The Help: The Movie
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We got a sneak preview of the soon-to-be-released movie The Help, based on Kathryn Stockett’s bestselling novel. Shot in Greenwood, Mississippi, the movie takes you back to the 1960’s, a time of soda shops, shellacked hair-dos and shocking racism. Despite the Brown vs. Board of Education ruling that mandated school integration in 1954, little has changed in 1960’s Jackson, where maids in starched uniforms commute from the wrong side of the tracks to cook, clean, shop and raise the children of the white folks across town. The two-hour film centers on the lives of three strong willed women in Mississippi in 1962.
Emma Stone plays the role of 22 year-old Skeeter, who has just graduated from “Ole Miss” and is trying to start her career in journalism, which was a man's world in the South and everywhere else. She is given the job of answering questions about household tips for the local newspaper and seeks help from her friend's black maid, Aibileen. Aibileen, played by Viola Davis, is a strong caring woman who has raised 17 white children but has lost her own son in an accident. She provides housekeeping advice for the column and the two women develop a friendship. Skeeter sees the injustice in the treatment of black maids by their white employers and recognizes that in the era of the Civil Rights movement, the help has a story that needs to be told. She pitches the idea to a publisher up North and after much persuasion a reluctant Aibileen agrees to be interviewed. She is later joined by another black maid named Minnie, played by the sassy and defiant Octavia Spencer.
As the film develops, the audience learns about the lives of these three woman as well as Skeeter's mother Charlotte, (Allison Janney of the West Wing), and Skeeter's evil "friend" Hilly, played by Ron Howard’s daughter, Bryce Dallas Howard. Skeeter, Aibileen, and Minnie embark on their top-secret project to write a tell-all book on the lives of black maids in Jackson. Skeeter must keep her work under cover for fear of incurring the wrath of friends and family, and Aibileen and Minnie must hide their involvement to protect their families, jobs, and their own lives. It’s a time when police feel free to beat blacks who challenge social norms and the specter of the Klu Klux Klan looms large. Despite fear of reprisals, they move forward and the finished project changes all their lives in ways that they never expected.
Minnie provides one of the film's funniest moments when she shows up at the home of Hilly, the queen of the Junior League, who has drafted “The Home Help Sanitation Initiative” to require white employers to build outdoor facilities for their black help. She recently fired Minnie, who has worked for the family for generations, punishing her for using the indoor bathroom instead of the maids’ privy. Minnie’s revenge provides a lesson that neither Hilly nor the audience will ever forget.
The film will make you angry about the injustices that existed in the 1960’s and incredulous that just a few decades ago, during our lifetimes, African Americans were treated as property by generations of whites in the South. One of the black maids in the movie revealed that she had been “given” to the white family where her mother worked, when her mother passed away. Particularly moving were the close bonds between the maids and the white children they loved – the maids stood in for detached mothers -- teaching their charges to speak, use the potty and to believe in themselves.
Most touching is the relationship that forms between Skeeter and the courageous maids who are the subjects of her book. When the story is published, it turns their world around, humiliating the oppressors, liberating the oppressed and sending Skeeter off to a new literary life, a world away in New York.
The three women exhibit grace, courage and wisdom during this difficult period of change in the South and Director Tate Taylor has provided a captivating visual interpretation of life in Mississippi at the dawn of a new era.
SHS Grad Jess Chayes Directs home/sick in Williamsburg
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Jess Chayes, a 2003 graduate of Scarsdale High School is currently directing home/sick , an ensemble-devised piece of political theater that explores the history of the 1960s radical group, The Weather Underground. The play is a presentation of the Assembly Theatre Project and can be seen at the Collapsable Hole Theatre in Williamsburg, Brooklyn.
Disgusted by the Vietnam War and the government's repression of those seeking equality domestically, a handful of leaders from the 1960s student movement seized control of Students for a Democratic Society and reshaped it in the name of overthrowing the United States government. Believing violence to be the only means to a true and lasting peace, these passionate idealists accelerated a movement to its fervor, but left a country behind.
