A. PROFILES:  Literary, historical, and artistic personalities

Each presentation last approximately 100 minutes.  Using a DVD biography as a foundation, each presentation is enhanced with background/biographical information, samples of writing, examples of music and art, and interesting personal information.

 

Recent topics have included:

 

Bram Stoker (with a dramatic reading of Stoker’s short story “Dracula’s Guest”)

H. G. Wells

Chevalier de Saint-Georges, the Black Mozart (a fascinating tale of Blacks in European culture during the time of the French Revolution)

Jules Verne

Susan B. Anthony

Cleopatra

Michelangelo (with additional focus on his beautiful sonnets)

Jackson Pollock (and an exploration of America in the 1950’s)

Frida Kahlo

The Navajo Code Talkers (and an overview of Native Americans in our culture)

Benjamin Franklin

Charles Darwin

Sacagawea

Allen Ginsberg

Marco Polo

Charles Dickens

The Tuskegee Airmen

Eleanor Roosevelt

Martin Luther King, Jr.

Howard Carter (and the discovery of King Tut’s tomb)

Frederick Douglass (with readings from his autobiographies)

Edgar A. Poe (with a dramatic reading of “The Tell-Tale Heart”)

Albert Einstein

Amelia Earhart (and women in aviation)

King Arthur (combined with readings from Arthurian poems and legends)

Queen Boudica (the Celt Queen who nearly defeated the Romans)

Nikola Tesla: Master of Lightning (This is a 2 hour presentation using a full length PBS program as the foundation)

Tennessee Williams (Filmed bio with scenes from play as well as live readings from Williams’ poetry and short fiction)

 

B. FILM SERIES

 

The Jane Austen Series: Four films

Becoming Jane

Sense and Sensibility

Emma

Pride and Prejudice

 

Food for Thought Series: Three Award-Winning Films

District 9 (a sci-fi allegory about apartheid in South Africa)

Gattaca (an exploration of genetic engineering and medical ethics)

Children of Men (a morality tale about culture, plague, human ethics)

 

The Write Stuff: 

This on-going series explores award-winning screenplays with an emphasis on how the words of a writer become transformed by actors, directors, film editors, composers, and a host of others into a visual experience.  Individual sessions will examine both original plays and those adapted from other sources.  Each presentation will include a screening of a complete movie and as well as a discussion of the screenwriter’s life and achievements and an in-depth look at the various ingredients that all writers must take into consideration when creating text for a film.  A glossary of relevant terms for the session’s focal movie as well as other interesting background materials will be part of each presentation.  Dr. Thierfelder will make pauses in the film to illustrate points about text, characterization, and theme.   Please be advised that each session will last approximately 150 to 170 minutes in length to allow time for discussion and commentary. Intended for Mature Audiences Only.

 

SEPTEMBER:  (The 1940’s) Casablanca  (103 minutes)

Set in unoccupied Africa during the early days of World War II: An American expatriate meets a former lover, with unforeseen complications. (Academy Award for Best Screenplay Writing)

 

OCTOBER:  (The 1950’s) On The Waterfront  (108 minutes)

An ex-prize fighter turned longshoreman struggles to stand up to his corrupt union bosses.  (Academy Award for Best Writing, Story and Screenplay)

 

NOVEMBER: (The 1960’s) Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner (108 minutes)

Matt and Christina Drayton are a couple whose attitudes are challenged when their daughter brings home a fiancé who is black. (Academy Award for Best Writing, Story and Screenplay - Written Directly for the Screen)

 

DECEMBER:  (The 1970’s) Annie Hall (93 minutes)

Neurotic New York comedian Alvy Singer falls in love with the ditsy Annie Hall. (Academy Award for Best Writing, Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen)

 

No January

 

FEBRUARY:  (The 1980’s) Moonstruck (102 minutes)

A widowed Brooklyn book-keeper is torn between her fiancé and his brother. (Academy Award for Best Writing, Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen)

 

MARCH:  (The 1990’s) Fargo (98 minutes)

Jerry Lundegaard's inept crime falls apart due to his and his henchmen's bungling and the persistent police work of pregnant Marge Gunderson. (Academy Award for Best Writing, Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen)

 

APRIL:  (The 2000’s) Juno (96 minutes)

Faced with an unplanned pregnancy, an offbeat young woman makes an unusual decision regarding her unborn child. (Academy Award for Best Writing, Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen)

