##VIDEO ID:_XOJshGaa84## [Music] hello everyone and welcome to age friendly chumford this is Debbie serani I'm the director of the chumford senior center and the co-chair of the agef friendly implementation committee I am here to today with a fabulous guest Lauren Cochran who is the director of the chumford Center for the Arts and wow are you just going wacky on this place I mean it's just fabulous you have so many things going on so I'm so excited to to hear some of the things that are going on um that are age friendly because you really are helping folks en enjoy life and get uh cultural experiences from all ages really right yeah absolutely so um last night oh so hi by the way hi I'm Lauren let you get a word and I have met each other several times right no I want you to riff away so yeah that was my my goal was to make the Center for the Arts constantly filled with activity in the Arts and not just you know classical music but I want all sorts of music I want theater you know art I think that's what the the town has asked for as well so we have implemented a lot of new new things that are going on and we also have regular occurring events which you got to go to last night so why don't you talk about this once a month last Monday of every month I have gone to so many different events at the Center for the Arts with my family with my husband with my friends um last night I went to for the first time folk music Open Mic M wow it was incredible for one thing it was packed we had to keep bringing in chairs now this is once a month right yes absolutely it's the last Monday of the month okay and it it a year when I first got started I think I've been at the CCA now for a year and a half time moves so quickly when you're having so much fun doesn't it yeah and this man Doug quater reached out to me and said Lauren I would love to start folk music open night I have a whole network of people he's a musician and I said oh I would love that I think that's great so he started it and it's just grown and grown it probably started with 20 people and then 25 and it's the last Monday of every month they were close to 50 people last night right it was great last night and I didn't get to I I had a very busy weekend so I let Sebastian my concessions manager he ran it so he was there but Doug's great because Doug will MC and the talent is through the roof it really is I was going to bring my ukulele and play a little song and I'm like well I'll just see what the level is wow some a lot of these people for one thing I one of the people said wow it feels like I'm in Greenwich Village in the 60s again absolutely there was a bunch of hippies like you just said it was a lot of fun hippies hanging out together there were a lot of beards and like uh moccasins you know long skirts but it's it's it is like it's like a retro evening right but it really was a lot of fun it was beautiful music the talent is through the roof I mean these people a lot of them have recorded Y and a lot of them play different I mean there were people from Newport there were people from na lots of people you know locally I think it's catching on because people are you know and a lot of these people maybe of an age where they're actually retired and Monday night can be like a Friday night yeah I left a little I left a little earlier than some of the others cuz I'm not retired and it was past my bedtime but right exactly I get that too but they were still hanging out it was so it started at 7 and it it was the fin um performer cuz I am always texting Sebastian when he's working to be at 9: but no no no went till 10 it went to 10: and then Sebastian was done at 10:30 because I I always like to check I'm such a workaholic that even oh I'm home at my night I'm like how's it going he sent me a picture and I was like wow that's great so it is growing and Doug's great to run it you know as a volunteer and it's donations only and everyone is very generous which is really nice yeah it was just a a donation bucket but nobody had to pay anything bar a full bar and there are all kinds of sodas and non-alcoholic things too snacks available and um it was really really a great level of musicianship it was in The Cabaret room isn't the Cabaret room great the cafe I mean they call it the Cabaret Cafe I I'm assuming Susan Gates named it I don't know who named it but it's just such a cozy atmosphere you know Lexie the former executive director picked the paint color and Trina tals artwork is up and we got a new sign you like the CCA is a place to play so it's really fun we got a tagline we have a tagline now try to figure out a tagline for the senior Senior Center maybe never a dull moment yes you know oh yeah that's that's a good well it is I mean you're as busy you're I look at your newsletter and all the things you have going on constantly and if I wasn't at the at this Art Center I would be over there you know well I think we have a lot of the same folks that come too we do which is nice right but it's fantastic but I've been there with my family too like I have twins that are 27 years old and they're not super social folks I don't know where I've met