August 11, 2011
Coleman to hold local ‘office hours’ By KEVIN PARKS ThisWeek Community Newspapers
For part of Saturday, Aug. 13, Mayor Michael B. Coleman’s office will be in Northland instead of downtown. From 10 a.m. to noon, Coleman and representatives of his administration will hold community office hours at Karl Michael B. Road Baptist Church, 5700 Karl Road. Coleman
The church is undergoing some construction, and those planning to attend the event are advised to enter through the south doors. The Aug. 13 session follows an earlier one held at the
South Side Settlement House, according to Coleman deputy chief of staff Greg Davies. “The mayor’s always been a neighborhood mayor and always likes to get out,” Davies said last week. “Rather than reacting to a specific item or something on his agenda, he just wants to invite the public in to share their concerns and issues with him.”
Northland residents who have attended Neighborhood Pride Week closing nights should be familiar with the format. Coleman is accompanied by members of his administrative team, who try to respond to specific issues raised by residents. “It’s really just some constituent work that the mayor tries to do,” Davies said. He pointed out that many people find it difficult to get to City Hall on West
Next ‘Business After Hours’ set for Aug. 16 By KEVIN PARKS ThisWeek Community Newspapers
Time does not stand still. Just ask anyone who has been in business in the same location for going on three decades. “When I moved here, people told me I was crazy to move into a posh suburban area with so many established dentists,” Dr. Roy Gottlieb of Morse Road Family Dental Group LLC said last week. A closer Gottlieb look and members of his Dr. Roy Gottlieb of staff will host Morse Road Family the next Dental Group LLC and Northland members of his staff Area Busiwill host the next ness AssociNorthland Area Busiation “Business Association “Business After ness After Hours” event Hours” event from 5 to 7 p.m.on from 5 to 7 Tuesday, Aug. 16. p.m. on The dental practice is Tuesday,Aug. located at 1100 Morse 16. Road. The dental practice is located at 1100 Morse Road. The gathering, which will feature light refreshments, is open to members and nonmembers alike at no charge, NABA president Roseann Hicks said. “You can just show up,” she said. It’s appropriate that Gottlieb, whose practice will celebrate a 30th anniversary in September, should host the event, according to Hicks. She said he represents the many businessmen and women who have stuck with the Northland area, through thick and thin. “I don’t think we’re giving these business owners enough credit,” Hicks said. “Maybe it’s just stupidity,” Gottlieb joked. Because the fact is, Northland is no longer a “posh suburban area,” but instead has become surrounded by an ever-larger city since Gottlieb started his practice in 1981. That has brought with it some of the problems and issues faced by a big city. Many of the dentists who were established when Morse Road Family Dental Group opened have moved on, but Gottlieb, who credited some innovative customer-service efforts such as Sunday hours for getting his business off to a good start, has stuck around. Gottlieb will be on hand during the Aug. 16 event to not only discuss his practice and his reasons for remaining in the Northland area, but also to talk about the extensive art collection in his Morse Road offices, Hicks said. The dental practice is almost part art gallery and has hosted several “mini-exhibitions,” she added. Gottlieb, who said he is now working on the teeth of the fourth generation of families who started with him in the early See NEXT ‘BUSINESS’, page A2
Broad Street to speak with city officials regarding something of concern to them. These community office hours afford citizens the chance to speak directly with their mayor and, in some cases, received immediate help, or at least get some answers, Davies said. “A lot of times there is no answer, but See MAYOR’S HOURS, page A3
Musician trains others how to play without pain By KEVIN PARKS ThisWeek Community Newspapers
That musician in the orchestra, the violinist there on the left who seems to be frowning in such concentration as fingers fly along the strings, might actually be grimacing in discomfort. Lea Pearson knows this from painful personal experience. It doesn’t have to be that way, according to Pearson, a flute player with a doctor of musical arts degree from Ohio State University. The Northland resident, who is artistic director of the “UUniverse!” Concert Series at the First Unitarian Universalist Church in Clintonville, learned how to undo the damage her playing and rehearsing were doing to her body. She now shares that knowledge, not only with other musicians but also with people in many different occupations who can suffer debilitating pain as a result of improperly understanding how their bodies are put together. Pearson calls herself a “body mapping specialist.” “A body map is the map in the brain that represents how we think our bodies are put together, an internal representation,” she writes on her website. “Like a roadmap, it governs how we move about the world.” “It’s an incredibly rewarding profession,” Pearson said. Her road to mapping the body for other musicians and professionals such as massage therapists, dental technicians and others, began in the small coastal town of Newburyport, Mass., about 35 miles northBy Chris Parker/ThisWeek east of Boston. She grew up in a family of Eleanor Pearson displays ‘Cap’n Bob,’ a skeleton she uses to demonstrate how to prevent injury from repeti- musicians and, like her three siblings beSee MUSICIAN, page A2 tive stress and awkward positions while playing musical instruments.
