And the winners are.....

"Slumdog Millionaire" won big at the Oscars last night, taking home eight Academy Awards, including Best Picture. Kate Winslet won for Best Actress for her role in the film "The Reader", Sean Penn won Best Actor for his role in the film biopic "Milk", Penelope Cruz won Best Supporting Actress for her role in "Vicky Cristina Barcelona", and perhaps the most sad of all, the late, great Heath Ledger won Best Supporting Actor for his role in "The Dark Knight". The Academy will hold his statuette in trust until his daughter Matilda turns 18. I haven't seen any of these films so I cannot comment on any of them, but I do intend to try to catch up when they come out on DVD. I know that my mom really loved "Slumdog Millionaire" and it does sound like a wonderful and deserving film. I am still deeply saddened by the death of Heath Ledger who was such a promising young actor who left us too soon. I loved him in all the movies I saw him in and I hope that he will be well remembered for being a talent who had such brilliant promise for a career that would certainly have gone nowhere but up. I couldn't bring myself to see "The Dark Knight" knowing that it was his final legacy. I figured it'd just make me too sad to know that this was the last we'd ever see of his magnificent talent. Maybe someday I'll see it, but then, I'm not much into comic book superheroes as it is. Sure, I grew up watching the old Batman series on TV that was on in the mid-1960's and I loved it, but I was a kid then who loved that sort of thing. I find the comic book superhero films of today to be a bit puzzling, but given what they can do with computerized special effects, I suppose that those kinds of movies do appeal to a certain demographic that doesn't include us middle aged folks! At any rate, I do need to catch up with some of these movies, as I do want to see many of the ones that won Oscars last night. In particular, I'd love to see "Milk", as I have become a fan of Sean Penn, who, it seems to me, has been a long underappreciated talent who should now be taken very seriously as a real heavyweight. His career will undoubtedly take off as a result of this award. And I do love Kate Winslet as well and hope to see her Oscar winning role in "The Reader" as soon as I can get it on DVD.

THE ROAR OF THE CROWD

On Friday evening, my mom and I went to see a musical version of "Jane Eyre" at E. Turner Stump Theatre at Kent State. I graduated with a theatre degree from there in 1979 and spent many an evening at Stump Theatre doing various plays during my time there. I hadn't been back in that theatre for many long years, and walking back into that place where I spent so much of my college years brought back very fond memories of the plays in which I was involved. I felt a pang of nostalgia for those days when opening night was such an exciting venture. This play we went to see was an opening night production and I remember how it felt to arrive in the green room, dress in costume, put on makeup and mentally prepare for the big moment when the curtains would part and the play would begin in front of a full audience. You are, at that point, so much in the moment. A play is an ephemeral thing, and once done, it's over, only to be recalled in memory. I remembered that feeling, that you had either a really good night where everything clicked, or you had a bad night where things went wrong. Mostly, things went smoothly, thanks to very professional direction from one of our professors.

As for this production of "Jane Eyre", well, it wasn't the best play I've ever seen, but I found myself feeling a pang of envy that the school of Theatre can do these kinds of elaborate productions that we could not do in the 70's when I was there. They have merged with the school of Dance, so they can call on those talents and they have coordinated with the music school, who they share a building with, to be able to put on really amazing musicals with lots of dance included as well. We couldn't do that when I was a student. Oh, we did some amazing plays during my tenure there, but not nearly what they can do now. How things have changed since my days there. The theatre seats have been completely redone and the theatre itself seems to have undergone a bit of a makeover as well. It's so much more high tech than it was 30 years ago when I was a student. I found myself envious and missing the excitement of those long ago days, but alas, that was another time and I don't have nearly the time or energy required to do theatrical productions now. So I leave it to the younger crowd to keep entertaining us with their well done productions. It's so nice to live in a college town that has so many cultural offerings like we do!