Word: awkwardnesses
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Dates: during 1940-1949
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...teenager, her father had once said: "My girl, don't be a fool-put your shoulders back, hold up your head, and don't be ashamed to show the world that you are shaped as a woman ought to be." But all her life she remained ashamed, awkward and uncontrollably shy. Now she was 41, "a big colourless woman in a brown skirt and a high-necked blue sweater. The shoulders were square, the neck long and firm, the legs straight and big, like pillars...
...Stravinsky, who has been writing ballets since 1909 . . . knows very well the logical anatomical basis of the Five Absolute Ballet Positions. In the Third Position (the heel of one foot locked against the instep of the other, weight equally distributed, with complete turnout), Mr. Stravinsky would have found it awkward to execute the traditional stage bow derived from the imperial Russian theater. He took it in Fourth Position (with weight equally divided, the fore foot is twelve inches in advance of the back...
Meanwhile, at St. James's Theater, Guy Domville had opened brilliantly, but during the second act the audience began to laugh at an elderly actress whose hoop skirt and high plumed hat struck them as ridiculous. Then the producer (and star) made an awkward last-act exit, and the uproar became a thunderstorm...
...circumstances. The actors, almost to a man, indulge in speechifying, varying from tense dramatic whispers to semi-hysterical out-bursts. But such melodramatics seem to be inherent in the play. Similarly, co-directors Roy Erickson and Burt Kelsey have far too often permitted the actors to stand in awkward groups in the canter of the stage. If more imagination had been exerted, more realistic and fluid action could undoubtedly have been devised, but again the basic difficulty seems to lie in the play itself, which handicaps the director by substituting pseudo-eloquence for drama...
...fallen so low? At a time of great confusion in international affairs, Mr. Truman had often faced his responsibilities with a cheerful, dogged courage. But his performance was almost invariably awkward, uninspired and above all, mediocre. He had declined to assume real leadership. Most of the time, instead of leading, Mr. Truman had been whipped around the curves like the last car of the train. Even on an issue in which he was right with most of the country, Mr. Truman found himself in wrong with most of his fellow Democrats. The Southerners howled with rage because he proposed...