Category Archives: Special Interest Groups

CAST MEMBERS PARTICIPATE IN SPOLIN WORKSHOP

THE POWER OF PLAY

By Sue Wurster

Aretha Amelia Sills is a Los Angeles-based writer and teacher of both improvisational theater and creative writing.  She is the granddaughter of theatre academic, educator, and acting coach Viola Spolin who is considered an important innovator in 20th century American theatre for having created directorial techniques to help actors to be focused in the present moment and to find choices improvisationally, as if in real life.   Spolin’s collection of theatre games, in fact,  has long been considered the drama teacher’s “Bible.”

Aretha’s father, Paul Sills, carried on his mother’s work and was the creator and director of  Chicago’sThe Second City, the first professional improvisation company in the U.S., and, later, the acclaimed Story Theatre.  (The three generation are pictured below. )

Aretha studied theater games for many years with her father (and has conducted workshops for his Wisconsin Theater Game Center, Bard College, Stella Adler Studio of Acting, Stockholm International School, Sarah Lawrence College, and Northwestern University. She has worked with Tony and Emmy Award winning actors and has trained faculty from Northwestern, DePaul, Columbia College, The Second City, The Alan Alda Center for Communicating Science, and many other schools and institutions.  She is the Associate Director of Sills/Spolin Theater Works and directs The Predicament Players. She created and directs an improvised show for Enrichment Works, a non-profit bringing theater that inspires learning into Los Angeles public schools.

Aretha also gives talks on how improvisational theater in the United States emerged out of Progressive-era social reforms in Chicago, particularly Neva Boyd’s Recreational Training School at Hull House.  In her essay “The Theory of Play,” Boyd wrote: “Social living cannot be maintained on the basis of destructive ideologies – domination, hate, prejudice, greed and dishonesty. A society cannot hold together without a good way of life for all… Virtues are dynamic products and cannot be taken over, fully developed, without being continuously developed.”

Neva Boyd

Games, as both women knew, help children learn language skills, socialization, cooperation, and even morality, because all must agree on the rules and abide by them for a game to be any fun. In addition, the act of playing changes the participant.  Boyd wrote: “Play involves social values, as does no other behavior. The spirit of play develops social adaptability, ethics, mental and emotional control, and imagination.” Spolin’s work with actors was deeply rooted in Boyd’s beliefs.

In October, Aretha conducted a weekend long workshop in Watertown, which BOLLI CAST members Richard Averbuch, Sandy Clifford, Becki Norman, and Sue Wurster attended.  All four were challenged and inspired by the work.

Richard, who has acted and improvised professionally himself, says that the experience served as a vivid reminder that there is wonderful possibility and vitality involved in the act of playing games – it helps us reconnect with the child inside.  “It’s also so encouraging to see that you can gather a group of (mostly) strangers, and, within no time, you can play and explore acting with them.  It jump-starts the process of getting to know someone.  We’re asked to trust that inspiration will come from our intuitive selves and by connecting with other actors, especially when engaged in movement.

Sandy says that she found the Spolin workshop “fabulous.”  Aretha created a safe and supportive space which allowed us to take risks and have fun “playing” childhood games like Red Light, Green Light and other old favorites.   They relaxed everyone and got us into that playful childlike space.  No right or wrong was established early on.  Focus was an important theme for me, really focusing on your partner or the task you were doing helped to keep a scene real.
Aretha also kept asking us to really see what we were doing and to keep heightening it.  That exercise was fascinating because, in the heightening, things often became transformed.  It was fascinating to see that happening with other people.  I would love to take another workshop with her, Sandy said.

 For Becki, taking part in the Spolin Workshop was a fun and enlightening experience.  As someone who had never participated in a workshop like this, at first, I was wondering what I was getting myself into.  But participating in CAST and Scene-iors at BOLLI gave me the confidence to take the next step.  What was surprising to me was how much I enjoyed it and how comfortable I was.  Improv is very different from straight acting. It is so spontaneous, while “straight acting” involves a different kind of preparation and a script. Both, however, need the players to get “out of the box” and temporarily be someone entirely different from themselves. That is not easy, but I did manage, and learn, to do it.  What was special, on a personal level, is how all 16 of us, most of whom did not know each other, became a community, and, by the time we left, we were friends.  The reliance and support for each other was wonderful.  Overall, it was a rewarding experience, one that will help me in future productions.  I know I have gained more respect for those who do improvisation!

And for Sue, the workshop was a chance to reconnect with play in an entirely different way.  “When he moved to New York City to found The New Actors Workshop with Mike Nichols, Paul and his wife enrolled their younger daughter Neva at the Calhoun School where I was the drama teacher.  That year, Paul gave me the incomparable gift of enrollment in his improvisation course, which I relished, particularly for what I took away to apply to my own teaching and directing.  Working with Aretha, so many years later, was a wonderful experience, an opportunity to see Paul’s older daughter in action, carrying on the family ‘business’ with such grace, generosity of spirit, and depth of understanding.  Her father and grandmother are surely looking down at her with enormous pride.”

