You don’t have to be of voting age to be involved in politics. Some young Palisades students are already meeting local and national politicians and learning about activism. Joshua Corwin, a student at The Willows in Culver City, “has been bitten by the political bug” since attending the 2004 Democratic National Convention in Boston when he was 11, according to his father, Scott. In April, Joshua got the chance to meet former President Bill Clinton and Sen. Hillary Clinton in Beverly Hills. “I have always wanted to meet President Clinton because of his work now around the world helping fight AIDS,” Joshua said in an e-mail to the Palisadian-Post. “He really seems to care about the children who are suffering, and that made an impact on me. Along with former president George Bush, he also worked to raise money to assist the survivors tsunami in the Indian Ocean in 1994 and Hurricane Katrina.” Joshua, who donated half of his allowance money to help the victims of Hurricane Katrina, said: “I felt like [Clinton and I] cared about the same things in this world’helping people who were not as fortunate as ourselves and making the world a more equal place with opportunity for everyone. “When my dad told me that I could finally have a chance to meet [the Clintons], I said, ‘Count me in’ before he finished his sentence,” Joshua continued. “Of course, when I met Sen. Clinton, I told her that I look forward to seeing her husband as the first gentleman in the White House. She laughed.” In his e-mail, Joshua, 13, described himself as “a strong debater” who often takes the side of the underdog. “I guess it’s just in my nature to fight for the issues that only a few people care about passionately.” A member of The Stop Global Warming Virtual March, Joshua is interested in the effects of global warming on our planet. “This is a subject that more people and companies should focus on instead of avoiding,” he said. “It seems smart to work on this now so that, in the future, we will be a healthier world and new jobs will be created to assist against global warming. “Politics, to me, means a way to change things for the better.” o o o Bernadette Zimmermann, a fourth grade student at Palisades Elementary Charter School, traveled with her class last month to the state capital and met Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. “Everybody was very excited!” Bernadette, 10, wrote in a letter to the Post. “When we got to the capitol at Sacramento, we had no idea that we would meet our state’s governor. This was such a surprise for everyone in my class! “Fourth graders from our school have been visiting the capitol for many years,” Bernadette continued. “However, this is the first time a group of students from our school actually spent personal time with the governor.” Bernadette’s father, Bernd, who is a longtime friend of Schwarzenegger, had helped arrange the visit. The students also toured the rest of the capitol, including the legislature and other parts of the state government. In a follow-up letter to Bernadette, Schwarzenegger wrote, “Thanks for coming to see me today in Sacramento! I hope you and your class enjoyed the tour of my office. I was very impressed by all of them, and you can tell them that, too.”

“There are people from every country with every sorrow, sadness, every kind of culture.” In the novel, young members of two very different families’one Chinese immigrants and the other upper middle class Anglo professionals’become romantically involved and end up spending their most intimate moments in the botanical gardens at UCLA, the only place they feel comfortable together. See says that she “tried not to make it idealistic. They think it’s a great love, but who knows.” The novel, while short, is capacious in not only the diversity of its characters but in the transformations that occur. Phil takes his son Vern and leaves the strict confines of his life. Edith retires to Avalon on Santa Catalina, and Felicia finds a man who will make her happier. People change their lives all the time. See relates her grandson’s experience of leaving graduate school to spend his nights talking with people trading on the Indian stock exchange. “Although it might seem a weird choice,” she says “he’s never been happier.” She paraphrases Simone de Beauvoir in her novel “The Mandarins”: “One of humanity’s strongest urges is to travel.” See, who will travel to India this summer and recently returned from a sojourn to South America, agrees. Although she retired from teaching at UCLA last year, literature is always on heroes this, she learns of the attacks on the World Trade Center when Phil calls her. That scene, in which personal and public tragedy merge, sets the tone for the book, just like the jesters at the beginning of a Renaissance tragedy. That merging also shaped See’s young life. She said: “When I was 11, my dad left. Two and half weeks later they dropped the atomic bomb.” She lost her life partner, the writer and UCLA professor John Espey, a year before 9/11. Those two events helped give rise to the novel, which she wrote scene by scene and then put together into a chronology, which caused her to “have a bit of a nervous breakdown.” See continues to discover new books by writing her weekly book review for The Washington Post. Her recommendation for summer reading is “Miss American Pie” by Margaret Sartor. See likened the book, comprising the author’s teenage diaries, to “The Rosetta Stone.” More than a few readers may liken “There Will Never Be Another You” to this revered artifact for its astute observations about human folly and foresight. Carolyn See will visit Village Books, 1049 Swarthmore, to sign “There Will Never Be Another You” at noon on Monday, June 12. More information on See’s life, writing, and future appearances can be found at www.carolynsee.com.

