Study Group Members Intros

Howard Barnstone

I worked professionally in the financial information area for my career focussing on mergers and acquisitions, strategy, and strategic partnerships. In high school I either worked on building sets or moved sets during the performance(we were known as "RATS" which we often stated is 'stars" spelled backwards). My wife and I enjoy all forms of theatre and live productions. I am a lifelong fan of Eugene O'Neill's plays and his biographical history. I have read and seen Long Day's Journey into Night several times.  

Sheila Brachfeld

I went to Tufts University (Jackson College for Women at that time) where I majored in theater and took many psychology courses and spent a year in the Tufts in London program for theater majors.  I loved being a theater major, but my education/career has been in academic psychology.  I completed my graduate degree at Brandeis in psychology and spent 35 years at Wellesley College. I have two daughters and two young grandchildren.

Until January, I had neither read nor seen Long Day’s Journey, so I watched parts of it on my computer when deciding if I should register for the course.  

Barb Chandler

I'm a retired medical writer. Although I'm an avid theatre goer, I have not seen Long Day's Journey Into Night. My son is a musician who often plays in pit orchestras so while I love the theater, I am more familiar with musicals than straight plays. Looking forward to the class!

Phyllis Freeman

I am an ex history teacher many years ago. I love the theater and Long Day's Journey is one of my favorites. Looking forward to the \ class and returning to BOLLI. Can’t wait to do all of this in person again. 

John Godine

I grew up in Montreal, came to the US for college, married an American, and have never left. After a brief career in theoretical physics, I became a physician, and have spent my now-waning career as an endocrinologist at the Massachusetts General Hospital. I enjoy live theatre but my exposure, aside from Shakespeare and a few seasons at the ART and the Huntington, is fairly meager. I have seen both a live and the film production of Long Day’s Journey into Night, but they are hidden in the fog of memory.

Suzanne Goren

New to Bolli and local theater scene.  Retired from clinical/academic career (NYU,U of Washington) working with kids and families at the intersection of the mental health/juvenile justice systems. As an undergraduate refused the invitation to play Joan of Arc in Anouilh”s “The Lark”, knowing even then that my place in the theater was in the audience. Long time subscriber to Seattle’s wonderful “Book-It” (book-to-stage) program and Seattle Rep. Currently enjoying membership in a local play reading group . First time reading of “Long Day’s Journey…..” but Katherine Hepburn’s Mary is indelible in my memory.

Jim Harburger

I'm an 81 year old married father of four and grandfather of six. Professionally I worked as a psychiatrist for 50 years and retired in 2020. I grew up in NYC and attended theater starting as a child. Before becoming a parent my mother was an actress. Currently we subscribe to the Huntington Theater, attend selected shows at the ART, and occasional other theaters. We make one or two trips to NYC each year and see several shows each time. Years ago I saw both a stage production and a film or TV production of Long Day's Journey.

Karen Kafka

My career as a speech-language pathologist focused on working with students with expressive and receptive language disabilities along with consulting with teachers around classroom strategies to help empower these students.  I enjoy attending theatre but have not been directly involved with acting or behind the scenes work. I thoroughly enjoyed Steve’s course on August Wilson’s Fences and am eager to join the deep dive into Eugene O’Neil’s Long Day’s Journey into Night. 

Lisa Kamisher

My theatrical experience is as an enthusiastic audience member. I had the pleasure of participating in Steve’s course “Family Ties: The Drama of Eugene O’Neill” that concentrated on several his early one-act and full-length plays.  This will be my first deep dive into “Long Day’s Journey Into Night.” My academic background is in fine arts with a graduate degree in libraries and information management. Professionally, I worked with visual collections in museums and libraries and eventually shifted my focus to institutional strategic priorities and organizational management for higher education. In 2020 I joined the Bolli community where I have been enjoying courses in the arts and humanities.

Matt Kaufman

This is my third class with Steve Bloom as SGL and my second on O'Neill. Long Day’s Journey into Night particularly intrigues me as I have spent significant time early in my medical career caring for patients with TB, or who ingest alcohol or other drugs. My current interest is in interconnection and interplay between the ingestion, illness and interpersonal dynamics. The play is also reflective of the state of medicine in the early 20th century, long before the recent accumulation of sophisticated medical knowledge and interventions.

