Ballet West's Cinderella

Last night I had the opportunity to see Ballet West's beautiful production of Cinderella and I absolutely loved it! Featuring sumptuous costumes and sets and a marvelous score by Sergei Prokofiev, this ballet tells the well-known story of Cinderella (albeit with a few differences from the Disney version) with choreography by Sir Frederick Ashton. The stepsisters are portrayed, rather hilariously, by men (Adrian Fry and Christopher Sellers) and the scenes of them getting ready for the ball had me laughing out loud! I also really enjoyed the scene where Cinderella (Beckanne Sisk) dances with a broom as a partner. The Fairy Godmother (Katlyn Addison, one of my favorite dancers) has four fairies representing the different seasons give Cinderella gifts before transforming her into a princess complete with a gilded carriage made from a pumpkin. The ball scenes are delightful with more antics from the stepsisters and I was so impressed by the athleticism of the Jester (Joshua Whitehead). I have to admit that Cinderella's entrance to the ball was absolutely magical and gave me goosebumps. The Grand Pas de Deux between Cinderella and the Prince (Chase O'Connell) is incredibly romantic and very moving with intricate choreography that is dazzling to watch. I thought the giant clock looming over the stage was very effective and the scene of Cinderella leaving the ball is quite dramatic. The final scene is lovely with glitter falling as Cinderella and the Prince dance off stage. The whole production is thoroughly entertaining and I think it is the prefect ballet for children because, while it is definitely a classical ballet, there are so many comedic elements, especially involving the stepsisters, and the story is a familiar one. Cinderella runs at Capitol Theatre through February 25 and tickets may be purchased here.

Black Panther

Last night, after a very challenging week, I had the chance to see a Thursday preview of the latest entry in the MCU franchise, Black Panther, and it was so much fun!  There was not an empty seat in the giant IMAX theater and the crowd was boisterous, to say the least!  More importantly, this movie is absolutely awesome!  After the death of his father, T'Challa (Chadwick Boseman) returns to Wakanda, an advanced African nation due to plentiful supplies of an alien metal called vibranium, to become king.  He also gains superhuman abilities by ingesting an herb filled with the vibranium.  Soon after, there is a challenger to the throne who wants to use vibranium-enhanced weapons to fight oppression around the world.  In my opinion, Killmonger (Michael B. Jordan) is the best Marvel villain to date because, while he is absolutely ruthless, he is not entirely unsympathetic.  After an epic battle with Black Panther there is a moment of incredible pathos between the two characters that is so refreshing to see in a superhero movie.  While it is most definitely an origin story, I found it to be very compelling with complex character development not just for T'Challa but for all of the characters.  I especially liked Shuri (Letitia Wright), T'Challa's younger sister who is almost like Q in the James Bond movies because she creates all of the amazing gadgets for him to use.  The world building in this movie is spectacular!  Wakanda is a futuristic country and the visual effects are absolutely dazzling!  The action sequences are a lot of fun and I particularly loved the car chase through the streets of Busan because one of the cars is driven by remote control and a battle involving armored rhinos!  Boseman is so charismatic in the lead role but everyone in the all-star cast (Lupita Nyong'o, Daniel Kaluuya, Angela Bassett, and Forest Whitaker) is outstanding. Andy Serkis gives an over the top performance as a South African arms dealer trying to sell weapons enhanced with vibranium and Martin Freeman has a fun role as a CIA agent.  I loved this movie and I highly recommend it!  In fact, it might just be my favorite superhero movie yet because it is as thought-provoking as it is fun to watch!  Marvel has certainly set the bar very high for the upcoming Avengers: Infinity War!

