I watched Roxanne yesterday, in between feedings and referee-ings and clean-up-ings. It reminded me of the first time I ever saw a grown-up play, on a school field trip to Cedar City in the winter. I think I was twelve or thirteen, maybe older. When the lights came up after Cyrano de Bergerac, my shirt was wet with all the tears I’d cried. I sobbed another ten minutes, at least, back onto the bus, totally uncaring of the sniggering boys.
And I thought, yesterday, that I know I’m not a Mozart, and I have not the discipline or drive of a Salieri, or the wit of an Edmond Rostand, for that matter. But as long as I can be audience to human pageants such as these — well, I’d rather weep over a tragic romance than rage in frustration at a mundane lack of sleep.
So tell me — what was the first play or book or movie that moved you, made you feel so connected to someone/something a hundred years or miles away? For Avery (she won’t remember this), it was the scene in Castaway where Wilson floats away on the sea. She was two years old, and I don’t know, maybe the music was that evocative or maybe it was enough that he was losing a ball, but she was inconsolable.
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I think it was Beaches. Just kidding. I’m not sure but I do remember bawling during Life starring Michael Keaton, and that was during my college days. The Book Thief was one of the rare books I’d consider reading again and am actually looking forward to doing so. I’m sure others will come to me…like The Hiding Place, which I read numerous times, and The Diary of Anne Frank, which I saw at Hale Theatre.
The Count of Monte Cristo. Changed my life. I have read it many times and still love every bit of it.
My freshman year of high school, we were assigned The Lord of the Flies by Goulding to read over the summer.
I remember reading it, finishing it, then feeling like I was seeing the world through a completely different (albeit dark) lens. It was the first book I remember not just subconsciously grasping the ideas of theme, sybolism, allegory, but understanding, articulating and analyzing them as well.
Total sidenote – you gotta post some fresh pix of that cute baby!
My first moving book and play was The Grapes of Wrath. I read it in school and then we went to the play downtown and was truly touched; It was heartbreaking. However, as an adult, Les Miserables is the most inspiring book that I’ve read and I love to read it over and over again.
Funny Girl was my first. I still sob when watching the closing scene, though the whole show is fantastic. “Hello, gorgeous!”
Jane Eyre – her story, so dark yet so full of light – Jane’s unflinching self analysis, “I was no Helen…,” her covenant with God, and her resulting adventures were so personal to me.