By Stuart Adelberg
I am a thinker. I don’t know if this is good or bad and being a thinker certainly doesn’t make me smarter than anyone else, but I have a hard time turning off my brain and living in the moment. No matter where I am and what I am doing, I am constantly aware of where I am going next and what I need to get done that I’m not doing right now because I’m doing something else. It’s exhausting!
I am also addicted to news. I feel this need to be on top of all that is happening in the world. My wife will confirm, to her chagrin, that our car radio, which has access to a million stations, is always tuned to news. When I work on a computer, a news feed operates in the background and when I have been offline for any amount of time, I am eager to open a news app to be sure I haven’t missed some major world event.
My need to know all that is happening is not purely academic, I admit that it impacts my mood and too often my ability to focus on other things. I allow myself to get intellectually and emotionally drawn into stories from near and far. Whether it is tension, strife, tragedy, or happiness, I feel it and struggle to let it go. I am sure that this is not unusual and though it is probably not the healthiest way to be, I seem incapable of turning it off!
Perhaps the above explains, in addition to my love of the arts, why I am so drawn to theaters – both for film and live performance. A dark theater allows me to temporarily push aside everything else and focus on the stage or screen. I have too much respect for other audience members and the artists who have created whatever I am viewing to keep my phone on and check messages or news feeds. I am one of those lunatics who turns the phone back on the minute the lights come up – but when the lights are down, I am focused 100% on the presentation in front of me. Of course, a deeply meaningful production, which is what I love most, also stays with me long after it ends, but I see that as a value of the arts, not a distraction. Theatre is truly my respite, and it gives me great satisfaction.
All of this may account for my very positive reaction to Downton Abbey: A New Era. I was thrilled to be at the Avon last week for our preview of this much anticipated film, and it was one of the most enjoyable evenings I have had at the movies in a long time. It is beautifully filmed, well written, directed, and acted. It will admittedly not challenge your sensibilities or leave you thinking for hours about critical issues of the day. But when the lights go down, you will be with the Crawley family, and you will enjoy every minute of it!
I don’t need to tell anyone how challenged we are today with the constant barrage of troubling news from every corner of our nation and the world – all of it worthy of our considerable attention and concern. But the thinker in me believes that we all need to occasionally escape, and this is truly the perfect vehicle. I invite you to the Avon to see this film because I am convinced, with deference to Mame composer Jerry Herman, “We need a little Downton, now!”
Stuart Adelberg is the Executive Director of downtown Stamford’s historic, non-profit Avon Theatre Film Center. He has a long history of leadership and participation in the region’s non-profit arts and human service’s communities.