Plays take a slice of life, a moment in a person’s history or a fantasy world and present it to the audience. Actors inhabit that life to make theater-goers believe they’ve received an intimate glimpse of another’s problems, loves and realities. Set designers bring that world to actors and audience members. For the past three years, at Theatre Palisades, Sherman Wayne has designed and helped construct eight sets, including “View From the Bridge,” “Romantic Comedy,” “Inspecting Carol,” “Plaza Suite,” “Bad Seed,” Picasso at the Lapin Agile,” “Moon Over Buffalo” and “All My Sons.” He is currently finishing his ninth, “Fatal Attraction.” In “Fatal Attraction,” the play opening tomorrow at Pierson Playhouse, the set requires a jacuzzi, a fire place, two large wood beams in the ceiling and a balcony overlooking the room. “Most of the sets are designed with Broadway stages in mind, but we don’t have that kind of room,” Wayne says. “I design it so it will fit on our stage. “When you look at the stage before adding the walls and furniture, it looks huge,” Wayne says. “A sofa takes up so much of the stage, that we usually use a love seat instead.” In creating the stage design, Wayne first builds a miniature to a half-inch scale. He then collaborates with the director to make sure they’re on the same page. He’s working with director Michael Macready on “Fatal Attraction.” “Michael usually lets me do whatever I want,” Wayne says, “but on this production, he doesn’t like the table I chose. He feels it’s too big and doesn’t leave enough room on stage for the actors.” Above the stage, two heavy wooden beams are already in place to help an audience envision a rustic cottage. The “wood” beams are actually pieces of Styrofoam painted to look like wood. At one point a flower pot falls off the beam, threatening one of the actors. “If we had the budget of the Ahmanson, we would hire an expert to rig a mechanical mechanism,” he says, “but at Theatre Palisades we make it happen with a spring and a string.” One of the problems with community theater in the Palisades is the small budget for productions: The amount budgeted for scenery and costumes for “Fatal Attraction” is $700. “We are always working with less than we could use,” Wayne said. “We do excellent work, but it all has to do with whom you can attract.” All of the positions, from director to actor to set designer to publicity director, are unpaid. “Fatal Attraction” has several set pieces that are integral to the plot, including the jacuzzi. Wayne envisioned it with a cover that opens when a button is pressed, steam rising out of it, and the movement of the water reflected on the surrounding wall. In reality, a fog machine will supply the steam, a lighting trick will cast the reflection and a stage worker will be behind the set sliding the lid off to coincide with the actress pressing the button. Although there is no water in this fake jacuzzi, the actor will be watered down backstage and appear wet. The realistic-looking stone fireplace actually was built with wood with a Styrofoam veneer. The stones are made by tracing the Stryofoam with a soldering iron. As the foam melts it leaves an indentation. The final step is to spray the “stones” with a granite paint. “This kind of stuff is fun to do because it’s creative,” Wayne says. He points to the black stage floor marked with tape, chalk and dirt. “This will be a peg-and-groove wood floor,” Wayne says. To accomplish that, the floor is painted yellow. The next step is to put a board down and trace on one side with a magic marker to give the illusion of grout. Finally a watered-down wood stain is brushed over the entire floor with a dry brush technique. Wayne, a retired high school drama teacher, is currently vice-president of production at Theatre Palisades. During production, he arrives at the theater around 10 a.m. and leaves at 7 p.m. Wayne says his wife complains “You said when it wasn’t your show (directing) you wouldn’t spend as much time at the theater.” He grew up in Sacramento and attended San Jose State University, where he graduated with a degree in theater. “I fell in love with the theater and have been doing it ever since.” After graduating, he went to work summer stock in Roanoke, Virginia, and from there went to New York City. “I looked for work, pounding the pavement, sending out resumes,” Wayne says. “I wish I had gone to a more prestigious theater school, I wouldn’t have gotten a better education, but in theater it’s who you know. I constantly ran into Yalies, who would only hire Yalies or Northwestern people.” He worked 25 years in the Big Apple. Wayne was the manager for the “Fantasticks,” which was the longest-running show in New York. In the ’60s, he had his own production company that supplied personnel or whatever was needed for Off-Broadway productions. It was a time when Off-Broadway was beginning to flourish and theaters such as Circle in the Square were starting to provide an alternative to Broadway. Wayne produced Off-Broadway plays like “White Rose and the Red” and “Penny Change.” “I have to admit the show wasn’t very good,” Wayne says, “I was just happy to work.” He lived on $50 a week in a third floor “cockroach” walk-up for $80 a month. He admits he was constantly looking for work. “It was hard, but I just persisted,” Wayne says. “Then I got married, had a child and decided to come back to California.” He was hired by the city of West Covina to manage a 3,000 seat theater-in-the-round. He loaded up his child, a dog and a suitcase that was so large it was called “Big Bertha” in a VW Bug and he and his wife, Lynda, drove across the country. From the West Covina theater, he worked as an assistant manager for the Greek Theater and then eventually worked for the Center Theater Group at the Mark Taper Forum. On the first production the Taper sent their set to a scene shop, but found it expensive. They opened their own shop and hired Wayne to run it. “I worked there for a while, but needed to buy a home and get some security,” Wayne said. “I dusted off my teaching credential and started teaching. I discovered I liked it and spent the next 25 years teaching, finally retiring from Hawthorne High School in 2000.” He and Lynda bought a home in Torrance, where they currently live. Lynda is a nurse; Wayne calls her a “super nurse” because she was the head of all the nurses at UCLA. They have two sons: Chris, who is a graphic artist, and Matthew, who works for a truck rental leasing firm. Lynda, a former Palisadian, inadvertently planted the seed for Wayne’s involvement with Theatre Palisades. “She kept talking about a theater she used to drive by that wasn’t open, which got me interested,” Wayne recalls. He meanwhile became aware of Theatre Palisades through a friend, Rich Little, with whom he worked at a theater in Torrance, the Palos Verdes Players. In 2003, Wayne sent a resume to Theater Palisades asking to direct “Picasso at the Lapin Agile”. He wasn’t chosen; however, he had passed around a rendering of what the set might look like and was asked to design it. In addition to designing sets, he also directs. His most recent credit was “Plaza Suite.” The next Theatre Palisades production after “Fatal Attraction” is “Buddy.” “I’m trying to find another designer for ‘Buddy,’ but since I’m in charge of production, if I can’t get anyone to do it, I have to,” Wayne says. “Theatre Palisades needs more volunteers. ‘The show must go on’ is a corny phrase, but it’s true,” he says. “The opening night can’t be changed, so you do what needs to be done to open the show. You do the best you can because of pride and love of theater. “One of my favorite places is to walk on stage before the curtain goes up,” Wayne says, “and know what magic is going to happen. After 50 years I still get goose bumps.”