I've met Joey and he's terrific and he's help out a lot nice friendly but then don't not always as socially comfortable in a you know a social experience and we've been to the trivia night as a family we've been to the the game night I have to bring back the game nights the last game night wasn't as well attended so I'm constantly looking like why was it not enough publicity and now I have a really great team in place okay um I have Emma who does marketing and she is amazing and I have Sebastian at concessions and Timmy Chase and alumni both em and Timmy are alumni which is great and Timmy does the rental events and Tim Rose is my tech director he is away in Costa Rica this week so you didn't see him because normally he would have been there but you've met them all so except for Timmy chase you haven't met yet yeah I haven't and Emily I don't think oh Emma Emma Emma Emma yeah she's great so we have a really strong team in place which really makes a difference on what we can bring to and let you sleep if you don't want right exactly EXA you know I still have to pay the bills and the invoices and all sorts of that glamorous stuff you you have it more than I do because you know you have a lot of employees over there so I think my four are perfect am you're getting there you're getting there so and we also send a social um senior tax workers over there yes oh my gosh we have have carita carita and Rich for two we just got another one that wants to work a couple events um Rich has been great he got tip certified and now he barbacks and we have Linda and Sebastian are sort of our two I guess resident bartenders and they're terrific that's great and and honestly that was a blessing with the volunteers and I know there's going to be another volunteer Fair coming up soon yeah yeah in March we'll be doing volunteer fair so hopefully someone from your your place will be there and let people know some of the opportunities because you've got work for Te you know basically teenagers all the way up to have this I have this one volunteer Glenn who goes in and he touches up all of the paint issues and straightens things out and he's been really terrific too he he's he's always working which is amazing he he makes kites for that's what sort of his specialty is but Glenn's there and now he's in the writers group too which we have a fabulous writers group that meets every other week we've been meeting for a year now tell me about the writers group what kind of like well it's amazing what age group are you are are going to there the ages are anywhere from 35 5 to 75 I love it and we meet every other Thursday morning at 10:30 I know we've had requests for night writing group yeah but you know it's it's tough with all we do but we've been meeting for a year and in on in December 21st we had stage readings of um everybody's works and it was all about the holidays and it was lovely and it was very well attended as well and we have a in June we have well we have a couple events coming up in February but in June we have um our 10-minute F Play Festival and many of the writers group are writing the 10-Minute Plays as well but we already received over 85 entries and we had to shut it down because Donna and I will read 85 plays and it's like we have your spare time right we have to choose about you know 13 to 16 and we had to just say stop the post because so many were coming in from all over that's amazing yeah so this will be our third annual in June our third annual Play Festival yeah I know when we we did the uh know your neighbor event to we had people from like three different towns that day and we had people from like their 20s on up to their '90s and they were all hanging out together and it was really nice when we played games you brought the games you brought the card game that we played it was fun it was really nice and that's been true with the game night that my family and I have been to it's like a great place for us to have like wholesome kind of lowkey not too like loud or wacky bar right exactly um but still sometimes the you know the bar is there or even you have sober events sober karaoke sponsored by the Board of Health which is terrific and that is very well attended I've been I've been yep and um we have mock tailes really nice right exactly no it's really nice that the Board of Health does that we we had Broadway karaoke we now we've now decided just to call it karaoke so you can have a choice of Broadway because the team felt you know that's intimidating to people that want to do pop songs and they don't know Broadway so we're going to test to say okay now it's just karaoke for everybody whether it's Broadway or not and then we have Soo karaoke once a month as well the trivia has to start back up again with the library but again we've had a we also have a lot of rentals as you know Y and we have very reasonable rates we have three weddings this year which is really what a beautiful V I'm a little nervous about the wedding I want to make sure it's good we got new good white tablecloths because they want white tablecloths and they're stain resistant and wrinkle-free and Etc so that's pretty