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Emily Dickinson Museum
The Poet in Her Bedroom
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The Emily Dickinson Museum announces the debut of "The Poet in Her
Bedroom," a 32-minute DVD about the reclusive genius Emily Dickinson
(1830-1886).
The DVD focuses on Dickinson's rich and productive life
as a poet. Shot during the summer and fall of 2007, it is set in and
around The Homestead, the elegant family home in Amherst where
Dickinson spent nearly her entire life. Much of the action takes place
in the poet's upstairs bedroom where she wrote and edited most of her
work at a small table, behind a closed door.
The DVD also includes
many historic photos of the 19th century Amherst that Dickinson knew
before she stopped appearing in public.
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LIMITED REVIEW COPIES for media agents are available by contacting: dmabelli@emilydickinsonmuseum.org
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DEBUT SCREENING
Saturday,
September 27, 2008
1:30 p.m.
2:30 p.m.
3:30 p.m.
4:30 p.m.
Free. Homestead Parlors.
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Angles of a Landscape
Emily Dickinson
The Poet in Her Bedroom
DVD
"The Poet in Her Bedroom" explores several mysteries about Dickinson's life during her years as a mature poet. Among the mysteries are the Master letters, written to an unidentified love interest; Dickinson's decision to withdraw from Amherst social life; her habit of wearing white, beginning in her thirties until her death at age 55; her refusal to publish any of the nearly 1,800 lyric poems that were discovered after her death; and the famous 1870 meeting in The Homestead parlor with the literary editor Thomas Wentworth Higginson.
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Transformations
CD
The musical accompaniment to the DVD is a haunting Beethoven song cycle,
"To the Distant Beloved,"
played by the acclaimed Argentinian-born pianist Estela Kersenbaum Olevsky. It is known that in her lifetime, Dickinson played and enjoyed hearing others play Beethoven's piano music.
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"The Poet in Her Bedroom" was created by a handful of Amherst area residents who donated their talents to the Emily Dickinson Museum.
Producer and Editor Ernest Urvater
Urvater earned a B.A. in English literature and a Ph.D in physics. For many years he taught physics on the faculty of Colorado State University. Only in his later-life career as a documentary film maker, says Urvater, did he succeed in uniting his left and right brain. Urvater has made many commercial, medical, and documentary videos, including "Pagans" and "Berthe Morisot: The Forgotten Impressionist." He regards his television work as an extension of his earlier life as a teacher.
Associate Producer and Script Writer Terry Y. Allen
Allen has been a writer and editor for the Carnegie Commission on Higher Education, McGraw-Hill Book Company, Barre Press, the University of Massachusetts, and Amherst College. She is a contributing editor of Pakn Treger, the magazine of the National Yiddish Book Center. Allen has been a guide at the Emily Dickinson Museum since 2004.
Lighting Videographer James MacAllister
MacAllister, a writer/director/editor who specializes in medical and scientific television programs, has garnered top honors from the Health Science Communications Association and the Society for Technical Communication. He has won several writing and electronic publishing awards from the New England Chapter of the American Medical Writers Association. MacAllister is currently a graduate student in the Geography Department of Geosciences at the University of Massachusetts.
Pianist Estela Kersenbaum Olevsky
Born in Argentina of Austrian and Italian parents, Olevsky made her piano debut at the age of eight in Buenos Aires. Throughout her multi-faceted career Olevsky has appeared in recital and with symphony orchestras in Europe, Latin America, Asia and the United States. She is Professor Emeritus of Piano at the University of Massachusetts in Amherst, where she chaired the Piano Department for over two decades. Olevsky frequently performs with chamber ensembles, including The Lark Quartet. She regularly appears on the program of the Mohawk Trail Concerts series in Charlemont, Massachusetts.
Oil portraitist Elizabeth Pols
Pols studied fine arts at Villa Schifanoia in Florence, Italy, and received a B.A. from Smith College and an M.F.A. in printmaking from the University of Massachusetts. For many years an art director and editor at UMass, she is currently an art director for Pakn Treger, the magazine of the National Yiddish Book Center. She exhibits her work at galleries in Maine and Massachusetts including, most recently, a one-person show at the Hosmer Gallery in Northampton and an exhibit at the Maine Art Gallery in Wiscasset, Maine.
Narrator Joni Denn
Denn taught English and theater for many years in Fairfax, Virginia, before moving to Western Massachusetts. She has been a guide at the Emily Dickinson Museum for four years. The mother of five and grandmother of seven, she says "theater runs rampant through the flock."
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Please contact Donna Abelli at dmabelli@emilydickinsonmuseum.org or 413-542-5084 to request a review copy, images for your article.
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