Actor's Rep Features Controversial Films on Aug. 4

July 23, 2012 - PRLog -- Actor’s Rep Features Controversial Films on Aug. 4
West Palm Beach, FL – Film buffs and acting students will watch clips and discuss more than four banned, censored or highly controversial films at Actor’s Workshop and Repertory Company, it its Bhetty Waldron Theatre 1009 N. Dixie Highway, at 8 p.m. on Aug. 4. Tickets are $10, available only at the door.
Among the films in the “Banned and Censored: Controversy in Cinema” program (part of Actor’s Rep continuing “Fundamentals of Film” education series), are:
•   Birth of a Nation (1915, Lillian Gish, Mae Marsh), considered a landmark in American cinema and American racism, tells the story of the Civil War and Reconstruction through the eyes of Southern whites. Despite some censorship and banning of it in Kansas, the movie became one of the most admired and profitable films ever produced by Hollywood.
•   Freaks (1932, Wallace Ford, Leila Hyams) is about a circus’ beautiful trapeze artist who marries a sideshow midget after learning of his large inheritance. Because the deformed cast shocked moviegoers, the film was banned in England for 30 years. It is now a cult film and deemed worthy of preservation by the U.S. National Film Registry.
•   A Clockwork Orange (1971, Malcolm McDowell, director/producer Stanley Kubrick) is a social commentary, showing disturbing and violent images of gangs in a futuristic London. The film was originally rated X because of explicit sex and violence and was withdrawn from British distribution for many years. It was nominated for four Academy Awards.
•   Do the Right Thing (1989, Spike Lee, Danny Aiello) is the story of simmering racial tension in Brooklyn’s Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood that results in tragedy on the hottest summer day. Many people feared the movie could incite riots (it didn’t). The controversial, highly-acclaimed film received two Academy Award nominations.

Host Caroline Breder-Watts, a local public radio veteran and a film historian and lecturer who developed the film series, said it will be “a special evening for young people and student actors who may be seeing the films for the first time and great for older movie goers as well.” Breder-Watts and Actor’s Rep Artistic Director Bob Carter will lead the movie discussion, held in the Bhetty Waldron Theatre at Actor’s Rep.

Actor’s Rep first gained attention at its original location, 308 South Dixie, as an innovative, avant garde theatre and actors’ and technicians’ training ground in 1980. In an intimate workshop setting, actors’ skills were developed based on the work of Stanislavski, Strasberg, and other renowned teachers. The group formed a repertory company which produced seldom seen, daring, thought-provoking plays to high critical acclaim in its 99-seat theatre-in-the-round.  It also developed the first summer acting camps for children and teens in Palm Beach and Broward counties.

   Bob Carter’s Actor’s Workshop & Repertory Company, Inc. is incorporated in the state of Florida to provide education and training in the theatre arts and to develop professional theatrical productions using primarily local talent. The corporation is a not-for-profit 501(c)(3) organization and all contributions are tax deductible.