The Jack Curtis Dubowsky Ensemble returns with their original live score to Charlie Chaplin’s 1921 silent film, THE KID. This authorized original score will be performed by an eight-person ensemble at the beautiful historic Art Theatre in Long Beach on Retro Row, Sunday, June 1, 2025.
ABOUT THE KID
In Chaplin’s first feature film (six reels in 1921), the “Little Tramp” rescues an orphan boy from the streets and raises him as his own. Chaplin and Jackie Coogan make a miraculous pair in this clever and innovative marriage of sentiment and slapstick, a story of pancakes, fistfights, and dodging social services and policemen - as the opening title card says, “a picture with a smile - and perhaps a tear.”
Chaplin himself (and his half-brother, Sidney) spent most of their childhood in orphanages, where they often went hungry and were poorly treated. The shadow of this childhood can be seen in this comedy, which Chaplin wrote, produced, edited, and directed (as well as originally scored). The Kid ends with a fantasy sequence that showcases in-camera effects, editing techniques, and masterful use of rigging for the period.
An instant success in 1921, The Kid remains a masterwork of cinema. In 2011, The Kid was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant.”
MEET THE ENSEMBLE for THE KID
Jack Curtis Dubowsky - Conductor, composer
Emily Barrett – Guitar, ukulele, mandolin
Ellen Burr – Flutes
R. Scott Dibble – Keyboards
Reanne de Klerk – Reeds
Matthew Miller – Percussion
Jeff Schwartz – Double Bass
Charles Sharp – Reeds
For more information, visit:
https://destijlmusic.com/jcde/
Jack Curtis Dubowsky is a Professional Artist Fellow of the Arts Council for Long Beach
https://artslb.org/artists/jack-curtis-dubowsky/