The Belle of Amherst (TV) [1976] Julie Harris

http://bayimg.com/pAaBAAADC The Belle of Amherst (TV) (1976) http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0202812/ The Belle of Amherst is a one-woman play by William Luce. Based on the life of Emily Dickinson from 1830-1886, and set in her Amherst, Massachusetts home, the play makes use of her work, diaries, and letters to recollect her encounters with the significant people in her life - family, close friends, and acquaintances. It balances the agony of her seclusion with the brief bright moments when she was able to experience some joy. After one preview, the original Broadway production, directed by Charles Nelson Reilly and starring Julie Harris, opened on April 28, 1976 at the Longacre Theatre, where it ran for 116 performances. Harris, who portrayed fifteen different characters in the play, won the Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play and earned a Drama Desk Award nomination for Unique Theatrical Experience. She appeared in a televised PBS production and extensively toured the country with the play for a number of years. "My business is circumference," said the poet. And the physical center of that circumference was Amherst, Massachusetts. There Emily Dickinson lived from her birth in 1830 to her death in 1886. Her father served as Treasurer of Amherst College for thirty-five years and was active in state politics. Her older brother Austin, a lawyer, married and settled next door to the house where Emily and her younger sister Vinnie lived as spinsters. Neither of the Dickinson girls enjoyed being away from home. Emily attended Mount Holyoke Female Seminary in nearby South Hadley for one year but didn't return. Vinnie went away to boarding school for a while only to find out how much she liked being at home. A great deal has been written about Emily Dickinson's life as a hermit, her unrequited love for several attached men, her wit, and her delight in verse. The Belle of Amherst touches on all these aspects of this eccentric and gifted poet. It has been constructed from Ms. Dickinson's poems, letters, and personal memorabilia by William Luce. Originally performed on Broadway, The Belle of Amherst has been directed for television by Charles S. Dubin with Charles Nelson Reilly (who directed the stage version) acting as artistic advisor. Newsweek critic Jack Kroll said in his review of the one woman drama: "Julie Harris's portrayal of this ecstatic genius should be seen in every state of Emily's America." This dramatic presentation should have great appeal to Christians and other religions humanists. For within the circumference of her poetry, Emily Dickinson dealt with such significant topics as belief in God, the hope of immortality, the mysteries of nature, the existence of pain and evil, and the problem of death. She found in words s source of pleasure and a way of refracting her thought and experience. But, as Donald E. Thackrey points out, her poetic craft was also a battleground for opposing assessments of silence and language: Her intellect and intuitive imagination told her that human communication was unavailing before the greatness of the universe and the complexity of man's experience within it. But her emotional nature, her delight in a struggle, and her unlimited courage bade her make the attempt regardless of its futility. As long as her poetry could at least suggest the infiniteness and wonder of the universe, she thought the effort was justified. This dimension of her work makes Emily Dickinson very contemporary and will speak to those who now mediate upon and give special attention to the nurturance of the inner life.

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 big_dad_e (2010-10-28)

I'm one of the few that remembers 1976! Cheers on your Skull m8!

 ThorntonWilde (2010-10-28)

This is so sudden, I'd like to thank the ladies and gentlemen of the Academy. I had originally planned to share the original production of For Colored Girls but Miss Tyler Perry has blocked the distibution so as not to interfere with her new improved production.