The Hunchback of Notre Dame at HCT

I have been anticipating HCT's production of The Hunchback of Notre Dame since the 2018 season was announced and I finally had the opportunity to see it last night! It is amazing and you should probably stop reading right now and go here for tickets because they are going fast (with good reason). I loved just about everything in this show! Victor Hugo's classic tale about outcasts who find sanctuary in a Gothic cathedral is full of so much pathos!  Quasimodo (James Bounous) has been hidden by his master Frollo (Josh Richardson) in the bell tower of Notre Dame Cathedral all of his life because he is deformed until he decides to walk the streets of Paris during the Feast of Fools.  When the crowd turns on him, he is rescued by the gypsy Esmeralda (Rebecca Burroughs).  She also catches the eye of the captain of the cathedral guard Phoebus de Martin (Preston Yates) who falls in love with her and she bewitches Frollo who becomes obsessed with possessing her. When Esmeralda rejects Frollo, he orders Phoebus to arrest her but when he refuses they both become fugitives who are aided by Quasimodo until the final confrontation in the bell tower. The music by Menken and Schwartz is so amazing!  I liked every single song but my favorites were "God Help the Outcasts," "Top of the World," "Heaven's Light," "Someday," and "Made of Stone." All of the lead actors have beautiful voices but I think my favorite characters were the gargoyles (Jacob Theo Squire, Brock Dalgleish, and Kaitlyn Dahl) who act as a sort of Greek Chorus. The set for this show is absolutely incredible! I loved the many different levels of the bell tower and it was so cool to see Quasimodo ring the bells! I also really loved the stained glass windows shown on the LED screens throughout the theater.  This, along with frequent Latin chants, adds so much to the Gothic feel of the story. This show is much darker than the usual Disney musical so some might not like it as much as I did but I think the theme of being an outcast is an important one and I think the redemption at the end of the show is incredibly powerful. I highly recommend this show (I may need to see it again!).

The Death Cure

Yesterday I went to see Maze Runner: The Death Cure, the final installment of movies based on the popular YA novels by James Dashner.  Thomas (Dylan O'Brien), Newt (Thomas Brodie-Sangster), Frypan (Dexter Darden), and Brenda (Rosa Salazar) must infiltrate W.C.K.D.'s headquarters in the heavily fortified "Last City" to save Minho (Ki Hong Lee) and the rest of the immune subjects from the torture they are undergoing to develop a cure for the Flare.  Thomas must reconcile his feelings for Teresa (Kaya Scodelario) and her betrayal as he faces Janson (Aidan Gillen) one final time.  Honestly, I found this movie to be unbelievably repetitive because it was basically a two hour rescue mission with nothing new added to the narrative.  I think they could have added 20 minutes to The Scorch Trials and that would have been a satisfying conclusion to the story.  I didn't even find the action sequences to be all that compelling because we just see characters running through city streets and corridors with debris falling all around them and soldiers, with spectacularly bad aim, shooting at them.  There are also way too many convenient rescues with minor characters showing up from out of nowhere at just the right moment.  The two best sequences happen very early on when the Gladers hijack a train transporting immune children to W.C.K.D. headquarters and when the three main characters fight off a group of "Cranks" infected with the Flare in a tunnel and then it becomes really boring.  The bottom line is that this movie is only for those of you who, like me, are compulsive enough to want to finish out the trilogy.

Get Out

I have now seen all of the nominees for the Academy Award for Best Picture (click the title for my commentaries on Phantom Thread, The Post, Darkest Hour, Call Me By Your Name, Lady Bird, The Shape of Water, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, and Dunkirk).  For some reason I missed seeing Get Out when it was initially released but, luckily, Megaplex Theatres are screening all of the Best Picture nominees and I had a chance to see it last night.  Get Out is one of the best psychological thrillers that I have seen in quite some time and, if you haven't had a chance to see it, don't miss it while it is in theaters now!  Rose (Allison Williams) invites her black boyfriend Chris (Daniel Kaluuya) to spend the weekend at her wealthy parents' secluded estate on a lake.  Her father Dean (Bradley Whitford), mother Missy (Catherine Keener), and brother Jeremy (Caleb Landry Jones) all make awkward attempts to put him at ease.  He soon notices that the black cook and caretaker (Betty Gabriel and Marcus Henderson, respectively) are acting very strangely which puts him on guard.  Missy, a psychotherapist, offers to hypnotize him to help him stop smoking but the hypnosis is unsettling to him.  When the family holds a party, all of the guests, most of whom are elderly or impaired in some way, admire him for his physique or abilities.  Feeling a sense of dread, he asks Rose to leave but he eventually learns the real reason he has been brought to the estate.  This movie is deeply unsettling, but in the best way possible!  The tension builds and builds to a final resolution that I was not expecting (I don't know how I was able to avoid the spoilers).  The script is absolutely brilliant, very effectively combining elements of social commentary with horror which makes for an edge-of-your-seat survival thriller!  Kaluuya gives an excellent performance, especially in a scene where he remembers his mother's death.  This movie is funny, scary, and thought-provoking and I highly recommend it!