According to Timeout New York, home/sick is “impressively researched and clear-eyed and shows us the Underground’s internal contradictions … we see Bolshevik passion lapsing into self-delusion and then flaring up again, until we are unsure what to admire and what to deplore." And offoffonline says, “Jess Chayes's direction is daring and engrossing. The lines between actor and audience, play and reality, right and wrong, become so blurred it is hard not to get caught up in the fervor and passion of these romantics- even if you whole-heartedly disagree with their actions. Chayes intricately blends movement, dance, lighting and sound to capture not only the counterculture of the 70's but also the complex struggles and political questions these very real people were grappling with.”
Jess’ (SHS ’03) love of theater and the arts took root and flourished in Scarsdale High School where she student-directed You’re a Good Man Charlie Brown, led the Drama Club, wrote poetry and founded the a cappella group, For Good Measure. She graduated from Wesleyan University with a B.A. in Theater and English with Honors, and was awarded the Rachel Henderson Theater Prize as well as an Olin Fellowship for her work on Hartford.
Chayes is a co-founder and resident director of The Assembly Theater Project and a freelance director. With The Assembly, she has co-created and directed We Can’t Reach You, Hartford (Edinburgh Fringe First Nominee, The Scotsman), Daguerreotype (The Abingdon Theater), What I Took in My Hand (The Ontological Theater, the Brick Theater), Clementine and the Cyber Ducks (The Ontological Theater, reading at P73), The Dark Heart of Meteorology (UNDER St. Marks), The Three Sisters (The Red Room, The Cherry Pit), and home/sick.
The play will be performed from July 20 -23 and July 27 – 30 at 8 pm. Purchase tickets at brownpapertickets.com and visit theassemblytheater.com to learn more.
Scarsdale Performers to Star in Cinderella
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The Random Farms Kids Theater will present Rodger’s and Hammerstein’s Cinderella at The Tarrytown Music Hall, July 29 through August 7. The production is made up of over 120 young people who are divided into four casts. They come from throughout the tri-state area and have a wealth of theater, film and television experience. Included in cast A is Hannah Lewis of Scarsdale, as Cinderella. Also in the production from Scarsdale are Alexandra Goldman, Nate Kirschen and Julia Rotkovsky.
Alexandra Goldman, age 10, will be going into sixth grade,in the fall. She has been cast as C. Minerva and said, "I am so excited to be part of this production. It's also fun to be in the older cast because they are great role models, and so nice to work and hang out
The performances for cast A are 7/29 @ 11am and 7/30 @ 1pm. Other casts will perform on 7/29 at 7 p.m., 7/31 at 1:00, 8/5 at 11 a.m. and 7 p.m., 8/6 at 1 p.m. and 8/7 at 1 p.m. The theater is located at 13 Main Street in Tarrytown. Directions can be found at www.tarrytownmusichall.org.
Tickets for Cinderella are $18 (adults), $16 (children under 12 and seniors), $14 (groups of 20+) and $10 (camps). Premium seating tickets (first four rows of center orchestra) are $23. To reserve tickets, go to www.tarrytownmusichall.org or call TicketForce at 877-840-0457. Tickets will also be available at the door. For more information, visit the theater’s website at www.randomfarms.com .
(Pictured here: Hannah Lewis)
Outdoor Concerts To Enjoy
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Summer is finally here, bringing outdoor concerts to our area. Here are two you can enjoy this week: In Scarsdale, the 75-member Westchester Band under the direction of Alan Hollander will present the first of seven free concerts in Chase Park on Thursday night June 30th at 8:00pm. Titled "Chase Park Celebration" the program will feature a wide variety of music for all ages plus the popular "mystery tune". Guess the title and you could win a prize donated by a local merchant. The concert will feature a solo by the entire tuba section playing "Deep River". Bring a lawn chair or a blanket and enjoy a night under the stars in downtown Scarsdale.