 

MAY:  (The 2000’s) Crash (112 minutes)

Several stories interweave during two days in Los Angeles involving a collection of inter-related characters: a police detective, a drug addicted mother, two car thieves, the white district attorney and his pampered wife, a racist white veteran cop, a successful Hollywood director and his wife who must deal with the racist cop, a Persian-immigrant father, an Hispanic locksmith, and more. (Academy Award for Best Writing, Original Screenplay)

 

JUNE: (The 2000’s) Little Miss Sunshine (101minutes)

A family determined to get their young daughter into the finals of a beauty pageant take a cross-country trip in their VW bus. (Academy Award for Best Writing, Original Screenplay)

 

TRUTH BE TOLD: The Art of the Documentary

Starting in 1942, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has given an annual award for the Best Feature-Length Documentary film.  The list of winners and nominees reveals much about our country, society, and the world at large; indeed, to watch these films is often an adventure in anthropology.  With the advent of “reality tv” in the past decade, there’s a growing interest in the creation of films that tell true stories in artful

ways.  Each session will have a screening of a documentary and will present material about the creators of the film and about the actual events that inspired it.  Presentations will explore specific themes, including American Labor, Gun Control, The Holocaust, and Global Climate Change.

SEPTEMBER:  The Human Adventure:  Kon Tiki (1951)

OCTOBER:  American Labor:  Harlan County USA (1976)

NOVEMBER:  Civil Rights in America:  The Times of Harvey Milk (1984)

DECEMBER:  The Jewish Experience/Holocaust:  The Last Days (1998)

No JANUARY

FEBRUARY:  Terror/ism, Guns, Kids:  Bowling for Columbine (2002)

MARCH:  Nature:  March of the Penguins (2005)

APRIL: Global Climate Change:  An Inconvenient Truth (2006)

MAY:  Winner of the 2010 Academy Award

 

C. MUSIC SERIES

Each presentation is an exploration of a specific composer or opera.

 

Viva Verdi

Viva Puccini

Men in Opera (a look at countertenors, tenors, baritones, and basses)

Women in Opera (a study of sopranos, mezzo-sopranos, and contraltos)

Mozart

Beethoven

Handel

 

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Each opera lecture gives a biography of the composer, a synopsis of the opera, and a rich sampling of DVD selections:

 

Aida

Andrea Chenier

La Boheme

Carmen

Marriage of Figaro

Barber of Seville

The “madness” of Donezetti and Lucia di Lamermoor

Orpheus and Eurydice

Peter Grimes

Verdi, Fatherhood, Rigoletto

Samson and Dahlila

La Traviata

Turandot

Tosca

The Tales of Hoffmann

Julius Caesar (Handel)

Die Walkure

 

Others by request

 

Shakespeare in Opera

Otello

Macbeth

Romeo and Juliet

(Audio selections from Shakespeare’s plays are coupled with the corresponding scenes in the operas shown on DVD)

 

D. MOTIVATIONAL LECTURES: 

60 and 90 minute motivational workshops based on "Dr. T's 12 Keys to DELIBERATE LIVING.”  As a motivational speaker, my job is to help you discover those things in your life that will help make you and that life more fulfilling, meaningful, and rich.  You already have all the tools you need to live successfully.  My 12 Keys are things that have made my life better.  The purpose of my workshops is to share with you what I've done to improve the quality of my day-to-day experiences and then assist you to discover things that will improve yours.  Perhaps you'll adopt or adapt all 12 of my Keys; some of you may keep some, jettison the rest, and then go on to invent your own Keys.  And that's what a motivational workshop is all about:  It's to get YOU motivated, to get you thinking about your routines and habits, to spark creative ideas within you.

I will work with you to create a workshop that will best fit the needs of your group.

Typical workshops provide each participant with handouts (in a binder or portfolio depending on your finances) and are built around a three-part structure: A presentation on my 12 Keys, a small group session in which participants discuss those Keys and begin to create their own, and an open forum during which participants share their thoughts with the whole group.  Typical workshops are 60 or 90 minutes in length, depending on size and your time availability.

 

Go to www.makingwings.net and click on MAKING WINGS for more information on “The 12 Keys”

FEES:  Fees for presentations are based on library budgets.  Libraries currently pay me in the range of $200 to $400 per session.  This is negotiable.