Joyce Lazarus

I taught French at Framingham State University for 39 years, and particularly enjoyed courses that included French playwrights such as Moliere, Musset, Rostand, Ionesco, Sartre, and others. I particularly enjoy American playwrights such as Arthur Miller, Tennessee Williams, August Wilson and David Mamet. I saw O’Neill’s play “Moon for the Misbegotten” and loved it.  I need a refresher on “Long Day’s Journey into Night,” since I read it decades ago, and look forward to reading it again and discussing it in this course.

Devorah Meshoulam

I’m a retired Social Worker, Therapist. I’ve been a Bolli member for many years and have enjoyed many classes, but haven’t taken yours. I love theatre as an audience member and have seen a production of Long Days Journey into Night in Hebrew by the National Israeli Theatre- Habima in 1975. I can say that my understanding of alcoholism and drug addiction now is much enhanced by living here and experiencing the culture first hand in addition to understanding it professionally.

Marty Norman 

I am looking forward to joining your O’Neill Study Group. Actually this will be my third O’Neill Group with you as SGL.  I was also in Family Ties as well as its Prequel . My interest in O’Neill dates back to my college days. My educational background is in Psychology and for many years I was a practicing Clinical Psychologist.  I am now retired.  Currently I volunteer for the Alzheimers Association as a facilitator of Caretaker Support Groups. My wife Becki (who was in your “Raisin in the Sun” group) and I are involved with the Coolidge Corner Theater where we started a film program called the Sounds of Silents. 

Ann Reisen

I spent my career as a documentary filmmaker, writing, directing, and producing programs for television, museums, and non-profit organizations. I also taught program development at Dartmouth and Harvard‘s Graduate School of Education. My theater experience has been exclusively as a consumer. Over the years I’ve seen several performances of Long Day’s Journey and had actually vowed not to see it again. I’ve studied in another Steve Bloom course and decided that with a good and tested guide, I could take the play on one more time. 

Ann Ross

I have had no experience at all with our play, but I am enjoying reading it very much right now. I have been a member of Bolli since 2018. Before retirement, I was a social worker in the infant toddler and preschool programs at Perkins School for the Blind in Watertown. I have never been in in a play, but have always enjoyed going to the theater in Boston, New York, and the Berkshires. I’ve had subscriptions to New Rep, Huntington, and currently at ART. While I was at Tufts, I had student tickets to the Charles Playhouse.

Amy Rubin

I am a psychologist by training. I was mostly involved in research but I also saw clients. BOLLI is helping me fill in gaps in my education in literature and art. I enjoy going to the theatre. In recent years, I've seen mostly musicals, as that is what my friends like to see.  I realized that I have never seen an O'Neill play.

Mark Seliber

I worked as an actuary at insurance companies.  Math was my best subject in school but history was always my favorite subject, so I have led four 5 week BOLLI study groups on historical topics these last four years on Zoom.  I have been a regular theatre-goer all my life, with a preference for musicals.  I appeared in a few musicals in my teens and early 20's, Purimspiels at our synagogues for the last 10+ years and am in the BOLLI CAST theatre group - in person for 3 years and on Zoom the last 4 years.  The only Eugene O'Neill I have ever read -and seen - is "Ah Wilderness".  After all these years, I guess I am thirsting to take a long day's journey.

Julie Shaw

My background is in the technical world of coding and managing web sites, but I have always loved the theater as a member of the audience.   I have seen Long Day's Journey into Night several times and enjoyed studying it in Steve's Bolli class.  I am particularly excited to see Thirst  since my grandparents were servants when they first came to America from Ireland and I am always interested in that viewpoint.

Mark Spiegel

I retired on July 1, 2023 from teaching law at Boston College Law School for over forty years. I am from Chicago and a graduate of the University of Michigan and the University of Chicago Law School. My theatre interest is as an audience member. My wife and I have particularly enjoyed going to the theatre in London where I have taught four times. It was in London in 2001 that I saw Long Day's Journey Into Night with Jessica Lange. That's my only encounter with O'Neill.

Sally Weiner

As a former English teacher ( secondary level ) I love all opportunities to read and discuss in the group setting. And also as a former amateur musical theatre person, I really enjoy live theatre in all its forms! I majored in  English in both undergrad and grad school, and participated throughout those years in musical theatre productions (lots of Gilbert and Sullivan ). Currently I sing with the Zamir Chorale of Boston. And this is my tenth year as a Bolli participant - hard to believe!