Daytime Programming
Our daytime programming takes several forms. Culture & Cocktails offers you the chance to experience compelling art and ideas within the context of a social hour. Matinée Movies are thought-provoking films and discussions presented by community and artistic leaders. Our Day Trips allow you to visit organizations that share Real Art Ways' sensibility with members of our staff.
Matinée Movies
Sense and Sensibility
Actress Emma Thompson wrote the screenplay for and stars in this adaptation of Jane Austen's SENSE AND SENSIBILITY—a novel that perceptively examines the social manners and laws of early-19th-century Britain.
Set in the English countryside, the film follows the loves and heartaches of sisters Elinor (Thompson) and Marianne Dashwood (Kate Winslet). The two have extremely divergent approaches to life: Elinor represents "sense" and believes in behaving with propriety and thoughtfulness, while Marianne represents "sensibility" and basks in her own emotions. Both women, however, experience confusion when their lovers, seemingly on the verge of proposing marriage, spurn them.
For director Ang Lee, the film marks a break from his Father Knows Best trilogy, which examined the problems of the contemporary Taiwanese family. Many people questioned whether an Asian director could handle an English period film. Lee answered those questions with a gorgeous film that both captures the nuances of Austen's novel and proves that Lee is a first-rate director capable of tackling any material. Featuring Hugh Grant and Alan Rickman, among others, the stellar cast inspired Lee to flatteringly exclaim, "Can everyone in England act?"
(United States, 136 minutes)
Day Trip to Dia:Beacon
Tickets are selling fast!
Join Real Art Ways staff members for a visit to the Dia Arts Foundation's renowned collection of art from the 1960s to the present, in beautiful Beacon, New York.
Tickets, on sale now, are: $35 for seniors/students/Real Art Ways members, and $45 for the general public.
Cost includes transportation from Real Art Ways to Dia:Beacon, museum admission, and docent tours. Lunch (not included) is available at the museum cafe, with light fare including coffee, pastries, sandwiches, salads and soups.
For more information and to save your spot, please contact Trudi Lebron at 860-232-1006 x103.
Strictly Ballroom
Matinée Movies
Scott Hastings is a champion-caliber ballroom dancer, but much to the chagrin of the Australian ballroom dance community, Scott believes in dancing "his own steps." Fran is a beginning dancer — and a bit of an ugly duckling — with the audacity to ask Scott to be her partner, after his unorthodox style causes his regular partner to dance out of his life. Together, these two misfits try to win the Australian Pan Pacific Championships and prove the Ballroom Confederation wrong when they say, "there are no new steps!"
Directed by Baz Luhrmann
(Austrailia, 94 min.)
Salsa performer and instructor extraordinaire David Polon will demonstrate his moves and facilitate an audience discussion about competitive ballroom dancing.
Talk by Connecticut Author Howard Layton
Culture & Cocktails
WWII Royal Air Force Navigator, electrical engineer, inventor, airplane pilot, entrepreneur, professional actor, and published author Howard Layton will be on hand for an afternoon of literature and laughs.
Music provided by a Hartt School of Music solo jazz keyboardist.
Music from the Inside Out
Matinée Movies
Music from the Inside Out is the result of a unique five-year collaboration between Oscar-nominated filmmaker Daniel Anker and the 105 musicians of the Philadelphia Orchestra. The film explores the intersection of art and life through the stories, passions, and artistry of some of the finest musicians in the world.
Groundbreaking in style and approach, the main character of the film is music itself. Incorporating a blend of well-loved musical works including classical, jazz, bluegrass, salsa, and world music, the film features an eclectic, intoxicating soundtrack.
Jeff Krieger, Gene Bozzi and Rick Rozie from the Hartford Symphony will be on hand to discuss the film and their lives as professional musicians. In addition to performing with the symphony, Mr. Bozzi is Music Department Chair of the Greater Hartford Academy of the Arts, and Mr. Rozie is also an accomplished jazz musician.
The Red Shoes
Matinée Movies
Based on a Hans Christian Andersen fairy tale about a pair of enchanted crimson ballet slippers, 'The Red Shoes' follows the beautiful Vicky Page (Moira Shearer), a young socialite who loves ballet, the rising composer Julian Craster (Marius Goring) whom she loves, and her dictatorial director, Boris Lermontov (Anton Walbrook).
The film will be preceded by a special discussion led by ballet dancer Hilda Morales. Currently a member of the dance faculty at the Hartt School, Morales began her career at the Ballet San Juan. She was a featured dancer in the movie The Turning Point. Ms. Morales will be on hand to answer questions about the dance and film industries and to chat.
Real Art Ways' daytime programs are made possible by support from:
