Well, it’s now mid-September and that got me to thinking about the season of Autumn. Somehow, about this time every year, a certain group of lines relating to this season runs through my head until I give up and acknowledge them, then spend more time than I probably should thinking them through very carefully. Perhaps you’ve encountered these lines yourself. You may have read them, or heard them, or, encountered them in some other form. Anyway, here’s how they go:
Surprised you, didn’t I? I suspect that all these years most people have probably thought of me as a bit of a hard-nosed, certainly hard to please, old fogey, who was too insensitive to really care about much of anything, or anyone else very much. I hate to tell you this, but it’s called ACTING! (That could be why I ended up spending my life doing Theatre stuff!)
In fact, deep down inside, where I don’t let it show very often, I think that I’m basically a Romantic. Now, I’m not going to pretend that I am “romantic” in the way most people tend to think of that term. I’m, no ”Hollywood leading man,” and I’m very much aware of it. But I will suggest that I have always been not just fond of, but something of a “true believer” in many of the notions which were central to what came to be called “Romanticism” beginning in the latter part in the 18th Century and lasting well into the 19th (if not well beyond).
Now, as I understand it, the “Romantics” rejected many of the social conventions of their time in favor of a moral outlook known as individualism. They argued that passion and intuition were crucial to understanding the world, and that beauty is more than merely form, but is something that evokes a strong emotional response. With this philosophical foundation, the Romantics focused on several key concepts to which they were deeply committed: a reverence for nature and the supernatural, an idealization of the past as a nobler era, a fascination with the exotic and the mysterious, and a celebration of the heroic and the sublime. (Source: Wikipedia)
Yes, I’m quite fond of these sorts of things and have been most all my life. Now, I won’t pretend that I’ve always (or even very often) gone out of my way to make it obvious how much of a Romantic I truly am. In fact, I’ve probably gone too far in trying to hide it, but I think it’s pretty much always been true, even if I didn’t really have the words to express it and explain it in the “proper, academic” form.
While I think that it was true at least by the time I was in high school, I don’t think that I really came to understand it until I was in college. Now, you see, while I was in college, I had, as is common practice, roommates. During my junior year, I actually lived in a sort of suite, with two friends. One of these had recently been to New York, where he had seen the (then relatively new) off-broadway musical, The Fantasticks. Then, he went out and bought the original cast album, with which he proceeded to drive me (at least) completely crazy by playing it CONSTANTLY! It drove me NUTS! I HATED it!
To make a long story short, that Spring Break, I went to New York with some friends (all of whom wanted to see that show, so I, somewhat reluctantly, went to see it with them. After all, it WAS a New York musical. It was off-broadway, so it was less expensive than a real Broadway show would have been. We were poor college students. AND, I did get to go with my friends….
Okay, I fell in love with it (as a LOT of other people have, both before and since). Now, the show opened in 1960, and I saw it in the spring of 1965 (I think)! Obviously, what I saw was NOT the original cast (although it was the “original production” in the Sullivan Street Playhouse, down in the Village), but I was completely blown away. So, I promptly bought the original cast album, and tried to wear it out on MY phonograph. (Yes, CD’s were not yet even conceived of, it was that long ago!)
Since then, I have been involved, in one way, or another, with at least FOUR productions of the show at Western, and I have seen additional performances in other places, because I love the show so much. I have designed the set and lights several times, stepped in as director for a sick colleague once, and even played Henry Albertson, the old actor, during one of the summers that WCU had a rep. company in residence at Fontana Village Resort (having designed sets and lights for that production, as well).
What is it about this show that so many of us love? I’m not sure, but I suspect that it has something to do with the essentially Romantic nature of most real “Theatre People.” I think it’s fair to say that most of the best theatre folk I have known love the nostalgic sense of “long ago and far away,” which I would argue is central to theatre. Even when the issues, problems and characters of the play are extremely current, there is something about the nature of theatre which removes them from “the present” in order to make them bearable. I think that’s well caught in the song “Try to Remember” in The Fantasticks, so I want to include its lyrics here.
In fact, deep down inside, where I don’t let it show very often, I think that I’m basically a Romantic. Now, I’m not going to pretend that I am “romantic” in the way most people tend to think of that term. I’m, no ”Hollywood leading man,” and I’m very much aware of it. But I will suggest that I have always been not just fond of, but something of a “true believer” in many of the notions which were central to what came to be called “Romanticism” beginning in the latter part in the 18th Century and lasting well into the 19th (if not well beyond).
Now, as I understand it, the “Romantics” rejected many of the social conventions of their time in favor of a moral outlook known as individualism. They argued that passion and intuition were crucial to understanding the world, and that beauty is more than merely form, but is something that evokes a strong emotional response. With this philosophical foundation, the Romantics focused on several key concepts to which they were deeply committed: a reverence for nature and the supernatural, an idealization of the past as a nobler era, a fascination with the exotic and the mysterious, and a celebration of the heroic and the sublime. (Source: Wikipedia)
Yes, I’m quite fond of these sorts of things and have been most all my life. Now, I won’t pretend that I’ve always (or even very often) gone out of my way to make it obvious how much of a Romantic I truly am. In fact, I’ve probably gone too far in trying to hide it, but I think it’s pretty much always been true, even if I didn’t really have the words to express it and explain it in the “proper, academic” form.
While I think that it was true at least by the time I was in high school, I don’t think that I really came to understand it until I was in college. Now, you see, while I was in college, I had, as is common practice, roommates. During my junior year, I actually lived in a sort of suite, with two friends. One of these had recently been to New York, where he had seen the (then relatively new) off-broadway musical, The Fantasticks. Then, he went out and bought the original cast album, with which he proceeded to drive me (at least) completely crazy by playing it CONSTANTLY! It drove me NUTS! I HATED it!