Note:  This year I really liked, and gave positive reviews to, all of the nominees.  But if the Academy were to ask for my opinion I would give the Oscar to Call Me By Your Name for its beautiful portrayal of first love!

Mozart & Haydn

It was mostly Mozart (with a little Haydn thrown in for good measure) last night at Abravanel Hall and, since Mozart is my very favorite composer, I have been looking forward to this concert all week!  Under the baton of guest conductor Patrick Dupre Quigley, the orchestra began with the Overture to Cosi fan tutte which is such a fun opera.  Listening to this brought back happy memories of attending this opera with my cousin.  Next, soloist Ronald Brautigam joined the orchestra for Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 9.  With his mane of curly white hair, Brautigam was so much fun to watch in a brilliant performance.  I especially loved the second movement because it seemed a bit more somber and introspective in tone but I also loved the third movement because is was so lighthearted and playful, especially the call and response between the piano and orchestra.  After the intermission the orchestra played what is probably Mozart's most recognized piece (you can probably hear the opening theme in your head tight now), Eine kleine Nachtmusik.  It is one of my favorite pieces by Mozart and it was absolutely delightful to hear it performed live.  It is so light, airy, and beautiful and listening to it after a long and tiring day made me so happy!  The concert concluded with Haydn's Symphony No. 99.  This piece was also very lighthearted and it really complimented the selections by Mozart very well.  The concert was simply delightful and I highly recommend getting a ticket to tonight's performance featuring the same program (go here).  All of the pieces performed are very accessible so this would be a great choice for those who have never been to a symphony concert before (check out this post for a guide to listening to classical music).

Hostiles

I've been anticipating the movie Hostiles since I saw the first trailer but, since it opened in SLC during Sundance, I had to wait until last night to see it!  Christian Bale plays Joseph Blocker, a hardened Captain in the U.S. Cavalry stationed at Ft. Berringer in New Mexico in 1892.  He is nearing retirement so he is given a final assignment to escort a dying Cheyenne chief named Yellow Hawk (Wes Studi) and his family, who have been held prisoner at the fort, back to their tribal lands in Montana.  Blocker bitterly refuses because Yellow Hawk is responsible for the deaths of many of his fellow officers but, when threatened with court martial and the loss of his pension, he grudgingly concedes but takes every opportunity to humiliate the chief as they begin the journey.  Soon they encounter Rosalee Quaid (Rosamund Pike), a woman living on the frontier whose entire family has been massacred by Comanche warriors (this sequence reminded me a great deal of The Searchers) and they convince her to join them.  Their journey is perilous (everything happens to them reminding me of The Revenant) and the only means of survival is through cooperation which eventually leads to acceptance and understanding.  A subplot involving a Cavalry officer (Ben Foster) being escorted to trial for murder is introduced midway through the film which serves to emphasize the atrocities committed by Blocker against Native American tribes and Bale does an outstanding job of portraying his inner torment.  The narrative is incredibly predictable but having a deeply flawed character ultimately find redemption is a theme that always works for me.  The cinematography is absolutely stunning with wide shots of beautiful scenery and, as I mentioned, Christian Bale gives an incredible performance as does Rosamund Pike.  I do have two criticisms:  the pacing is extremely slow and meditative and I would have liked to have had more character development for the Cheyenne in order to see their point of view.  However, I would definitely recommend this film.

Phantom Thread

The Academy Awards for Best Picture were announced last week and I've seen all but two of them (click on the title to read my commentaries for The Post, Darkest Hour, Call Me By Your Name, Lady Bird, The Shape of Water, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, and Dunkirk).  Since I always like to see all of the nominees before the big ceremony I decided to cross the remaining two off my list this week.  I started with Phantom Thread (which opened in SLC during Sundance) last night.  In the glamorous fashion world of post-war London, the House of Woodcock is run by Reynolds (Daniel Day-Lewis), a difficult, self-indulgent, meticulous, and fastidious designer, and his sister Cyril (Lesley Manville).  Women come and go in the self-proclaimed confirmed bachelor's life and he has Cyril dismiss them whenever they interfere with his genius.  Then he meets Alma (Vicky Krieps), a free-spirited waitress who becomes his muse and, eventually, his lover.  She immediately upsets his well-ordered world and it seems that she, too, will be dismissed but Alma gives as good as she gets in a twist that I honestly did not see coming.  It is a film that, I suspect, will not appeal to everyone because it is more character driven than plot driven but I was absolutely enthralled by the constant volleying back and forth between the three characters for dominance.  There is a scene where Reynolds takes Alma's measurements which, in my mind, is absolutely brilliant because it reveals each of the character's motivations without a word.  Reynolds is consumed by his need to reinvent Alma, Cyril is coolly assessing her rival for Reynolds' attention, and Alma is hopeful that she will become more than just a model.  I love Daniel Day-Lewis and he gives a mesmerizing performance (rumored to be his last).  In one scene he is so incredibly debonair and charming that it is easy to see how a woman could be completely undone by just a smile but in the next he is a petulant child complaining about too much noise at breakfast and his steely gaze over the top of his glasses could reduce a woman to tears.  He is simply riveting in every scene and I am sure that I will have to own a copy just to watch him work his magic over and over again.  Krieps and Manville are also excellent, particularly in a scene where the two women have a battle of wills over a doctor's visit.  The film is gorgeous to look at and I loved the swelling piano and strings of the score.  Again, this film is not for everyone but it is right up my alley and I loved it!