Theater troupe finds space to spare in bowling alley By KEVIN PARKS ThisWeek Community Newspapers
Small community theater groups perform in some of the most unlikely venues: public parks, school playgrounds, church basements. But a bowling alley? “We had the space, they had the need, so why not?” said Tim Voss, who owns Sequoia Pro, 5501 Sandalwood Blvd. with his wife, Elizabeth Kellough. That’s how a little bit of Dublin came to take up temporary residence in the Northland area. The Emerald City Players have been homeless since their landlord at a strip center in Dublin more than doubled the rent and on hiatus since a production last November and December of “The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee.” The troupe, which was created in October 1998 with the help of a Dublin Arts Council grant, is back in business now, thanks to a post-dinner conversation between two couples in a hot tub, according to Emerald City Players board member Linda Goodwin. Three of five Emerald City Players
performances of the comedy “You’ve Got Hate Mail” are still to be staged, if that’s the right word, in the party room of the bowling alley. “It is intimate, and that’s what’s nice about it,” Goodwin said. “We’ve got an open mind about our facility,” Voss said of letting Emerald City Players use the party room for five Saturdays to put on “You’ve Got Hate Mail,” which was written by two of the five original cast members, Billy Van Zandt and Jane Milmore. “Love ‘bytes’ all when an extramarital affair goes horribly wrong, thanks to a juicy email left sitting on a desktop,” according to Van Zandt’s website. “The story is told entirely in emails from laptop computers, although the play still manages to have an unforgettable chase scene, thanks to BlackBerries and iPhones.” “It worked, it really worked,” Goodwin said of the July 30 opening night for “You’ve Got Hate Mail” at Sequoia Pro Bowl. “I heard people say some pretty positive things about it,” Voss said. Tickets for the remaining performances on Aug. 13, 20 and 27 are $10
A closer look Three of five Emerald City Players performances of the comedy “You’ve Got Hate Mail” are still to be staged in the party room of the Sequoia Pro, 5501 Sandalwood Blvd. Tickets for the remaining performances on Aug. 13, 20 and 27 are $10 with a cash bar. All shows start at 7 p.m. The final two performances will have sign language interpreters.
with a cash bar. All shows start at 7 p.m. The final two performances will have sign language interpreters. “Patrons will be seated at tables and are welcome to enjoy drinks and appetizers during the show,” according to an email Goodwin sent out. Emerald City Players became a vagabond organization after the new owner of the strip center, where plays had been performed since the 2003-04 season, raised the rent beyond the troupe’s capacity to pay, board mem-
ber Goodwin said. “So everything went into storage,” she said. “Emerald City had to regroup. The first thing was, ‘can we find a space?’Actually, they had thought about folding.” After new board members and volunteers were recruited, Goodwin said the decision was made to try to keep going. “We decided to do what we do best, and that’s put on a show,” she said. Elizabeth Kellough is good friends with Emerald City Players board member Jim McCullough, her husband said. The bowling alley owners were aware of the theatrical troupe’s plight. “They were out of space,” Voss said. “We were having dinner with them one night and he was talking about that.” Voss and Kellough offered use of the party room. This took place in a hot tub, according to Goodwin. Board members came and viewed the space last spring and decided they could stage at least the five-character comedy in it. See EMERALD CITY, page A3