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A Happy Birthday Treat

A Building on the Bethany College Campus Credit: Bill Rockwell

 Last evening, on my birthday, I enjoyed the drive over to Bethany, West Virginia, home to Bethany College. I had written about Bethany many, many years ago for, I believe, West Virginia magazine, but was surprised how different it is now is from what I remember. It has an almost Ivy League look with beautiful stone buildings and wonderfully landscaped campus. BTW, the road from Washington to the campus meanders through some lovely bucolic Pennsylvania countryside.

Actor Casey Hellman


Anyway, my visit last evening was to attend the Red Carpet Reception and movie premiere of “The Blithedale Romance,” based on Nathaniel Hawthorne’s 1852 novel of the same name. Many of the actors and producers were there as was Cody Knotts, the film’s director.

Poster of Diva/Renaissance Woman and Actress Emily Lapisardi Credit: Bill Rockwell


I knew Cody through his wife, the very talented, Renaissance woman, Emily Lapisardi Knotts who I’ve written about before when she was probably still a teen doing impersonations of historical figures. I wrote even more about her father, Dr. Fred Lapisardi, an English professor at what was then California University of Pennsylvania, now PennWest California.
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One article I especially remember is when Dr. Lapisardi organized a Yeats Festival of plays at the university plus many others when he operated Geezer’s Bookstore in the now defunct Jozart Studio in California and planned events in Brownsville as part of the National Road Festival
But back to the subject at hand. The opening reception at Bethany College featured an excellent buffet that included shrimp, crab, lamb lollipops, roast pork with raisin sauce, grilled veggies, mashed potatoes, asparagus, a variety of cheeses and wine, beer, and cocktails of choice.
Just prior to the film screening, Anna Singer of WQED fame and elsewhere introduced the producers, director and actors on hand. Earlier in the day, I learned that Ms. Singer celebrated her birthday the same day as mine, September 25, a fact I was thrilled to learn. Naturally I had to get my photo with her, a request she graciously consented to.

Yours Truly with Anna Singer Credit Bill Rockwell


A work by Eternity Box Films, “The Blithedale Romance” stars Scott Cooper as Miles Coverdale and Emily Lapisardi as Zenobia. According to Wikipedia, the novel is the third major "romance", as Hawthorne called the form. Its setting is a utopian socialist farming commune based on Brook Farm, of which Hawthorne was a founding member and where he lived in 1841. The novel dramatizes the conflict between the commune's ideals and the members' private desires and romantic rivalries.
I was sincerely impressed by the cinematography of the film, its gorgeous landscapes and exuberant period costumes. Emily did much of the composition of the musical background, and the director managed to get an almost mystical, otherworldly, even Gothic, mood that carried throughout the film.

Three of My Favorite People Iris Holleran, Bill Rockwell and Yours Truly Credit: Some unknown Volunteer Photographer

All in all, it was a wondrous way to spend a birthday on a gorgeous campus with wonderful food, old friends and a provocative narrative worthy of a literary giant. For more photos and information, check out Emily Lapisardi's Facebook page.

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