Sundance Film Festival 2018

Another successful Sundance Film Festival has concluded and I thoroughly enjoyed my experience this year.  I was able to see fifteen films, including everything that I really wanted to see, and I liked them all, some more than others.  My first film was You Were Never Really Here which stars Joaquin Phoenix as tormented hit man, suffering from PTSD as the result of an abusive childhood and his experiences as a soldier in Iraq, whose weapon of choice is a hammer.  He is hired to rescue a young girl but, when the rescue goes awry, he discovers that he was set up and vows vengeance on everyone involved.  It is a brutal but strangely beautiful film about a deeply flawed character finding redemption which is a favorite theme of mine.  Next I saw Don't Worry, He Won't Get Far on Foot, another film starring Joaquin Phoenix.  This is the true story about cartoonist John Callahan after he becomes paralyzed in an alcohol-related car accident.  He uses his cartoons, which feature very dark humor, as a way of coping with his paralysis and as a means of achieving sobriety.  Phoenix gives a riveting performance, as does Jonah Hill as his sponsor, and I liked the inclusion of Callahan's actual cartoons.  My next film was Blindspotting which I picked because it stars Daveed Diggs (the original Lafayette/Jefferson in Hamilton).  Diggs and Rafael Casal play Collin and Miles, two childhood best friends who now have a tense relationship.  Collin has recently been released from prison and is about to complete his probation.  We eventually learn that both of them committed the crime but, because Collin is black, he was the only one held responsible.  There are a lot of themes explored in this film but I found it to be an incredibly powerful commentary about racism that resonated with me deeply.  Diggs was at the Q&A after the film which just about blew my mind!  Next up was Lizzie, one of my most anticipated films of the festival.  It is a psychological thriller exploring the reasons behind the killing of Lizzie Borden's family.  Both Chloe Sevigny and Kristen Stewart give outstanding performances and I haven't been able to stop thinking about it since I saw it.  Another highly anticipated film was Colette, which tells the true story of one of the most celebrated writers from the Belle Epoque.  Keira Knightley stars in this lush bio-pic about a woman whose husband takes credit for her work until she eventually asserts her independence.  I love a good period piece but this also taps into the current zeitgeist of female empowerment.  Next, I was able to attend a free midnight screening of the documentary Believer about Dan Reynolds, the Imagine Dragons frontman, and his attempts to reconcile his LDS faith with the church's policy towards its LGTBQ members.  This documentary is extremely well done and finds just the right balance between highlighting a significant problem within the church (suicide is currently the number one cause of death for young people in Utah) while still being respectful.  I love Imagine Dragons and I really respect Dan Reynolds for the position he has taken.  Last Monday my only film was Wildlife, the directorial debut of Paul Dano (who was at the Q&A after the film).  In the late 1950s, a family with a history of moving from place to place has recently settled in a rural town in Montana.  The teenage son must deal with the disintegration of his parents' marriage when his father leaves his mother on her own to fight wild fires.  It is a simple but tragic story, anchored by an incredible performance by Carey Mulligan as a woman trapped by her circumstances.  Tuesday night I saw Hereditary, a horror film about the devastating effect a mysterious woman's death has on her family.  This film has an almost unbearable feeling of tension leading up to the final resolution.  I like to be genuinely scared, rather than shocked, by horror films and this one legitimately scared me (and the rest of the audience as well because there was much nervous laughter and even screaming).  On Wednesday I was able to take my students to a screening of Ophelia.  In my opinion, Ophelia is the most thinly drawn character and her fate is the most unsatisfactory in Shakespeare's version so I found her backstory to be incredibly compelling and her final resolution to be empowering in this retelling.  The film is beautiful and Daisy Ridley is fantastic in the title role.  My only complaint is that the final duel deviated from Lisa Klein's novel (upon which the film is based), turning what could have been a powerful moment into a silly slow-motion melodrama.  On Saturday I had three films!  The first was An Evening With Beverly Luff Linn which is a comedy of the absurd.  I don't even know how to describe this farce except to say that the over-the-top performances by Aubrey Plaza, Emile Hirsch, and Jemaine Clement made me laugh out loud.  The next film was The Miseducation of Cameron Post, starring Chloe Grace Moretz in a truly affecting performance as a young woman who is sent by her Evangelical family to a gay conversion camp after she is found having sex with a girl.  It is a poignant look at a group of teens learning to accept themselves.  The last film of the day was Puzzle which, surprisingly, ended up being a favorite from the festival.  Kelly Macdonald plays a wife and mother living an uneventful life in the suburbs who discovers a passion for jigsaw puzzles which leads to her awakening.  Who knew that a character driven film about completing puzzles could be so compelling?  As director Marc Turtletaub stated in the Q&A, it is a coming-of-age story about a 40 year old woman and I really liked it.  Yesterday I also had three films, beginning with Hearts Beat Loud.  I loved this film so much!  It is a tender story about a father-daughter relationship starring Nick Offerman and Kiersey Clemons and it is just lovely!  During the summer before she leaves for college, a young woman begins writing songs with her father and, when one of them becomes popular on Spotify, he tries to compel her to stay in order get a record deal until he realizes that he needs to let her go.  I absolutely loved the scene where Frank hears their song being played in a coffee shop!  The next film was The Happy Prince, starring Rupert Everett as Oscar Wilde during the last years of his life after being imprisoned for gross indecency.  Everett gives an amazing performance but I sometimes found the timeline to be a bit muddled as it is framed by Wilde's recollections on his deathbed interspersed with nonlinear flashbacks.  As a teacher of British literature, I really loved the use of Wilde's writings as voice-over narration throughout the film.  My final film of the festival was The Catcher Was a Spy which was a highly coveted ticket.  Paul Rudd plays Moe Berg, a major league baseball player who joins the OSS during World War II and is tasked with determining whether Germany is building an atomic bomb.  I thought the ending was a bit anticlimactic but I enjoyed it as a fan of espionage films.  It was a wonderful ten days and, as always, my favorite part was talking to the people I met in line.  My favorite conversation was with two really cool guys about the brilliance of A Ghost Story which screened at Sundance last year!  I can hardly wait for next year!