exciting so we do a lot of rental events as well and that really helps your budget too you make a lot of your own money yeah Town isn't a whole lot I know to make that happen you're making it happen yeah well we're trying we're trying I mean the town is it's wonderful the town it's wonderful that the town actually turned it into a department and honestly I can't say the the best things about our town manager I think he's terrific from my absolutely my perspective I I think a lot of the same uh you know I I it sounds like wow these are just little fun things but the experience that I've had is that it really helps people's mental health a lot of these things they're able to do just getting out and going somewhere where it's a a friendly place you're not on social media it's it's accessible you know for MoneyWise like your people from all over there's really no judgment Zone like even just the singing events that we've been at like um I I love the the my friend and I went to the sober karaoke everybody in that room was just supporting everybody else absolutely absolutely most of us were all singing in the background all the whole room I love it when they do a a song that everybody knows and they'll do the opposite part of it or whatever you know it's terrific yeah I agree with you and that's what you know my goal and vision for the Center for the Arts was to just have it always thriving and you know parking is now you know become a little bit of an issue sometimes which is great right we just had a great comedy night last Saturday night it was sold out it was from the greata Community Foundation was raising money for chumford and I think they were very happy it was a wonderful night of comedy and and um three great Boston I couldn't get my tickets I know you should have called me you have connections next time I'll just say volteer I'll help take tickets you didn't call me um but then you have something coming up um this week too that you are still excited about about timely you've got a Bob Dylan tribute I know and I haven't seen the film yet have you no is it called it's called a a complete unknown right I want to see the movie because it's Timothy shamine we'll probably get nominated for an Oscar or something but we did get um we started our podcast yesterday we were here doing a podcast Chums center of the Arts is called the Arts and action just like our newsletter now you can have me on your show you will it's exciting and we interviewed Drew Drew um is the person who's playing B Dylan Drew Gabbert he's from Texas what a lovely interview it was so I hope everybody once the podcast drops I think is going to drop tonight and it will be on probably on Facebook pages yeah we're going to try to put it I think we're put it on Apple and Spotify wherever um the ctm and so how do you find Faceook called It's called The Arts in action the Arts in action and cherel media was kind enough to make a logo for us which is great and I can't wait to hear it because it was Timmy Timmy Timmy Chase and I are the hosts of it and we want we mentioned what's happening at the uh Senior Center as well we want to make sure that all the Departments will you know contribute to see what's happening it's just awareness it's letting everybody know kind of resources are around town Happ right not everybody is you know on Facebook and you know we don't have as many newspapers as we used to have we don't have and so you know you and I were at a meeting department meeting where we're like how else do we reach the people I think it was after a cup of espresso that decided on the podcast let's do it let's do a podcast right exactly which is great so yeah so get us two together and got all kinds of now what do you have going on at the senior center coming up I have um actually we we're teaching people how to figure out how to get on to podcasts oh that's great the library is doing some um some programming with us e-readers and about um you know Facebook and Instagram and how to access different podcasts how to uh you know a Technology Series so they've been helping us that that's great because it is and I don't I'm not an agist at all because I you know I'm of an age where I feel very comfortable but technology changes at the speed of light these days sometimes and it's like what and it changes constantly so it is difficult to keep up with well if you don't know you don't know people my age or people 20 years old could not know how to get onto a podcast maybe I don't know maybe they just I've listened to a couple of them they're pretty they're really fun I listen to podcasts to fall asleep at night oh because I close my eyes Len the news and fall asleep I I know I keep it on keep me awake well you know I won't tell you who I listen to I don't want to get political but I do I listen to podcasts that are like noncontroversial close my eyes and it helps me get my own thoughts under control I stop thinking about work and I start thinking about favorite do you do you have a favorite podcast my favorite podcast is called Judge John Hodgman and he he was actually a a guest he used to be on The Daily Show but he pretends he's a fake