Avi Bernstein recently announced that he would be leaving BOLLI this month, after twelve years as BOLLI’s Executive Director. Under Avi Bernstein’s leadership, BOLLI has expanded greatly in scope and participation. BOLLI has become a truly vibrant community, where in addition to our courses, we can participate in special interest groups, attend concerts and weekly lectures given by notable speakers, visit museums and other interesting architectural attractions, and of course socialize with friends.    

The Banner asked some member-leaders to share their thoughts on Avi Bernstein’s twelve-year tenure and answer the question:

How did you benefit from Avi Bernstein’s leadership?  

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“Give me your tired, your poor over-Zoomed BOLLI members,

Yearning to go out

Send these, the restless, to museums, theatres, tours and lunch

We lift our spirits with culture and community”

        (with apologies to Emma Lazarus)

BOLLI members at the Opera House

The Arts and Culture Excursions Special Interest Group (SIG) just started in the fall of 2022, but has already become a very popular and well-attended community for BOLLI members. The trips, which are planned by members of the SIG, so far have included theatre performances, visits to museums and special exhibitions, tours of theatres and even visits to Jewish Chelsea, the Boston University “Jenga” building, the Federal Court House and the Bonhams Skinner’s Art Auction House. These activities always feature a specially-arranged guided tour or talkback after a play. And they generally include lunch at a nearby restaurant before or after.

I have attended many of these excursions myself. I spoke with the SIG’s co-leaders, Jennifer Coplon and Marsha Semuels, to learn where the idea of the group came from, how well they think it has worked so far and what they envision for its future.

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Marty, a member of BOLLI’s Writer’s Guild, offers a humorous look at the challenges and many joys of living a long life.

The salves and pills,
those oily creams,
the sticky, stinky ointments,
all of these for treating
my age-owed ailments, disappointments,
and embarrassments I must endure because,
for sure my wrinkling scaffold,
blued from ageing’s pox ‘n’ bruises,
sums of symptoms,
some reclusive, some elusive,
some concussive, some contusive,
others plain old itchy “nuisancives”.

But my wounds, are all egalitarian,
so for this cranky antiquarian,
now a mid-septuagenarian,
whose hand-picked pharmaceuticals,
maintain his organ’s cuticles,
I sing to you with proudest praise,
from my personal band
and all its aides,
that I‘m still alive, to celebrate
my ever-golding days.

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BOLLI has a long and proud tradition of performing live theater. As one example, Scene-iors, an informal drama club started by Eileen Mitchell and Becky Meyers, evolved into a series of more formal study groups culminating every semester in full-length, one-act plays performed in the Turner Street Gathering Space. During fall semesters many members also participated in the CAST (Creative Acting, Storytelling and Theater Group) Special Interest Group, with a focus on short scenes.

Then, three and a half years ago Richard Averbuch burst upon the scene. A quiet and gentle man, Richard had a strong background in theater performance and education. In the fall of 2019, he assumed leadership of CAST and began to direct members in weekly exercises in performing scenes and improvisation. He also started an improvisation group outside of BOLLI which many CAST members subsequently joined. Members gathered with Richard at 60 Turner Street in March 2020 to prepare for a live performance of A.R. Gurney’s The Cocktail Hour. But a few days later, COVID hit, BOLLI went virtual, and CAST was on hiatus.

CAST regrouped that fall, and members decided to perform ten scenes from another Gurney play, The Dining Room, though this time with rehearsals and performances taking place on Zoom, a technology previously unknown to any of us (including Richard).  Over the course of the semester, Richard became proficient in the new platform and gave us a master class in how to effectively perform on Zoom.  Among his teachings: “Look straight ahead; wait for your fellow scene-mate to finish speaking before you start; listen actively and react with facial expressions and tone of voice; and focus on the key transitions within a scene.”  Read More »

(It is with sadness we note the passing of longtime BOLLI member, Charlie Raskin. Na’ama Ansell visited with Charlie in 2021 to learn more about him, his family, and other aspects of his well-lived life. He will be missed.) 

“I was born in the back of my family’s candy store, located next to the Otis Elevator Company in Yonkers, New York”, Charlie Raskin told me when we recently sat down for a conversation. No doubt an unusual place to be born, but for Charlie a uniquely warm and comfortable one since his family was quite well-known by their neighbors. He recalls that at the end of each day, “People coming down the elevator would stop by the store to chat with us before heading for home.” Is it any wonder that with these beginnings Charlie, a member of the BOLLI board of advisors, became the super-friendly, enthusiastic person whom we know?

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It was just over a year ago that we reported on the imminent retirement of the Lydian Quartet’s Second Violinist, Judy Eissenberg. Judy has now been replaced by Julia Glenn, who returns to the Boston area from an extended stay in China, where she has been a member of the faculty at the Tianjin Juilliard school and a member of the Tianjin Julliard Ensemble. Julia has been named an Associate Professor of the Practice in the Brandeis Music Department with teaching as well as performance responsibilities.

