King's Speech

When I was an undergraduate, and people asked me what my major was I responded "speech path" the response was either a blank stare or "what the hell is that? or both. So the fact that there is a major Oscar contending movie about speech pathology almost made me wet me pants. I was privvy to this screenplay three years ago, when I attended my second Fierce Backbone meeting. Fierce is a theatre group and in that visit I sat in the small Hollywood theatre and heard a reading by playwright David Seidler about a play he was working on about a stuttering English king. The speech pathologist in me was way more excited than the director or playwright, someone knows of the work I do? And with such great pride I finally saw this Stutter King not on stage but on screen. What a wonderfully acted film. Rarely do I enjoy movies with character who stutter as they are frequently comedic in nature and I find there is nothing funny about a speech disorder. But they movie tackle what can be quite a debilitating disorder with intergrity, compassion and authenticity. I do encourage folks to see this movie and I do hope that sweet David Seidler brings home the Oscar in a few weeks.