Utah Opera's Moby-Dick

Utah Opera’s premiere of Heggie and Scheer’s Moby-Dick had three strikes against it.  First, Herman Melville’s novel, upon which the opera is based, is definitely not my favorite.  As an English teacher it pains me to admit that I have never actually made it all of the way through.  I find the endless minutiae about the whaling industry to be mind numbingly dull.  Second, I am not usually a fan of modern operas sung in English.  I much prefer the classics sung in German and Italian.  Third, the run of this opera coincided with the Sundance Film Festival and I didn’t think I would be able to fit it in.  However, the more I learned about the production the more intrigued I became and I decided to get a ticket.  Last night I interrupted my Sundance screenings to see it and I am so glad that I did because it is brilliant!  Surprisingly, I found the condensed version of the novel performed on the Capitol Theatre stage to be anything but dull.  I was completely captivated by the story of an obsession for vengeance.  When the Pequod sets sail from Nantucket, the crew is excited about the riches they will earn, Greenhorn (Joshua Dennis), a newcomer to whaling, is eager for the adventure of seeing the world, Queegueg (Musa Ngqungwana) longs to see his island in the South Pacific again, and Starbuck (David Adam Moore) laments the dangers of whaling and fears that he will never see his wife and son again.  Soon Captain Ahab (Roger Honeywell) tells them that the real mission is to find the white whale that took his leg and offers a gold doubloon to the sailor who spots Moby Dick first.  When the crew is about to harpoon a whale, Ahab orders them to stop because it isn’t his whale.  Three months later the crew is bored and prone to fighting so Starbuck demands that Ahab let them hunt.  After spearing a whale, Starbuck pleads with Ahab to return to Nantucket to repair the leaking oil barrels and to seek medical attention for the cabin boy Pip (Jasmine Habersham) who was thrown overboard.  Ahab refuses and Starbuck contemplates killing him before his obsession dooms them all.  Ahab descends further into madness and, when the whale is finally spotted, deems it his destiny to kill it himself in an epic battle which kills everyone on board except Greenhorn who utters these immortal words when he is rescued: "Call me Ishmael."  The music is beautiful and haunting and I especially loved it when the chorus chants "Death to Moby Dick."  All of the principals sing their roles brilliantly and I was struck by the pathos in every performance, particularly by Moore!  The men's chorus not only sings but does an outstanding job with the choreography to convey the movement on a ship, whether it is raising the sails, harpooning a whale, rendering the blubber into oil, or riding out a storm.  The sets and costumes were constructed by Utah Opera and they are fantastic.  Finally, the build up to the battle between the whale and Ahab is intense and I was not disappointed with the special effects (which I will not spoil for those still planning to see it) in this scene.  I was very pleasantly surprised by how much I loved this opera and I highly recommend getting a ticket to the final performance on Sunday.

