Pictures as Teaching Aids

Bible dramas are a thrilling and instructive high point at district conventions. In Denmark, since the early 1970’s, an unusual element has been connected with these preparations. Many of the dramas are photographed for slide showings. Why is this?

To begin with, it was done so that dramas could be shown at conventions in the Faeroe Islands and Greenland. There, not enough brothers could be found to stage all the dramas, so the dramas had to be presented in sound only. Then a brother who had been a manager of a film company got an idea. Why not show slides of the action of the drama synchronized with the sound track?

An experiment was done, and the results were good. Since then the quality has steadily improved. In order to create a natural setting, props are used that are more extensive than those used at a district convention. In some cases large stage sets are built​—a marketplace in Babylon, a house in Rome, a city gate in Jerusalem—​all out of wood and polystyrene. The result is very convincing and makes the drama come alive when shown in the form of slides. These slide sets are now used not only in the Faeroe Islands and Greenland but also in numerous other lands where it is not practical to present the dramas live.

[Pictures on page 125]

Much work is done to produce props for slide dramas. This set for a marketplace in Babylon was made for the 1991 drama about the life of Ezra