Jyms of Wyzdom for 23 August 2019

Lawrence of Arabia: Will be shown on the TCM Big Screen Classics series at our local Regal Hollywood cinema on September 1 at 1 PM and September 4 at 7 PM. It is between 180 and 220 minutes long depending on having the overture, entr’acte and exit music. Given that it is Turner Classic Movies, I have no doubt it will be toward the longer time since it was restored with some scenes cut out long ago. Even though we showed this film for our special Winter 2018 Event to show off our ne ten-foot screen, believe me when I tell you that you haven’t seen it as it should be seen unless it is on a BIG cinema screen, that we are lucky enough to have at both of our excellent cinemas. In CNN’s recent series on the movies, Steven Spielberg said flat out that it is his favorite movie of all time and was the one that convinced him to become a director. It is our favorite film of all time, though we’d have to pair it with the Russian made “War and Peace.” So, please mark your calendars and GO! Especially if you have never seen it, GO! And yes, it does help to explain how the Middle East got this way!

Here, with whitened hair, desires failing, strength ebbing out of him, with the sun gone down and with only the serenity and the calm warming of the evening star left to him, he drank to Life, to all it had been, to what it was, to what it would be. Hurrah! [Writer Sean O’Casey]

HOT! OK, so these really are the dog days of summer, but, on the positive side, schools and WVU started classes this week. That’s always a harbinger of autumn, our favorite season.

And now, some poetry. I feel like Langston Hughes, one of the most powerful writers of the Harlem Renaissance.

The Negro Speaks of Rivers
(To W.E.B. DuBois)

I’ve known rivers:
I’ve known rivers ancient as the world and older than the flow
of human blood in human veins.

My soul has grown deep like the rivers.

I bathed in the Euphrates when dawns were young.
I built my hut near the Congo and it lulled me to sleep.
I looked upon the Nile and raised the pyramids above it.
I heard the singing of the Mississippi when Abe Lincoln went
down to New Orleans, and I’ve seen its muddy bosom
turn all golden in the sunset.

I’ve known rivers:
Ancient, dusky rivers.

My soul has grown deep like the rivers.

For best effect, try reading it slowly, aloud! Here’s another you just might recognize since it is the source for a classic play title…

Harlem

What happens to a dream deferred?

Does it dry up
like a raisin in the sun?
Or fester like a sore—
And then run?
Does it stink like rotten meat?
Or crust and sugar over—
like a syrupy sweet?

Maybe it just sags
like a heavy load.

Or does it explode?

Did you catch the play title? Hint: its author was Lorraine Hansberry.

I take a simple view of living: It is keep your eyes open and get on with it. [Actor Lawrence Olivier]

All is pattern, all life, but we can’t always see the pattern when we are a part of it. [Writer Belva Plain]

Acting: One more thing I’d like to share with you. When I taught Intro to Theater for many years, I included a unit on acting and let real actors provide most of the “how and why we do it” notes. What follows is my very favorite bit of advice:

The basic thing in acting is what William Gillette calls the illusion of the first time. It must seem that this has never taken place before, that no one has seen it before, that this actress has never done this before, and that, in fact, she’s not an actress.

That was said by Lee Strasberg, one of the members of the Group Theater of the 1930’s who studied Stanislavski’s Method and then created his own method and acting school. He and a handful of other teachers have influenced the American theater to great success. I do not like some of Strasberg’s methods, but that quote is absolutely right on the mark—you can apply it to any show you see and it will help you decide if what you are seeing is true to life. You’ll know it when you see it…and Peter O’Toole’s Lawrence is one of the best performances you’ll ever see.

Keep cool until next time!

Jim