On Saturday July 2nd, the American Roots Music Festival, a day of bluegrass, folk, gospel, country and the blues, is scheduled at Caramoor located on a 90-acre estate in Katonah.
The festival will take place in three locations on the grounds and visitors can explore the gardens and horticulture as well as hear the music. Daytime shows (12:30-6pm) will take place on a large open grassy field called Friends' Field and at a smaller, picturesque area called the Sunken Garden. The evening performance at 7:00pm is in the Venetian Theater.
Sandwiches, salads, snacks, alcoholic and non alcoholic beverages will be available or you can bring your own picnic or pre-order an upscale dinner picnic the week prior to the festival. There will also be free activities for kids (including face painting and a scavenger hunt) located on Friends' Field. Ollabelle, James Maddock, The Sweetback Sisters, Brother Sun and Spuyten Duyvil will each play a set on the main stage beginning at 12:30 pm.
The Sunken Garden is a charming scenic spot on the premises. Beginning at 1:00 pm, James Maddock, The Sweetback Sisters, Brother Sun and Spuyten Duyvil will each play an acoustic, unplugged set under the trees at this location making it a special, intimate performance.
At 7:00 pm the festival moves into the Venetian Theater, a fully covered venue with assigned seating for the East Coast debut of the David Grisman FolkJazz Trio with Nashville in-demand guitarist Jim Hurst and upright bass player Samson Grisman.
TIckets for the festival are $20/$30/$40 with half price for under 16 years. TIcket prices determine the location of seats for the headline show; all daytime performances are outdoors and open seating. For more info, to purchase tickets or pre-order a picnic go to http://www.caramoor.org/festival/americanroots
Photographs of Susan Wides On Display at Madelyn Jordon Fine Art
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The first solo exhibition of the highly regarded New York artist Susan Wides is on display at Madelyn Jordon Fine Art on Chase Road in Scarsdale. Everyone is encouraged to stop in to see the show and the public is invited to an opening reception on Tuesday, June 21 from 6-8 pm, where you can meet the photographer and discuss her work.
On display are Wides photographs that picture well-known New York landscapes and iconic venues as seen through her unique lens. Wides actually uses an old fashioned 4 x 5 view camera to create her work – the kind of camera the first photographers used to shoot portraits and landscapes. To create her images she shifts the focal plane using her signature “tilt-shift” style to offer fresh perspectives on city and country environments.
The work at the gallery is taken from four of the artist’s series – all in local settings. In the Kaaterskill series, Wides returns to the sites painted by the Hudson River School artists and shows the transformation of the landscape in the 150 years since these paintings were created.
In the Mannahatta series, Wides explores New York City and swoops into Union Square, Madison Avenue and Central Park’s Sheep Meadow. The large scale, 3 x 4 foot photographs give the viewer a tour of spaces for the public and the privileged in works that are both recognizable and disorienting.
Susan Wides’ work is also currently on display at the Hudson River Museum in Yonkers where her show, Susan Wides: Hudson Valley, Mannahatta to Kaaterskill can be seen until September 11. That show also includes photographs of Westchester County, picturing a verdant but troubled landscape.
Works from both the gallery and the museum are available at Madelyn Jordon Fine Art.
Susan Wides divides her time between New York City and Catskill, NY, exploring the character, drama and environment of both places. Raised in Cincinnati, she comes from a long line of woman artists. Her work is included in numerous collections including the International Center for Photography, the Brooklyn Museum, the Norton Museum of Art and the Art Museum of Princeton University.
Take a look at her work in the photo gallery below and stop in at Madelyn Jordon Fine Art in Scarsdale Village to view the artwork.
Madelyn Jordon Fine Art
14 Chase Road
Scarsdale N.Y. 10583
www.madelynjordonfineart.com
914-723-2179
Gallery Hours: Tuesday – Saturday 10:30 am – 5:30 pm
Opening Reception: Tuesday June 21, from 6 pm – 8 pm
