Touched by an Angel

"To be, or not to be."

I would definitely say not to be.

Oh, Tess, I just love Shakespeare.

He was a strange little man.

He kept writing down everything and saying "alas."

He really talked like that. Drove the local folks crazy.

Okay, give me a T.O. and grab some bench.

Come on, don't make me give you a lecture.

That means shut up and sit down.

I'll have you doing push-ups.

Hey, hey, hey. Come on, fellas. Knock it off.

All right, while we're waiting,

I'm Bebe Manero, women's basketball coach.

I don't think any of you are on the team.

Anyway, as you know,

Woodbridge College is what is officially called

financially challenged.

What that means is

this school is busted flatter than a supermodel.

So, this year I'm gonna do basketball,

and I'm gonna be in charge of the theatre department.

I'm really looking forward to this assignment, too,

because I figure I'll expand my horizons,

and I can really use the extra 60 bucks a month.

Now, as my first official act as head of the department,

I have hired one of the greatest actors

of daytime television to teach our class.

He's a little late,

but hang tough.

Who are they waiting for? Our assignment.

He's late.

Oh, no, he's an actor.

They never think of it as showing up late.

They call it "making an entrance."

Hello!

All right, here he is.

Hey, you know him as Malcolm Elliot

from the daytime drama "The Young and the Yearning,"

he's Joel Redding.

: I think my mum had a crush on him a million years ago.

You know, I never missed a day;

I wouldn't even schedule basketball practice at 2:00

so I could watch the show.

Well, I'm flattered.

You're flattered? I'm flattered.

You're the greatest.

Now that Malcolm's toast

because he was poisoned by his aromatherapist,

Joel has decided to join our faculty

as a visiting professor.

Or until they need his twin brother.

Thank you, Coach.

Um...

well, I, uh, I know why you all are here,

but, um, you may not know why I'm here...

why I left New York,

and, uh, said good-bye to Malcolm Elliot,

who earned me 11 years of work

and four Emmy nominations.

I, um, I left that soap opera

and walked into this theatre

because the theatre is not only

where an actor truly bears his soul,

it's where he learns that he has one.

And I'm ready to share that with you.

Now, I know that most of you are undergrads,

although we do have a couple of grad students here,

and that, um, I'll be working very closely with all of you...

Don't waste your time, man.

It's just an old TV guy from the wax museum.

Everybody will get a chance.

I hope that you'll all decide to participate

in the community fund raiser that I'll be developing.

Um, I've decided to make it an evening of Shakespeare,

and, um, I hope to see you all at the auditions.

Uh, should be a lot of fun.

So, um, thank you.

Okay, practice tomorrow night, 7:00.

And remember, no street shoes on the stage.

Okay, class dismissed.

So why are we here?

All the world is a stage, baby,

and everybody has their part to play.

Unfortunately for his son,

that's all Joel has.

His son?

Marshall.

Marshall adores his father.

But just about all he knows about him

is what he sees on TV.

And the man is not going to be on TV anymore.

Hi, Mom.

Hi, honey. How was your first day of school?

It was okay.

What did you do afterwards?

Did you hang with your new friends?

They're all morons. There's nothing to do in this town.

Hey, keep your mitts off that.

I want us to all eat together.

It's our first dinner in our first house.

Man, even the pizza bites here.

No, it's just different from what you're used to.

Yeah, well, what I'm used to is good New York pizza.

I can make that New York pizza.

Eat that and get outta here!

Very weird.

I'm home!

Hey. Oh, hey, Dad.

Hey, buddy, how was your day?

Honey. It was all right.

Let's see.

Well, at school, they're only a year behind

everything I did last year. I hate the school,

I hate the town, and I want to go back to New York,

but outside of that, it was a great day.

Well, I had a great day.

They had a banner onstage...

"Woodbridge College Welcomes Joel Redding."

They all knew me. You should have been there.

Now you see, I told you

you didn't have anything to be worried about.

Listen, uh, I noticed when I came in that the table

was behind the couch. Doesn't really fit, does it?

The table was behind the couch in our apartment.

You were just never there to notice.

Sorry, just trying to help.

You know, you could help

by hanging the family portrait.

Look, I'll get it.

Who on earth? We don't even know anybody yet.

Uh... actually, I meant to tell you...

Dad, it's for you.

They're here for some meeting.

Hello, I'm Monica. I spoke to you on the phone.

I'm your new stage manager.

And I'm Tess.

The dialogue coach. Yes.

For a play?

It's going to be wonderful.

I love Shakespeare.

Yeah, Dad's the best at that.

You know, he's not just a TV guy.

I thought you were only gonna teach this year.

Well, it's just a little fund raiser.

They needed a director...

And you couldn't say no.

It's an evening of great moments from Shakespeare.

And a month's worth of evening rehearsals.

Yes, I'll, I'll put on the coffee.

Well, um... why don't we get started?

Oh, wonder.

How many goodly creatures are there here?

How beauteous mankind is.

Oh, brave new world that has such people in it.

That was very good.

I have a scene from Romeo and Juliet

that should be just perfect for you.

Great.

I look forward to working with you.

Sure. Me, too.

Hmm.

The old charmer's getting old.

That's a sign.

Must be a difficult time for a man.

They call it midlife crisis.

But if he isn't careful, it's gonna be a crisis

for everybody real soon.

That's your cue.

Hey.

Hello, Marshall. What are you doing here?

Well, after school's out,

there's nothing to do in this crummy town.

I figured I'd see if dad could use some help.

He could.

We need a Hamlet.

Oh, no. Listen, I'm not an actor.

I mean, look, Dad's the actor.

You know, I've seen him do it,

but there's, I mean, no way that I could...

What? You'd make a great Hamlet.

Why?

You have so much in common.

Like what?

Well, for one thing, you're both students, right?

You both love your fathers. You're both making adjustments

to major changes in your life.

And maybe some of the things that are confusing to you

were confusing to him.

Go on.

Take a look at it.

"To be, or not to be"?

Yeah. You see, here Hamlet is confused,

but in this case it's about whether to live or to die.

Yeah, I know what it's about.

But I'm not confused about living.

No, of course not.

I mean,

I wish I was living somewhere else, but...

Oh, well, you see, think of that