Internet judge and so like Couples married couples or friends or sisters come to the thing it's kind of like Judge Judy but not a real case kind of like Steve Harvey does that too he has a TV show judge Steve Harvey he's he's not he's a comedian right yeah yeah so a fake Internet judge and they come and they're like oh you know we like U there was one about an ugly um family picture painting and the guy wanted to to keep hang it up and his wife was like no it's creepy and the judge had to decide just fine how quickly we are gabbing so what else is happening at the uh Senior Center that you want to share besides you're nice you're going to be the host now wow that's nice so fine take over the show what now that's great um I actually Black History Month is coming up black history is coming up and we're doing um we're partnering with the Dei committee and we have a an uh African gem Bay drummer that is so exciting coming now I took the class at the um gron Center for the Arts oh yes and this was my teacher and Jen and I Jen milans and I took this class and so we were like let's bring him to the senior center and let people have a free chance to he brings all of his drums oh how fun and what what day is that um that is oh gosh February 5th and it's open toes let's see I think it's all it's it's like 14 and up 14 great so it's really it's really AG friendly it's age friendly like the name of the show age friendly 6:00 to 800 p.m. and it's February 5th it is free it's free so we got some cultural Council grant money from it that is great and then the friends of the senior center are supporting for the rest of it so free to the public wonderful call and register at the senior center and um we'd love to have you there for this really unique event and then um during school vacation week we're having that's coming we're going to try a game time so that's right that's exciting a lot of grandparents have their grandkids for the week they're helping out while their parents are working still so we're going to have a game time at the senior center great and snacks and stuff and you can bring them over so that is oh I should have prepared myself for this one let's see um it's during school vacation week and it is the 20th at 1:00 at the senior center no need to register to show up all ages but anybody Under 12 needs to be with an adult that makes sense but you don't want to all ages we'll have games there and we'll have prizes and we'll have snacks so Wonder so tell me what else is going on well we have Friday night we have it's called Chrome horse it's um Bob Dyan it's Bob Dylan it's Friday night we still have tickets available it's $15 in advance 20 at the door okay so and it's great and we have a full bar ACC it's very accessible and honestly Drew was great to talk to and that's January 31st yes January 31st Friday night right and at the same time I know there's a private it's not really a private party but John Moses is having a Afghan um event down stairs in the Cabaret room that people can also go down to but NE so is it going to have food or is it music I think that's going to have a little food and music but that's it started out sort of as a private event so we're going to have two then you just invited the whole public sure I mean the whole well I know I'm like but there's a few events coming up and then we have in February coming up we have the uh Jazz Brunch the third annual jazz brunch with the Dei committee which is great that was a big deal that was big deal like packed y it's hopefully packed again it's not sold out yet we just we did start selling tickets if you go to Chums arts.org there's a a guest lecturer and there is the jazz band and its food and it's sponsored by the diversity Equity inclusion committee which is great now talk about age friendly I'm going to catch you up on something if you don't go online how do you get tickets to that you know that is you should call me and leave a message right so Lauren will help yeah if you what is our number 25 3780 978 250 3780 call and then I can talk you through it put aside put you on the list and you can bring a check and for a matter of fact somebody at the comedy show we had a couple of people we had a couple of walk-ins and at the door but I would like because they're ordering food it'd be great just to call and leave a message and we can put your name down and you can bring a check that night okay does that make sense that sounds fabulous I think I'm going to have that well oh it's it's a really fun um fun event too we've really enjoyed a lot of time open mic night in General open mic will be back as well we're just we're toying with having it on a Friday night instead of Thursday which is why people keep sending emails saying when is open mic again and we're also toying with um a a jam session that Westford does and people have reached out from there saying you know we'd love to have one at the CCA as well Parish Center for the Arts West in the and I do know it's funny I directed the person who runs that now Julian I directed her in A Little Night Music many years ago in Arlington and I'm like oh my gosh Julian runs the par