Cash on Delivery at HCT

Wednesday night I took a little break from the Sundance Film Festival to see Cash on Delivery, a lighthearted slap-stick comedy, at Hale Centre Theatre. Eric Swann (Bryan Dayley) began defrauding the office of Social Services by accepting payments for nonexistent lodgers at his house two years ago after losing his job at the Electric Company. Social Services, becoming suspicious of so many payments being sent to the same residence, sends Mr. Jenkins (Mark Fotheringham) to investigate. Swann enlists the help of his actual lodger Norman McDonald (Greg Larsen) and his uncle George (George Anderson) in order to keep up the ruse with not only Jenkins but his wife (Michelle Linn Hall), Norman's fiancee (Shannon Ricks), a grief counselor (Margie Johnson), an enthusiastic undertaker (Ben Parkes), a marriage counselor (David Marsden), and Jenkins' superior Ms. Cowper (Alison W. Henriksen). Chaos ensues as each of them are forced to tell one outrageous lie after another and impersonate fictional characters, including one who is supposed to be deaf and two who are supposed to be dead, until the whole thing unravels with hilarious consequences. At one point, I couldn't remember who was impersonating whom! I laughed and laughed at all of their antics! Every member of the cast, especially Dayley and Larsen, has impeccable comedic timing and the British accents are entirely believable.  The physical comedy is an absolute hoot, especially when one of the characters who is pretending to be dead is stuffed into a window seat and I always love a comedy that features lots of slamming doors. My only complaint is that I couldn't see some of the action because a large couch blocked my view from the left side of the stage (perhaps the scenic designers are so used to creating sets for the theater-in-the-round that they need some practice for a more traditional stage).  It was such a fun evening and I highly recommend this show but, as always, tickets are going fast (go here).

Note: This was quite the departure from all of the dark and edgy films I've been seeing at Sundance!

Sundance Student Screening 2018

I have a wonderful group of seniors this year!  I had a lot of the students as sophomores two years ago so I had an instant rapport with them.  They trust me and so they are willing to share their opinions and discuss the pieces of literature that we read.  Last semester we read Hamlet and we had some epic discussions about characterization.  One of the things I asked them to think about as we read was if they thought the characters were the architects of their own doom.  They came to the conclusion that all of the characters deserve their fate except for Ophelia.  The girls, especially, were really angry about her treatment because they saw her as a pawn for all of the men in her life.  Some of the students were so interested in Ophelia as a character that I eventually recommended the novel Ophelia, by Lisa Klein, which tells the story from her perspective.  Imagine my surprise when some of them starting reading it (one girl asked for it for Christmas!).  This is why I do what I do!  Every year I am given tickets to a student screening at the Sundance Film Festival and I was emailed a list of films to choose from in early December.  I noticed that there was a film called Ophelia and, when I read the description, I realized that it was based upon Klein's novel.  Of course I had to choose it and, when I announced it to my students, they cheered out loud.  My 50 allotted tickets were claimed within days and they have been so excited, practically counting down the days!  We were able to see the film yesterday and to say that the students loved it would be an understatement.  They discussed it all the way home on the bus! It is so special to me to be able to share my love of film with my students and the fact that they were so engaged with this particular film is something that I will never forget!  I have had so many wonderful experiences at the Sundance Film Festival this year (a full wrap-up is coming soon) but this tops them all!  A huge thank you to the Sundance Institute for offering these screenings to students free of charge.