We recently sat down with Julia (all appropriately masked) in the Lydians’ rehearsal room in Slosberg Music Center to ask about her thoughts on leaving China and joining the Quartet.

The decision to leave China, where Julia had been living, teaching, and concertizing for the past three years, was not an easy one, but the opportunity to join the Lydians and to be closer to her family proved to be irresistible. Having grown up in Wellesley, the daughter of musical parents (her mother, Bayla Keyes, was a member of the Muir String Quartet), and having attended New England Conservatory as well as Harvard University, Julia was well acquainted with Brandeis’s world-renowned quartet-in-residence. When she learned of the position opening she quickly submitted a sampling of recordings of her past performances and soon was invited to come to Waltham for an extensive series of auditions with the members of the Quartet. It became clear to all in short order that Julia would be an ideal fit for the vacant Second Violin position.

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As we learned in a recent message from Avi Bernstein, senior associate director Megan Curtis has accepted a new position and will be leaving BOLLI at the end of the month. The Banner asked her to share some of her thoughts as she departs following a ten-year tenure.

What positions have you held at BOLLI?

I like to think I “grew up” at BOLLI, starting as a program administrator in 2013, progressing to senior administrator in 2015, assistant director in 2016, associate director in 2020 and senior associate director in 2021. Some may not know that while working at BOLLI I also had the opportunity to earn a Master of Science in Management at Brandeis.

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It is with sadness we note the passing of founding member, Arlene Weintraub, who participated in BOLLI’s initial planning meeting more than twenty years ago. Our condolences to her family and many friends. To learn more about Arlene’s role in the early days of BOLLI, click here; to view her obituary, click here.

 

BOLLI’s Creative Acting, Storytelling and Theater group (CAST), under the direction of Richard Averbuch, is preparing for its fifth virtual production, which will take place from 1:00 pm to 2:15 pm on Tuesday, December 6. Our ensemble will perform scenes from the following six plays, with two actors/characters on-screen in each scene:

Lettice and Lovage, by Peter Shaffer

A Narrow Bed, by Ellen McLaughlin

Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune, by Terrence McNally

The Cocktail Hour, by A.R. Gurney

Road to Mecca, by Athol Fugard

Steel Magnolias, by Robert Harling

Pre-Covid, CAST performances took place at lunchtime in the Gathering Space at BOLLI’s home on South Street in Waltham. But like many other activities, our productions have been presented virtually for the last two-and-a-half years. The ability to keep our group going through Covid has been a lifeline for members – combating loneliness and struggles, and establishing deep, supportive relationships.

During our time together, we have had the opportunity to sharpen our acting skills by learning the nuances of ZOOM acting – looking straight ahead, waiting for our fellow actor to finish speaking before we begin, listening attentively, reacting with a focus on facial expressions and tone of voice, and focusing on key transitions within a scene. An additional advantage to our current virtual format is that the three out-of-state members of our troupe have been able to participate in the current production. We have also enjoyed in-person CAST parties the last two summers, at which some of us met for the first time.

Positives aside, we do, of course, look forward to the time when we will again be able to rehearse and perform in front of a live audience. Until that day arrives, the show must go on!

(To register to watch the performance, click here. If interested in learning more about our group, please contact me at mseliber1@gmail.com or Richard Averbuch at richardaverbuch@gmail.com. To read more about what some of our actor/members have to say about their CAST experience, see below.)

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Longtime, revered BOLLI member Sophie Freud died on June 3 at the age of 97. As noted in a previous issue of the Banner, Sophie was “a free spirit who lived according to her own high-minded values and principles, and in doing so became an inspiration to us all”. Her family will host a celebration of her life at 3 pm on Sunday, October 30 in Brandeis University’s Sherman Hall at the Hassenfeld Conference Center. They invite the members of the BOLLI community to join the celebration.

In April Sophie sat with Peter Bradley for an extensive interview about her remarkable life, beginning with time spent in the company of the man she called her “famous grandfather,” her later escapes from both Vienna and Paris just ahead of the Nazis, and her subsequent career, spent first as a social worker and later as a professor at Simmons College. The interview, which is summarized in the June Banner article found below, was part of BOLLI’s Oral History Project which offers all members the opportunity to capture their life stories through recorded interviews to be shared with friends and family, and sometimes with the BOLLI community.

(To attend the October 30 celebration of life, write to Andrea Freud Lowenstein at lilychatte@gmail.com with “Sophie” as the subject of the email. To listen to Peter’s talk with Sophie, click HERE. If you are interested in participating in the BOLLI Oral History Project and capturing your story, click HERE or write to Peter at bradleypa@mac.com. 

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“A Conversation with Sophie Freud,” by Joyce Lazarus (originally posted June, 2022)

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