From book club to theater troupe

REHEARSAL—From left, Bernice Germaine, Sybil Nisenholz, Bernie Nisenholz and Marv Chernoff are in the Not-So-Young Readers Theater group. Professors with doctorates, experienced teachers, a microbiologist and a medical doctor have come together to create something to improve the lives of local seniors.

The result: A new theater group. The Not-So-Young Readers Theater Group is helping others and having a good time as they perform “Carmen Cohen from the Herring Factory” at senior adult facilities.

What began as a literature discussion group of 11 who met weekly at the Goebel Senior Center in Thousand Oaks clicked so well, they started reading plays aloud together—just for fun.

Then something magical happened. When the group was looking for a play to read aloud, member Marvin Chernoff offered one of his own.

“Everyone loved it,” his wife, Sharon, recalled.

Now that the group has perfected reading Chernoff’s play “Carmen Cohen from the Herring Factory,” The Not-So-Young Readers are taking it on the road.

They perform at no charge and are anxious to bring it anywhere seniors are excited to see it, Sharon Chernoff said.

So far, the performance has received good reviews. Written responses taken from a post-performance survey include: “Forgot my aches and pains,” “Very, very funny script” and “Very nostalgic, thought the play was written for me.”

The group will perform at the Simi Valley Senior Citizens group at 1 p.m. Tues., Nov. 10, and later in November at the Grand Oaks Retirement Home in Thousand Oaks.

Chernoff is a Thousand Oaks resident, professor and psychologist who writes full-length, oneact and short plays that have been performed throughout the United States and abroad.

One of his full-length plays, “Chaim’s Love Song,” had more than 200 performances off-Broadway beginning in 1998. Since then, it has run consistently in the U.S., Canada, England and Australia. The playwright was born in Brooklyn and grew up in a small town in upstate New York. He said his work reminds seniors of the “over-the-top melodrama” that is part of old Yiddish theater.

Yiddish theater was the primary form of entertainment for millions of Eastern European immigrants who came to America in the late 1800s and early 1900s.

For more information about the group, send an e-mail to shrnbloom@yahoo.com.