween $5000-$7000 in USD on objects in those sims. Remember, the zoo is filled with animals which do not come cheap.

So over the July 4th weekend, this is what was done:

Here is what took place over the July 4th Weekend. Most of which you may know so just a recap.

1. First I placed a land fraud report against the owner of Coves with LL. True to LL, they have not yet answered me, nor have even acknowledged they got it except in a form letter.
2. Second, I stopped paying any and all tiers at Coves.
3. I started one by one picking up every single parcel of TLE. This was a gargantuan task, but it had to be done in a time frame so I had no choice. I was not able to rely on the Coves people to not sell the land from under us and thus loose all our stuff.
4. As of the writing TLE is no longer at Coves in any parcel. Every prim of ours has been picked up.
5. The headquarters for TLE has been moved to our LSJ campus.

Meanwhile, a very interesting thing happened, which shows us as well, that there are honest and decent people out there.

The new owner of the Museum and Zoo, realized when they moved the coordinates to his desired place and the Sims reappeared, that no one in his right mind would just leave over 5-7K USD of objects on a Sim. He did some quick math between the museum and zoo and realized something was really wrong. So instead of globally returning them to me, which he could have done and would have been a holy mess, he contacted me. When I told him about the land and the story, he was enraged at Coves. He showed me a log by Just, which was not only misleading but a downright lie about the status of the Sim. Then he gave me time to pick up the Zoo and Museum. Which of course added to the tasks at hand but at least I had control over it. This too was a huge task. But because of his honesty, we have all the animals, all our stuff, and all the museum pieces.

Current Status:

Due to the incredible generosity of many SL people TLE has been able to continue, albeit, on land donated for its use. This is a temporary stage.

I am now in the midst of what is known in the high tech world as “investor relations”. However, due to past lessons, and long experience in high tech, I am not rushing into anything.

The next time TLE is rebuilt, which will take time, it will be done with all the proper financing and tools in place to achieve what it set out to achieve. Any other way of operating is simply a prelude to disaster.

As to the owners of Cove Islands. I am publicly calling upon Linden Lab the owners of Second Life, who make constant and consistent reiterations that they take “abuse” reports seriously, to take this one as seriously as humanely possible. TLE has deposited all emails pertaining to this, with all headers intact with its legal representatives outside of SL as well.

If owners of land in SL can do what Cove Islands did with impunity, without any sort of repercussions or knowing that Linden Lab will just allow them to get away with it, the serious businesses and educational institutions have every sane right to ignore Second Life as a viable environment.

TLE Educational Network will recover from this unfortunate set of incidents. And notice I made no mention of what was going in the personal lives of all the members of the Board of TLE at the time, which was to say the least, very drastic.

We will recover. But unless Linden Lab makes good on its supposed guarantee that they do take abuse reports seriously, then it surely becomes an exercise in futility.

Through the summer months we will hopefully finish investor negotiations and begin to rebuild. This will take time, but the plans are all meticulously laid out.

We are always interested in hearing from possible investors, no matter at what stage. But TLE Educational Network will remain true to its original motto: Where Knowledge & Education Are Always Free.

This then is where TLE stands at the moment. Through messages to our groups and this blog we will keep you informed of all upcoming events, and plans for the future.

Kitviel Silberberg
TLE Educational Network

Storytelling's Over, But Treasure Hunt Continues at Second Life Storyland

By: Alas Zerbino - TLE Official Blogger

Even as adults, we love to listen to a well-told fairytale! That was demonstrated last Sunday, when several dozen Second Life residents gathered at the TLE Educational Network in SL to hear five storytellers read from the original versions of the fairytales we grew up with.

In the photo above, Kalli Birman, dressed as Little Red Riding Hood, reads the ancient tale of the little girl and the wolf. The storytelling was one of the activities at the "Once Upon a Time . . ." event at the TLE StoryBook Land, a 3D display that highlights children's literature, and one of many interactive exhibits at TLE's virtual education campus in SL.

CallieDel Boa, dressed in an Alice in Wonderland costume, reads the story of Tom Thumb to the avid listeners.

Storyteller Emile Sands is accompanied by his own beast as he reads the story of The Beauty and the Beast to spell-bound listeners.

Listeners sit on mushroom stools and stand entranced, listening to Crayden Lohner read the story of Hansel and Gretel.

After the storytelling, a dance floor was set up outside of Sleeping Beauty's castle, and musician Torben Asp performed his magic with synthesizer and particle show.

An ongoing part of Sunday's event was a Treasure Hunt set up with clues based on the fairytales and children's stories illustrated at TLE StoryBook Land. Treasure-hunters receive the first clue, which leads them to the second clue, and so on until they find the grand prize at the end. But each clue discovery also comes with a prize of its own.