It was a memorable workshop and a terrific way to spend a kong weekend!

BOLLI “Matters” editor. Sue Wurster

Theatre, drama, speech, debate and all things word-centered have led many to refer to Sue as “Wurster the Wily Word Woman.”

WRITERS GUILD WELCOMES HALLIE EPHRON TO BOLLI

INTERVIEW WITH HALLIE EPHRON

Writer Hallie Ephron

by Marilyn Brooks

 It’s hard to believe, but best-selling mystery author Hallie Ephron didn’t begin her writing career until she was 40.  That’s because she came from the well-known Ephron family–her parents were Hollywood screenwriters; her three sisters were published authors; and she was intimidated, a bit afraid of competing with them.  How lucky, then, for the many readers of her 11 mystery novels and 5 works of non-fiction that she decided that perhaps she could become a writer after all.

Hallie spoke on December 12th to the Writers’ Guild, a group of BOLLI members who are working in various genres, including romance novels, memoirs, and poetry.  She emphasized that it’s never too late to write, keeping in mind that writing and being published may be two different things. That should not stop anyone from writing, she stated, but noted that “my goal was always to be published when I started writing,” and she kept at it even after several years of rejections.

Because she started later in life, “I developed bad habits,” Hallie admitted.  “I needed a different skill set than I had had before.”  She had been a teacher and a technical writer, but since non-fiction is so different from fiction, she realized that she needed to develop expertise in plotting, characterization, and settings in order to tell compelling stories.

The beginning ideas of her novels often come from real events, but Hallie emphasizes that she doesn’t write true crime books.  The murder of a friend’s brother was the idea behind one of her novels, but “I don’t want to write true crime—it’s too awful.”

“I didn’t know what I didn’t know” is how Hallie described the many lessons she learned in creating her mysteries.  She emphasized three:  1) this career is not for the faint-of-heart; 2) novels have to have shape—a beginning, a middle, and an end; and 3) drama in the novel is driven by the character’s (protagonist’s) goal, and without a meaningful goal, there is no story.

The story, the plot, is obviously important but often overlooked is the protagonist’s goal, the why of his or her determination to solve the crime.  In writing books in which the leading character is not a detective, there needs to be a meaningful objective that explains why the protagonist gets involved.  Perhaps the leading character has just come upon the body of her brother and is suddenly accused of his murder; solving that crime is, for her, an understandable goal.

Hallie outlines each novel, but as its storyline progresses, she goes back and revises it, reflecting new ideas and changes from the original.  She “rewrites, rewrites, and rewrites” as well. Next, she gives it to friends to read, then to her agent, and then to her editor.  Each one makes changes to her work.  As noted earlier, “This is not a career for the faint-of-heart.”

She describes her technique as “underwriting” rather than “overwriting,” meaning that she has to go back to add to the story rather than removing any excess.  But “writing is so personal, there’s no one way to write a novel,” she stressed.  “Do what works for you.”

Her own goal in writing is that “I want to write something to astonish the readers but that will leave them wondering how they missed the clue” that led to the solution.  Mentioning the movie, The Sixth Sense, she said that the shocking ending of that film was a perfect example of that–a sort of why I didn’t I see that on the part of the filmgoer or the reader.

In talking about her latest mystery, Careful What You Wish For, Hallie took parts of her own life, e.g., an organized wife and a husband who cannot pass a flea market without stopping.  But, she pointed out, it’s a novel, fiction as opposed to fact.  It’s not Hallie in the book, nor is it her husband, but in the hands of such a gifted writer, fiction can be stranger and more interesting than fact.

Our MYSTERY MAVEN Marilyn Brooks

I’ve always been a mystery reader, starting with Nancy Drew (my favorite, of course).  I think I find mysteries so satisfying because there’s a definite plot to follow, a storyline that has to make sense to be successful.  And, of course, there’s always the fun of trying to guess the ending!  My blog, published every Saturday,  is located at www.marilynsmysteryreads.com.