To make a long story short, that Spring Break, I went to New York with some friends (all of whom wanted to see that show, so I, somewhat reluctantly, went to see it with them. After all, it WAS a New York musical. It was off-broadway, so it was less expensive than a real Broadway show would have been. We were poor college students. AND, I did get to go with my friends….
Okay, I fell in love with it (as a LOT of other people have, both before and since). Now, the show opened in 1960, and I saw it in the spring of 1965 (I think)! Obviously, what I saw was NOT the original cast (although it was the “original production” in the Sullivan Street Playhouse, down in the Village), but I was completely blown away. So, I promptly bought the original cast album, and tried to wear it out on MY phonograph. (Yes, CD’s were not yet even conceived of, it was that long ago!)
Since then, I have been involved, in one way, or another, with at least FOUR productions of the show at Western, and I have seen additional performances in other places, because I love the show so much. I have designed the set and lights several times, stepped in as director for a sick colleague once, and even played Henry Albertson, the old actor, during one of the summers that WCU had a rep. company in residence at Fontana Village Resort (having designed sets and lights for that production, as well).
What is it about this show that so many of us love? I’m not sure, but I suspect that it has something to do with the essentially Romantic nature of most real “Theatre People.” I think it’s fair to say that most of the best theatre folk I have known love the nostalgic sense of “long ago and far away,” which I would argue is central to theatre. Even when the issues, problems and characters of the play are extremely current, there is something about the nature of theatre which removes them from “the present” in order to make them bearable. I think that’s well caught in the song “Try to Remember” in The Fantasticks, so I want to include its lyrics here.
This song both opens and closes the show. It both sets up the entire thing and closes it out, as well. And I think it’s fair to say that I’ve never known a theatre person who was not perfectly willing to experience it again (and again) in any fashion available, although I can’t say that I think that the movie version works anything like as well as the stage one. I think that’s because the movie can't capture the imaginative, theatrical simplicity which is easy to capture on the stage, but very hard to duplicate in a movie.
You see, Try to Remember sets the whole thing up as “make believe,” a memory, not the “truth,” but a PLAY which is MORE than simple “truth” (which, of course, ALL good plays are).” The cast is then introduced (as characters) and we (the audience) find out a bit about who those characters are and how they relate to each other. THEN, the story gets underway with the Narrator filling in the necessary circumstances with what is known as “The Glen Speech,” with which I opened this post.
The play progresses as a fairly simple, obvious, “growing up,” “falling in love,” “getting hurt,” “learning what is truly of importance in life” story, of which thousands have been written and most people have lived through in one way or another. There’s even provision for us “olders” to consider the fact that we have “suffered through” some sort of similar experience(s) and they have contributed to our (hopefully) becoming the mature, caring adults which most of us want to be (and hope we are). That provision works to remind us of the role that parents, grandparents, teachers, and others who are present in the lives of our “learning” play (and the pain which sometimes accompanies it) in what is known as “the paradox” speech.
You see, Try to Remember sets the whole thing up as “make believe,” a memory, not the “truth,” but a PLAY which is MORE than simple “truth” (which, of course, ALL good plays are).” The cast is then introduced (as characters) and we (the audience) find out a bit about who those characters are and how they relate to each other. THEN, the story gets underway with the Narrator filling in the necessary circumstances with what is known as “The Glen Speech,” with which I opened this post.
The play progresses as a fairly simple, obvious, “growing up,” “falling in love,” “getting hurt,” “learning what is truly of importance in life” story, of which thousands have been written and most people have lived through in one way or another. There’s even provision for us “olders” to consider the fact that we have “suffered through” some sort of similar experience(s) and they have contributed to our (hopefully) becoming the mature, caring adults which most of us want to be (and hope we are). That provision works to remind us of the role that parents, grandparents, teachers, and others who are present in the lives of our “learning” play (and the pain which sometimes accompanies it) in what is known as “the paradox” speech.
Perhaps it’s foolish, but once I came to start to understand that speech, I felt that I truly understood the unhappiness which I always felt when I had to assign a student a grade which I knew would disappoint them. But, I also understood why I knew I couldn’t just be “nice” and “give” those students a grade they would have liked better. In fact, of course, when properly and fairly applied, discipline (of all sorts) is a form of affection (even love). It’s how we grow, and it’s a lot like the change of the seasons. Autumn is NOT the “season of dying.” It’s the season of fulfilling destiny and settling down to rest for the Winter, so that we can be prepared for the rebirth of something new in the Spring and growth through the Summer. It’s natural, it’s normal, and, I dare say, it fits right in with the notions of Romanticism.
If you get a chance sometime, go see The Fantasticks if you’ve not seen it before, or go see it again, when you can. It’s worth the time, effort and expense. It’s a quick lesson in what makes us human. You MIGHT even realize that YOU are something of a Romantic, too. It’s not a bad thing, after all. Some might even say that it’s what separates real HUMANS from just “people.”
I’ll be back in a couple of weeks.
🖖🏼 LLAP,
Dr. B
If you get a chance sometime, go see The Fantasticks if you’ve not seen it before, or go see it again, when you can. It’s worth the time, effort and expense. It’s a quick lesson in what makes us human. You MIGHT even realize that YOU are something of a Romantic, too. It’s not a bad thing, after all. Some might even say that it’s what separates real HUMANS from just “people.”
I’ll be back in a couple of weeks.
🖖🏼 LLAP,
Dr. B
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