center it's pretty funny yeah I was in a play there um many many many years ago at the center Crimes of the Heart Crimes of the Heart it's a great show Beth Henley that's a great play was Meg oh you were Meg oh that's a great play and oh also we're well I got audition for one of your shows well we have audition coming up right now I'm just I'm waiting for the royalties um we're trying to do plays by Christopher during and we've got a couple of directors he's so funny he's so Politically Incorrect so I recommend nobody under really 18 um because he's Politically Incorrect and he passed away uh on my birthday in 2024 but he is a very dark dark comedy dark sense of humor but I would love you to try out um and we're just we're just waiting for the royalties the dramatist Play service just got bought by Broadway licensing and they're very short staffed so we've been going back and forth but auditions are coming up in February okay February oh 9th and 10th nth you have all these in your head this is great right Super Bowl but during the day so we're not going to interfere with Super Bowl parties it's that we're going to have auditions at one well I have February 2 and third had to change because I'm waiting for the royalties okay so nth and 10 for the audition because you technically technically until you get the royalties you're not supposed to announce auditions right and they and we've talked to them even yesterday back and forth back and forth so um we like to be you know obviously correct and we believe play right should get their dooel I don't know who gets Christ durang's money anymore I'm assuming since he passed away although you could do William Shakespeare and ain't nobody there's no copyright with Shakespeare that's why people do it you know you show up for a Christopher durang audition and you end up in a sh in a sh play well but he did spoof I mean he spoofed playwrights he has some hysterical play spoofing The Glass Menagerie so let's see you've got music you've got writing you got theater art the gallery allart is open and right now there's Italian landscape Susan Gates currently is the curator Italy well a group of people went to Italy and you know they're for sale those beautiful paintings are for sale so we are just now announcing very shortly you know allowing a part-time person to be in on Sundays from 12:00 to 3: to keep the gallery open but that you know that was a process getting there so you'll see that hopefully soon and if you don't paint yet there's joy to paint there's joy of paint and watercolor classes so we have two classes now we have Trina TR who's Trina teal who was our resident artist she's terrific yeah um she does Joy of paint monthly one in the day and one at night now is that one of those sip ones or is it a non no she doesn't want sips because she claims when people sip they're not painting really well when they're sipping wine but Diane cogliano who still teaches at Community Ed she is doing a morning watercolor but it's already sold out so I'm trying to get her to do a night one as well and we're talking but her water but people could come individually that they had to take either five or just one class you walk away with the watercolor I thought thought was so hard and then I saw these people's work the last time she did it they're amazing we only have one minute left that's wonderful only one minute do you believe it anything else you want to say about the Center for the Arts I think you're doing an amazing job thank you but I want I want more more people to discover this year you won't believe how many people came in and said I've never been in this building and I've lived in chum you know what for little kids you have a Children's Chorus now don't oh my gosh Christopher Mcgill and Mara Robertson came to me they came to me and they said you know they they the school system because of whatever reason stopped the fourth and fifth grade cor a fourth grade course so they really felt there was a need and they wanted it just not to be for chumford students but chumford in the surrounding towns so they had their first they they actually they premiered at ums L believe it or not then they did the Prelude and then they just did a concert that was really well attended they're doing another concert April and they just open it up again to more students and what age is the for the children I believe it's 4th to 7th it's on the yeah it's on the website Championship children's course and they have their own website as well and they're terrific they're actually in the summer going to be singing at a Red Sox game oh that is amazing that is really exciting and I'm on the board there so yeah I think we can end right there well you know you you won't get a free sofa but you know you'll get to go unless you win or something like Jordan's Furniture I just want to say I'm thank you for bringing so much joy into the community thank you for bringing so much to age friendly cuz chumford is all ages woohoo high five well job all right good job thank you great job Lauren have a good one mutual admiration Society right here it's true see you next month byebye [Music] a [Music]