 

 

 

SIG UPDATE: FALL TERM, 2019

SIG UPDATE:  Fall Term, 2019

AGING WITH RESILIENCE & ENTHUSIASM (Group pictured above):  The Aging with Resilience and Enthusiasm SIG had interesting and supportive discussions this semester. Gratitude was our focus for our first fall meeting. Whether you are grateful for health, friends, family, or sunny days, being grateful provides a positive perspective on life. In November, we talked about relationships—the good, the bad, and the ugly. Discussion focused on ways to maintain long-time friendships with those who may live far away. We suggested maintaining friendships that are helpful and uplifting but ending those that drain you of your own energy and enthusiasm. December’s meeting provided a chance to examine the winter blues, especially since we met the day after two days of snow. Talk focused on ways to be alone but not lonely. The benefits of the computer enable us to talk and see others. People have been suggesting interesting books, TV shows, movies and Amazon/Netflix series that make us think and laugh. (Send your suggestions to me at sandymj@gmail.com) Our next meeting is Jan. 8th when we will be discussing remaining at home, right-sizing, or joining a senior housing facility.  (Sandy Miller-Jacobs)

THE BOLLI BOOK GROUP:  The BOLLI Book Group has recently read two acclaimed but very different best-selling novels that each feature the exhilaration, pain, and confusion of teen-age relationships: Normal People by the young Irish writer Sally Rooney, in which class differences and miscommunication discomfit the young couple; and Trust Exercise by Susan Choi, which upends our expectations and forces us to consider the meaning of reality in a fictional world.  (Abby Pinard)

CAST:  Throughout the fall, CAST (Creativity in Acting, Storytelling, and Theatre) focused on improvisational theatre.  This was an adventure in creativity, spontaneity, group solidarity—and play.  We’ve learned about acting by engaging in theatre games used to build teamwork and enhance sensory awareness as well as listening skills.  The exercises paved the way for developing characters, environments that constitute the setting of a scene, and narratives that drive fully improvised scenes.  It was a wonderful exploration of imagination and team building—fully entertaining!   (Richard Averbuch)

POETRY WRITING GROUP:  Since its founding in February, the Poetry Writing Group has continued to meet on a monthly basis.  We have about ten members who participate in presenting their own work and joining in the discussion of everyone’s contributions.  It’s all very loose and comfortable—we don’t write on themes, there’s no designated poetry expert, some bring new works while others bring older ones.  Personally, I’ve found this all very stimulating and have written more than I otherwise would have.  (Peter Schmidt)

WRITERS GUILD:  We continued to challenge ourselves with creative writing prompts, one of which was about having a superpower.  At that meeting, we got into a discussion about some of the problems that an aging Superman might have with his superpowers: maybe sneezing and accidentally blowing away half of Manhattan, for example.  That led to a session in which we collectively brainstormed other common problems with aging that would be magnified for a superhero.  We ended the semester with a guest speaker, writer Hallie Ephron, who engaged us and an audience of other interested  BOLLI members in a wonderful talk about the art, craft, and business of writing.  Watch the Bulletin for notices of upcoming meetings and the prompts we will tackle.  (Larry Schwirian)

 

 

 

 

WALTHAM MATTERS SPECIAL INTEREST GROUP: Upcoming Event

Upcoming Plans for BOLLI Waltham Matters

by Sue Adams  (scadams@gmail.com)*

Special Exhibition: A Disability History of the United States at the Charles River Museum of Industry November 16 at 10:30 AM   

Stay tuned for a very special collaboration in November between the BOLLI Social Change Working Group and Waltham Matters.  On November 16 (third Friday), we will meet at the Charles River Museum for a guided tour of a special exhibit  put together by students at Gann Academy, a private high school in Waltham,  after extensive research.  Alex Green, former chair of the Waltham Historical Commission as well as a teacher at Gann,  will be our guide, and we hope we will also meet some of the students who were involved in devising this project.  Waltham Matters is very pleased to co-sponsor this presentation, and we extend thanks to Cindy Wentz, BOLLI’s  Equity, Inclusion and Disability Liaison, for her support.

Parking for the museum is ONLY at the Embassy movie theater parking lot at the foot of Cooper Street. Follow the signs and cross the river at the footbridge; bear right, and follow the road to the museum entrance. There is a small parking fee (free if you have purchased a parking pass at the Stanley Senior Center on Main Street). The museum charges a nominal $5 admission for Seniors..

Other News:

Waltham Matters planning team has put together a monthly lecture or walking tour on (usually) the fourth Fridays since April, working from suggestions offered by you, our BOLLI Waltham Matters participants. So far we have paid attention to local history and historic sites, as well as art and a walk along the Charles River led by the director of the Waltham Land Trust. We are a collaborative and participatory group with wide ranging interests. I encourage you to help expand our reach with suggestions and ideas and join in making interesting events happen. Future programs may include a look at theater in town, a talk by the director of Africano, a talk with local education leaders, a conversation with the director of the Senior Center/Council on Aging.  What would you like to see? Perhaps you’d like to launch a project to catalogue the outdoor art around campus?  Let me know!

Spread the word–and join us on November 16.

“Waltham Matters” special interest group chair Sue Adams

Long-time Waltham resident Sue is active in Chaplains on the Way, Connections for Healthy Aging, Neighbors Who Care, and the League of Women Voters.  Semi-retired from the Unitarian Universalist Funding Program and the Access Project, in her spare time, she–wait–there’s no spare time!  But she divvies up what there is among her husband Ron, kids, grandkids, and one great-grand.  Life is full and good.