Actress Brings Sense of Play to Students

At 84, Charlotte Bronstein still loves working with kids.

The veteran Ojai actress has spent the past two decades as a volunteer teacher, introducing students of all ages to the theater by helping them develop and perform their own plays.

Now Bronstein is at it again, collaborating with 50 Mira Monte Elementary School students on a new play inspired by a field trip to Anacapa Island off the Ventura County coast.

Their age difference quickly fades when Bronstein and the students interact during a recent rehearsal. She encourages and applauds their creativity as she asks them to move like dolphins.

“I have never seen a dolphin stand like this,” Bronstein said, her arms hanging straight down on either side. “You have to be a dolphin. Think of yourself as a dolphin.”

The students are moved by her energy and enthusiasm.

“She doesn’t act her age,” observes fourth-grader Jon Woodcock, 10. “She acts way younger ... like 21.”

For Bronstein and the children she works with, the experience is always memorable, but this year’s collaboration is especially poignant.

“This may be her last hurrah with the kids,” said teacher Carol Paquette. “I’m very happy to be part of her last play.”

Bronstein was diagnosed last June with advanced lung cancer. A breast cancer survivor, she decided to forgo chemotherapy in favor of enjoying the time she has left, which doctors last summer estimated at six months to a year.

“I had this fabulous life, and I was still busy,” she said. “I wanted the quality of life, rather than go through chemo.”

The cancer hasn’t slowed her down. In the last 15 months, Bronstein has acted in local theater productions of “The Vagina Monologues,” “Night Mother,” “The Whole Banana,” and an anniversary performance of “The Human Chain” in honor of the Sept. 11 attack victims.

Bronstein has been an active volunteer in Ojai since she moved there from Los Angeles 25 years ago after a long career in radio, stage, television and film. She helped start the Ojai Shakespeare Festival in 1982 and served as production director for the first two years.

For her work, the city named her Citizen of the Year in 1995 and gave her a Lifetime Achievement Award in the Arts. Among her greatest joys is working with children.

Her approach is simple. Bronstein insists that the students make all the decisions, which means picking a topic for a play, researching it and coming up with a story line. They also choreograph dances and design their own sets.

Drawing on an earlier trip to Anacapa Island, the Mira Monte group’s play centers on students who morph into sea animals, learn about what threatens their survival, then change back into students who lobby the president to adopt reforms.

The title of the play: “The Amazing Channel Islands Adventure, or How I Met the President Through Pollution Prevention.” For the production, students wrote their own sea songs.

“I’m an otter, not Harry Potter,” sang 10-year-old Josh Anderson at a recent rehearsal. The Mira Monte kids have come to appreciate Bronstein, especially because they know that she is sick and that this will be her last school production -- Bronstein is giving up on school activities to spend more time acting and with her family. At the end of one rehearsal, Jon Woodcock announced that he wanted to end the show with an appreciative gesture toward “our inspiration, Mrs. Bronstein.”

For Bronstein, working with the students has been its own reward.

“This morning I came in so tired,” she said. “I was literally flying when I left. I can’t tell you what it feels like to see what comes out of these children ....It keeps me young.”