Opening ______________________________

Oklahoma!, is a musical romance
from the 1950s
that takes us through the corn fields

into the wide open spaces of the Oklahoma territory
at a time when the forces of modernization
haven't yet arrived.

With beautiful music and lyrics
by Rodgers and Hammerstein,
and choreography by Agnes de Mille,
the movie transports us to an idyllic world
where people always seem to be celebrating
out of the joy of life,
as they sing and dance and fall in love.

Here's one of the inhabitants of this world, now.
His name is Curly and he's a ranch hand
who is brave and handsome and romantic.

Here he is buttering up Aunt Eller,
the matriarch of this benevolent world.

And here's Aunt Eller's niece, Laurey,
who Curly wants to marry.
As you can see from the picture above,
she is fair and pure and full of sunlight,
like the land itself -- at least most of the time.

But, as we will see, she is also
like a bird singing in a cage,
that only appears to be content 
in its confinement.

Here's the farm where she lives with Aunt Eller,
That's Curly riding up in the lower right.

Much of our story revolves around these three
-- Curly, Laurey, and Aunt Eller --
and how they become entangled
in love and hate, and dream and reality
when Laurey's fear of leaving her protected world
causes her to make a terrible mistake.

But before we recount this story,
(and there's plenty to tell, as you'll see)
there's an incident that takes place early on
that reveals something important
about the kind of people these are.

Let's eavesdrop in on that first,
before we witness what happened when Laurey
was foolish and unkind, and darkness showed its face
in this seemingly perfect world.

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Curly is in love with	Aunt Eller's niece	Laurey