Wyoming County Cultural Center at the Dietrich Theater

Newsletter for February 7, 2014

570-836-1022

Now Showing at the Dietrich

(Click on Movie Posters for Showtimes and Synopses.)

Coming Next Week

(Click on Movie Poster for Showtimes.)

Upcoming Events - Please join us for...

Leonard Bernstein:

American Idol, American Idealist

Sunday, February 9 at 3:00 p.m. at WVIA

Admission: Free

Free Bus Transportation from the Dietrich at

1:30 p.m.

Call for reservations.

Dietrich Classic Movie Series "Casablanca"

Wednesday, February 12 at 1:00 p.m. & 7:00 p.m. at the Dietrich Theater

Tickets: $5 each

At the Dietrich by Hildy Morgan

Oh. My. So many exciting things happening this week. From movies to things upcoming and a big thank you for things past. Which I’ll start with. Thank you, Jeff Mitchell, a kabillion times for coming to the Dietrich each year and doing a lecture on hiking through the hills of Pennsylvania. It was a packed house – over two hundred folks in the audience, loving his talk and his pictures. So thank you, Jeff. We know you’re so busy being the world’s totally best District Attorney, so for you to take time to visit us and teach folks about how gorgeous NE PA is is just a great thing to do. And trust me, we so appreciate it!

And, just a note, because we had to cancel the first Wyoming County Reads because of our second snowstorm in a week, it will start anew next Wednesday night, same time, same place (7:00 at the library.)Do try to fit it into your schedule. The discussions are always so interesting. I love them because they’re so smart as well as interesting, they remind me of class discussions in English Lit, with one big exception – they aren’t graded. Whew! What a relief. So come and enjoy. Remember, there is no right or wrong answer, no right or wrong way of looking at the books and their messages. So come and tell us what you think – you’ll have a good time doing it.

So, we have The Monuments Men opening and it looks to be dynamite! Rolling Stone magazine gave it three stars which is like a billion stars from any other mag, But here’s the thing we want to tell you – the monuments men weren’t all men. The art curators who went around Europe saving great and historic works of art were sometimes women, and although there is one woman in Monuments Men, when the subject is discussed women are often left out of the conversations entirely. (Well, if you’re my age, you have to remember that history in school was the history of white men. With the exception of less than a handful of people, we were lead to believe that women spent the history of the world cooking and cleaning and that they had no part in any important historical events ever! Women didn’t invent, they didn’t write, they didn’t compose, they didn’t build, they didn’t design, they simply didn’t exist.) But, it turns out, women did more than cooking and cleaning and one of the things they did was rescue great works of art. And one of those women was Ardelia Ripley Hall. When Margie’s dad, the great Alva Tompkins, would go to Washington D.C. for business, he would stay with her. And she was responsible for saving hundreds if not thousands of works of art. I think Erica is going to do a press release on the subject of the “monument women” and their local tie. Look for it because it will be so interesting! And for more info on them, look up the article in the New York Times From January 29^th titled Not All Monuments Men Were Men. Makes for a good read.

I did so want to tell you about the upcoming film festival, but I seem to have run out of room so I’ll tell you all about it next week. Just keep March 28^th open for gala night. It is going to be soooo great!!!!

And finally, I can’t finish this column without saying something about the death of Phillip Seymour Hoffman. As those of you who regularly read this column know, I usually don’t care a fig if celebrities die of whatever ails them. But Hoffman wasn’t a celebrity, he was probably one of the finest actors of his generation. He was like a male Meryl Streep in that whatever part he played he became that part. He wasn’t Hoffman, he was whatever part he played. He was brilliant and talented and everything an actor would hope to be. And he was a heroin addict. And we all know how that ends. We really need to look at the way we deal with addiction. It’s an illness, not a crime and until we make that switch in how we think about it, more and more young people will die. The decades old war on drugs has netted us nothing. Nothing! We need to reboot or rethink or something. And we need to do it soon!

See you at the Dietrich.

Live at the Dietrich by Erica Rogler

Live at the Dietrich for February 5, 2014 - (Please note: Due to the snow storm on February 5 - Wyoming County Reads will begin on February 12)

Tonight we start our discussions at the Tunkhannock Public Library for the tenth year of Wyoming County Reads. It doesn’t feel that long ago that we were discussing our first book for this program – To Kill A Mockingbird (one of my favorites!) And now we are taking on two books, The Scarlet Letter and A Thousand Splendid Suns and there is just so to talk about! It will be a first for us to compare books. Join us at the Tunkhannock Public Library at 7 p.m. for an Overview of the Novels: Plot, Characters, Themes with facilitator Bill Chapla. Admission is free.

If you can’t make this discussion, there will be plenty of others for you to participate in. Discussions will be held on Wednesday evenings at 7:00 p.m. through March 12 at the Tunkhannock Public Library, and Bill will hold additional discussions at the Nicholson Methodist Church on Monday, February 10 at 7 p.m. and the Mehoopany Area Library on Thursday, February 13 at 7:00 p.m.

I’d also like to take this opportunity to invite you to a special event the Dietrich is presenting at WVIA this Sunday at 3:00 p.m. Karl Middleman, conductor of the Philadelphia Classical Symphony will share his perspective on the great Leonard Bernstein. I mainly know him for his music from West Side Story and Wonderful Town so it should be fascinating to learn more about one of our country’s most acclaimed musicians. Audience members will also learn about his involvement in social issues and his time at the Curtis Institute of Music. Admission to the program is free and there will also be free bus transportation from the Dietrich Theater thanks to funding from the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts. This event is by reservation only so please call us at 570-996-1500 to reserve your seat today.

The following week, the Dietrich will be celebrating Valentine’s Day early with two showings of the classic film Casablanca on Wednesday, February 12 at 1:00 p.m. and 7:00 p.m. See this classic World War II movie at the theater. I can’t wait to see Ingrid Bergman and Humphrey Bogart on the big screen. Tickets are $5 each. Sounds like a good date night, right?

If you are more interested in live entertainment be sure to come out to the Dietrich on Friday, February 28 for Open Mic Night. Last month, our featured performer was Wolf Critton, a singer/songwriter from New York City. He had a great sound and inspiring message. This moth our featured artist will be poet Brian Fanelli. He will be reading from his new book of poetry All That Remains. This will be his second appearance at Open Mic. We also encourage budding musicians, poets, storytellers, and other performers to come out and share their talent that evening. It’s a great opportunity to meet other local artists or listen and be inspired. Open Mic begins at 7:00 p.m. and admission is free. We hope to see you there.

I would also like to thank the Shavertown 4 and Dennis Gold for the wonderful exhibit reception last Friday night. The music was fantastic and it was fun to see all the attendees examining Dennis’ unique Pictures in Wood exhibit. My favorite piece is “Tuba Montrose Blueberry Festival”. His exhibit will be on display in the Dietrich’s Sherwood Gallery through February.

Additional Upcoming Events

(Click on Pictures for Event Details)

Wyoming County Reads – The Scarlet Letter and A Thousand Splendid Suns

Book discussions are Wednesdays, February 12, 19, 26, March 5 and 17 at 7:00 p.m. at the Tunkhannock Public Library and Monday, February 10 at the Nicholson Methodist Church.