The storytelling and dancing are over, but the Treasure Hunt will stay up for a while at TLE StoryBook Land, so if you missed the event, you can still come and have fun solving the clues and finding the prizes. Just teleport to StoryBook Land at the TLE Educational Network (here's the SLURL: http://slurl.com/secondlife/Makani%20Cove/145/36/22) and click on the box with the treasure hunt map. (You'll find it in front of the giant carnivorous plant, so do be careful you don't end up being someone's dinner!)

All the stories read to Sunday's audience are also available at TLE StoryBook Land. They are part of the TLE Publishing House series of fairytales and children's stories being published. The books, published and readable in Second Life as either rezzable objects or HUDs, are almost free - they only cost 25 lindens (roughly one U.S. cent) to help cover the production costs. They are also available at the TLE Main Bookstore and other locations throughout the TLE virtual education campus in SL. Downloadable PDF versions of many of the TLE Publishing House books are also available at the TLE Publishing Web Bookstore.

Become a Kid Again for a Day: Enjoy Stories, Treasure Hunt, Music, Playing, Laughing at StoryBook Land in SL

By: Alas Zerbino - TLE Official Blogger

How well do you remember those old fairy tales that were read to you when you were a child? Or that you read to your own children? Do you remember how the witch enticed Hansel and Gretel into her gingerbread house that became a prison? Who the prince had to fight to get to Sleeping Beauty? What instrument played music that soothed the giant who lived at the top of Jack’s beanstalk?

This Sunday, you’ll get a chance to test your memories and play like a child again at the TLE Educational Network’s StoryBook Land Treasure Hunt in Second Life!

I’ve spent lots of fun hours the past couple of weeks helping one of TLE’s managers, AmandaLyn Donogal, devise a playful and rewarding trip through these old tales via the treasure hunt, which will start on Sunday, June 28, at 11 a.m. SLT (Pacific time) at TLE StoryBook Land, one of the many delightful builds you can explore at this extensive virtual education campus in SL.

The treasure hunt is part of a larger celebration of children’s literature that TLE is hosting this weekend at StoryBook Land. The event includes storytellers dressed in costumes reading several of these old fairy tales. You can sit on a mushroom and listen to the stories, surrounded by 3D scenes from those very stories – watch a virtual wolf stalk Red Riding Hood’s grandmother’s cottage as you listen to a lively retelling of the story, for example!

After the storytelling, which starts at 11 a.m. SLT, there’ll be music for listening and dancing to alongside the old cottages and castles, pumpkins and magic mushrooms, and bears and birds that fill StoryBook Land with countless reminders of the magic and wonder of childhood.

And of course, the event and its exhibits are all free and open to every Second Life resident – just like all of the classes, programs, and interactive exhibits at the TLE Educational Network!

While you’re at StoryBook Land, go for a ride with Cinderella in her carriage!

But back to the treasure hunt: AmandaLyn and I were like little kids as we explored the many storybook settings to find places to hide clues that will eventually lead treasure-hunters to the big prize at the end. “Master Cluewriter” AmandaLyn wrote up fun little rhyming verses that contain the clues for you to decipher. They’re not hard – you just have to think back to whatever fairytale they reference, and find the items from that story that hold the clue. Although the biggest prize awaits you at the end of the hunt, you’ll also get rewarded with playful prizes whenever you find a clue.

The treasure hunt will also give you a chance to explore the story settings and even make believe you’re one of the characters. For example, can you climb Jack’s beanstalk all the way up into the clouds? Can you sit on the mushroom from Alice In Wonderland without falling off?

StoryBook Land came about when the TLE Publishing House decided to promote children’s literature by publishing many of the old fairytales and children’s stories in their original version, including the original illustrations used. TLE Publishing, which is a key part of the overall virtual education network TLE has created in Second Life, has published 16 of these books, all of which are available for a small fee (to cover the cost of uploading the text and images to SL) at StoryBook Land, as well as the TLE Main Bookstore. The titles (which are also available at the TLE Web Bookstore in PDF format) include:

• Alice In Wonderland
• Beauty And The Beast
• Cinderella
• Goldilocks And The Three Bears
• Hansel And Gretel
• Jack And The Beanstalk
• Little Red Riding Hood
• Nursery Rhymes of Mother Goose
• Nursery Songs
• Old Mother Hubbard
• Peter Rabbit
• Puss In Boots
• Sleeping Beauty
• Snow White
• The Snow Queen
• Tom Thumb

So, forget about all your adult worries and come play like a kid again – hunt for treasure, listen to fairytales, dance to music that will bring out your inner child, and jump into the stories themselves – at the TLE Storybook Land celebration on Sunday, June 28, starting at 11 a.m. Second Life Time. As AmandaLyn and I have discovered lately, play and laughter are medicine for the soul – especially in these crazy times in real life.

To get to StoryBook Land in SL:

• Use this SLURL for a direct teleport: http://slurl.com/secondlife/Makani%20Cove/145/36/22
• Or, go to the TLE Main Campus, where you’ll find a teleporter that will take you directly to StoryBook Land.

See you there!