Bright Star at PTC

When I went to New York almost two years ago there was one night when the group didn't have theatre tickets together and we were free to get tickets on our own.  I thought about Waitress (which I eventually saw with my friend Esther) and I also thought about Bright Star because I had heard so many great things about it.  But then Hamilton became a possibility and that eclipsed everything else!  Of course, seeing the original cast of Hamilton on Broadway was a dream come true but there was a little part of me that regretted the fact that I didn't get a chance to see Bright Star.  Little did I know that the show would be coming to Salt Lake City so soon and that almost the entire cast would be reprising their roles from the Broadway production, including the incomparable Carmen Cusack as Alice Murphy!  It is fantastic and to say that I loved it would be an understatement.  Featuring music and lyrics by Steve Martin and Edie Brickell, the story takes place in North Carolina during the 1920s and just after World War II.  After returning from the war, Billy Cane (A.J. Shively) briefly returns to his small town and his childhood friend Margot (Maddie Shea Baldwin) but he decides to try writing for a magazine in Asheville and meets the uptight editor, Alice Murphy, who once made Hemingway cry.  When the magazine staff tease Alice about her boring existence, we see her (literally) transform into a wild and rebellious girl in love with Jimmy Ray Dobbs (Patrick Cummings).  The narrative goes back and forth from one timeline to the other as Alice learns to deal with heartache and loss and Billy learns the importance of home and the one who really loves him.  There is a plot twist that I predicted almost immediately but I was still completely engaged with the story because the performances are wonderful and the bluegrass music is incredible!  The song "Please Don't Take Him" brought tears to my eyes and I do not know how Cusack can sing it with such emotion night after night.  I think my favorite song in the show is "Asheville" because it is sung by a girl who is worried that the boy she loves will forget all about her when he goes to the big city.  Baldwin fills it with such longing and I liked how the song is staged.  In fact, the staging of the entire show is extremely clever with the ensemble cast moving props and scenery on and off stage seamlessly.  Finally, the band, sitting in a rustic cottage that is moved to various places on stage, is superb.  I especially enjoyed the fiddle solos played by Martha McDonnell.  Pioneer Theatre Company is only the third regional theater to produce this musical and I consider myself lucky to get to see such an amazing cast right here in SLC!  I highly recommend seeing this show, but you better hurry because tickets are going fast!  The rush pass line was the longest I've seen for any show at PTC (Including Newsies!).  Go here for tickets and information.

The Post

Since yesterday was a day off from school I decided to see The Post and it is simply marvelous.  Katharine Graham (Meryl Streep) is the only female publisher of a newspaper after taking over the Washington Post from her deceased husband.  She feels inadequate and often defers to the powerful men around her, including her editor-in-chief Ben Bradlee (Tom Hanks).  A source gives the New York Times documents chronicling the clandestine policies of four administrations in Vietnam.  When the New York Times receives an injunction against publishing any more stories, a reporter from the Washington Post goes after the source and also receives the documents.  Katharine Graham must balance her friendship with Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara (Bruce Greenwood) along with her fears about the reaction of investors after taking the newspaper public not to mention the possibility of committing a felony against the freedom of the press.  In one of the most powerful scenes in the movie, she overrules all of the powerful men around her and decides to publish.  This movie is slow and the Supreme Court case upholding the freedom of the press is almost an afterthought but there are a few things that make this film absolutely brilliant.  First, it taps into the zeitgeist of our current times.  Although set in 1971 this movie may as well be about the attempts of the press to hold our current administration accountable.  Second, I love that the film emphasizes the difficulties faced by a woman in a position of power.  Time and time again we see Graham enter a room filled entirely of men and there is a particular scene where Graham is relegated to the living room with all of the wives of powerful men while they stay in the dining room to discuss business that really angered me.  However, the powerful scene where Graham tells her Chairman of the Board that the paper belongs to her and a scene where she walks down the steps of the Supreme Court with women looking to her as a role model made me want to cheer out loud!  Finally, the performances of both Streep and Hanks are just superb as are those in the all-star ensemble cast including Bruce Greenwood, Sarah Paulson, Tracy Letts, and Bradley Whitford among others.  Steven Spielberg has done it again and I highly recommend this movie!