Jiva Yoga Studio in connection with music ensemble Acoustica and Temescal Canyon State Park will be hosting a celebration of the Palisades community on Sunday, June 13 from 8:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. The half-day retreat, led by Jiva head yoga teacher William Asad, will include a morning yoga class geared to all levels, a scenic Temescal Canyon hike to the waterfall, a catered vegetarian lunch and an outdoor concert of classical and world music by local artists. ”A Palisades resident, Asad developed the idea for the retreat based on his belief that ‘you don’t always have to search for something, you can stay right where you are and realize what’s here for you’a yoga studio, music and nature.’ He approached his musician friends and yoga students Jahna and Michael Perricone, also Palisadians, who agreed to perform with their band, Acoustica, at the event. ”'[The retreat] is about creating a place of consciousness and bringing it to our community,’ says Jahna, a singer whose recently recorded album, ‘In The Balance,’ is a collection of classical melodies intertwined with world and urban rhythms. She is also the vocalist on her husband, Michael’s own CD, ‘Journey of Seven Bowls,’ (available at Jiva and Village Books) in which Perricone combines his affinity for yoga with his eclectic musical abilities, using Tibetan singing bowls to create a new, ‘yogi-crossover’ genre. ”The retreat will begin at 8:30 a.m., when participants will meet at Jiva (15327 Sunset) for a gentle, wake-up yoga class; Asad will teach the adult class and fellow yoga instructor Ben O’dell will teach the children’s class. (Participants should bring their own yoga mats if they have them.) Health bars and juice will be provided after the yoga class. ”The group will then walk over to Temescal for a 2-1/2- to 3-mile hike that will end in the canyon meadow (near the general store), where participants will enjoy a vegetarian lunch and Acoustica’s musical performance. ”Acoustica specializes in world music, blending classical melodies with global cultural influences, and the concert will also feature music from Sting, the Beatles and classical composers such as Orff, Pergolesi and Delibes. The band members performing include Perricone on acoustic guitar and Tibetan bowls, world-renowned Lebanese ethnic woodwind player A.J. Racy (performer with Sting), Southern India native Abhiman Kaushal on tabla, and Jahna on vocals, along with guest singer Christine Katzenmaier. ”While space is limited for the yoga class, everyone is welcome to the musical performance, which starts at 1 p.m. Parking is free in Temescal Canyon Gateway Park; follow the signs. Prices are $45 for the retreat, including lunch (half-price for kids), or $10 for the concert only. Contact: 454-7000 or go to www.jivayoga.com. For more information on local artists Jahna and Michael Perricone, visit www.airetight.com

The first thing you ask yourself when thinking about high school actors doing ‘Fiddler on the Roof,’ is can a teenager transform himself into the play’s central character Tevye, who has the gravity that comes from having suffered and survived and yet the sense of humor of one who has learned a thing or two about life? ”The answer is yes. The moment we meet Tevye (Adam McCrory), a poor dairyman trying to eke out a life in an impoverished Jewish village in Russia on the eve of the Revolution, we are convinced that this Palisades High School production hits the mark. ”’Every one of us is a fiddler on the roof, trying to scratch a pleasant little tune,’ Tevye says in his quietly paced and thoughtful prologue speech. ‘Why do we stay? We stay because Anatevka is our home and tradition’ Everyone of us knows who he is and what God expects.’ ”PaliHi junior McCrory, who in real life is a ‘wee Irish Catholic boy,’ dissolves under his whiskers and hopsack into the much-nuanced character the musical demands. McCrory entered PaliHi as a freshman after emigrating with his family from Belfast. He appeared in his first ever musical two years ago in the lead role in ‘Crazy For You.’ ” ”His task in ‘Fiddler’ is to keep the momentum buoyant’after all, this is not ‘Les Miserables,’ yet to be able to convey his fear and confusion as his world’kept together because of tradition’is disappearing. ”As Tevye explains in the prologue, God’s law provides balance in the villager’s lives under the pressure from outsiders, including the constable, the priest and countless other authority figures. ”’We don’t bother them and so far, they don’t bother us,’ he says. He ends by insisting that without their traditions, he and other villagers would find their lives ‘as shaky as a fiddler on the roof.’ The book by Joseph Stein, based on a short story by Sholom Aleichem, is imbued with the humor and folk wisdom that one would expect to find in a rural Russian village at the turn of the century. The action is concerned primarily with the efforts of Tevye and his wife Golde (Amy Gumenick) and their five daughters to cope with harsh existence under Tsarist rule. ”Change is inevitably thrust upon Tevye as his daughters, one by one, test the iron grip of tradition by wanting to marry for love, instead of by preordained agreement. In contemplating the announcement that the young revolutionary Perchik (Brian Koteen) and his daughter Hodel (Gilli Messer) have announced their engagement, Tevye muses ‘He loves her. Love, it’s a new style. On the other hand our old ways were once new, weren’t they?’ ”Whether you’ve seen ‘Fiddler’ ‘which opened on Broadway in 1965 followed by a movie in 1971’ or not, most everybody knows the music, and what a rich score it is. From ‘Tradition’ to Matchmaker,’ the music by Jerry Bock and lyrics by Sheldon Harnick are forever hummable and have become a tradition! ”The cast and orchestra, under the direction of Terry Henderson, are confident and strong. Each of the leading ladies’including Tevye’s oldest daughters Tzeitel (Taylor Fisher) Model (Gilli Messer) and Chava (Kia Kurestski)’and his wife Golde (Amy Gumenick) have beautiful soprano voices, that whether in a solo or in chorus enrich the musical numbers’especially ‘Matchmaker,’ ‘Sunrise, Sunset’ and ‘Anatevka.’ ”This production, directed by Victoria Francis, has taken a couple of challenging risks, and because of them delivered a rich, dramatic theatrical piece. Of note are the Russians, particularly Terrel Briggs, whose daring, aerial lifts and jumps are stupendous, overseen by choreographer Monique Smith. And who will ever forget the terrifying specters Fruma Sarah (Melissa Lerner) and Grandma Tzeitel (Tia Lebherz) conjured up in Tevye’s dream? ”The orchestra, particularly the clarinets, brings such life (l’ chaim) to the Klezmer feel of this Chagall-like village. ”One cannot discount the look of the show; both the sets and costumes are of a piece. From babushkas to shoes, the hues of brown and gray play counterpoint against the wonderful, sprightly optimism of the fiddler on the roof (Brittany O’Neil), dancing and fiddling in her Kelly green duster and red cap. ”’Fiddler on the Roof’ plays Thursday, Friday and Saturday, June 3, 4 and 5 at 7:30 p.m. in Mercer Hall at Palisades High School, 15777 Bowdoin. Tickets are $10; reserved seats for $20. Contact: 454-0611.

When Norma Sklarek was studying to be an architect in the late 1940s, she didn’t have any role models. In fact, there were no African American women licensed as architects in the United States when Sklarek decided to pursue that career. The Palisades resident made history in 1954 when she passed her licensing exam and earned certification in New York State. ”’Women have a rough time in architecture and you have to be willing to stick with it,’ says Sklarek, who grew up in Harlem during the Depression, the only child of West Indian parents. ”Today, out of about 120,000 licensed architects in the United States, 1,443 of those are African Americans and only 160 are African American women. ” ”’My parents wanted me to have some sort of profession,’ says Sklarek, whose warm and modest demeanor does not quickly reveal the obstacles she had to overcome in her field of choice. ”She pursued architecture because ‘it seemed to embody math and art,’ and not only did she have a knack for those subjects but ‘my mother would always remind me that the first time I ever saved money to buy something for myself, I bought an art book.’ Sklarek’s mother worked in a factory to support her husband through his education at Howard University, where he earned his medical degree. ”Sklarek attended Catholic elementary school before transferring to public junior high school (originally called PS93), where she was one of few black students. She learned early on how hard she had to work to achieve her goals when she missed her first algebra lessons due to appendicitis, and had to put in extra effort to learn the material so she would pass her final exam. ”’If you keep trying and don’t give up, you can achieve,’ says Sklarek, who went on earn a high math score on an admission test for Hunter High School, an all-girls magnet in Brooklyn that she says was ‘the best school in New York at the time.’ ”Columbia University’s School of Architecture accepted Sklarek in 1945 with minimum requirements’one year of liberal arts at Barnard College’whereas most students accepted were war vets with several years of college, some with B.A.s and M.A.s. ”A ‘subway student,’ Sklarek would do her schoolwork on the subway commute between Columbia and her home in Brooklyn. She was one of 20 students and two women to earn a bachelor of architecture degree from Columbia in 1950. ”Yet the biggest challenge for Sklarek was still ahead: getting a job in a white, male-dominated profession. ‘I applied to 19 different offices in New York and couldn’t find a job,’ says Sklarek, who had given birth to her first son, Gregory, before graduating from Columbia. ‘They weren’t hiring women or African Americans, and I didn’t know which it was [working against me].’ ”Sklarek went to work for the City of New York in a civil service job while she was studying for her licensing exam. She shocked her colleagues when she passed all seven parts of the four-day architect’s licensing exam the first time she took it, which resulted in an offer from Skidmore, Owings and Merrill (SOM), one of the leading architectural and engineering firms in the United States. ”As a trailblazer in a white, male-dominated profession, Sklarek always felt highly visible. ‘If a man [employee] came in late, it wasn’t noticed, but if I came in late it was noticed. I was always punctual and discouraged any social talk. I would come in early and start working right away instead of reading the newspaper.’ ”While she worked at SOM, Sklarek also taught an architecture course two evenings a week to students at New York City Community College. ‘I had to get over my shyness,’ Sklarek says. ” When she moved to California in 1960 with her two young sons, Gregory and David, Sklarek again found that several of the firms she contacted had never hired a woman, though they didn’t object to it. She joined Gruen Associates in Los Angeles, where she became the first African American woman director of architecture, responsible for the technical and functioning aspects of commercial projects such as the San Bernardino City Hall (1973), the Pacific Design Center (1976) and the U.S. Embassy in Tokyo (1976). ”Sklarek stayed with Gruen for 20 years, and during that time, she met and married fellow Gruen architect Rolf Sklarek, a German Jew and graduate of the Bauhaus who had been imprisoned under Hitler. ‘We traveled all around the world together looking at architecture,’ says Sklarek, who accompanied Rolf on his return trip to Germany in 1970. ”Rolf designed the modern-style Rustic Canyon home they lived in together for 20 years until his death in 1985. Sklarek lives there today with her husband of 19 years, Cornelius Welch, M.D. ”The first African American woman to be licensed as an architect in California, Sklarek was admitted to the American Institute of Architects (AIA) in 1966 and became a Fellow in 1980, the first black woman to be honored by her peers with a fellowship in AIA. ”Among Sklarek’s larger projects was Terminal One of the Los Angeles International Airport, built just in time for the 1984 Olympics. Then vice president of Welton Becket Associates, Sklarek served as project director for Terminal One, which accommodates 10 million passengers, annually. ”’At first, the architects working on the airport were skeptical because a female was in charge of the project,’ Sklarek says. ‘But a number of projects were going on there at the time and mine was the only one on schedule.’ ”Now, L.A. Mayor James Hahn has proposed a $9-billion plan to modernize LAX, which has not been remodeled since 1984. Hahn’s plan involves demolishing Terminals 1, 2 and 3. However, City Councilwoman Cindy Miscikowski has launched an alternative that postpones some of the more controversial elements of Hahn’s proposal, such as the destruction of the terminals, until further examination. Sklarek’s other projects include many shopping centers throughout the United States, including the Santa Monica Place Mall, the Oakdale Shopping Center in Minneapolis, Park Center Commercial Complex in San Jose and Fox Plaza in San Francisco, which is half commercial and half residential. ”In the 1980s, Sklarek became the first African American woman to form her own architectural firm, Siegel-Sklarek-Diamond in Los Angeles, which was the largest woman-owned and mostly woman-staffed architectural firm in the United States. However, the firm was short lived since ‘it’s tough for women to get the projects, and clients are used to working with men. ”’I’m proud to be an example for women and African Americans,’ says Sklarek, who was a principal at The Jerde Partnership (who designed Horton Plaza in San Diego) from 1989 to 1996, in charge of project management and review of the functional and technological aspects of projects. ”Last September, Governor Gray Davis appointed Sklarek to California Architects Board (CAB). She has also served as a supplemental examination commissioner for the board and as a master juror for the National Council of Architectural Registration Boards (NCARB), grading the design and site planning licensing papers. She currently serves on the CAB’s Professional Qualifications Committee and Regulatory and Enforcement Committee. ”A member and chair of AIA’s National Ethics Council (NEC) from 1993 to 1996, Sklarek taught for a number of years at UCLA on the graduate architecture staff, and has been a guest lecturer at several universities, such as Columbia, Hampton in Virginia, Iowa State and Howard University in Washington, D.C. In her honor, Howard University offers the Norma Merrick Sklarek Architectural Scholarship Award.

Many of us become aware of architecture only when superstars like Frank Gehry or Richard Meier design award-winning buildings like Disney Hall or Getty Center. But alongside these men are scores of men and women who are working away with a public fervor to bring good design into all aspects of our lives. They believe that their profession is essential to the wellbeing of society and that they are indispensable in developing livable cities and a healthy environment. This group wants all of us laypeople to think about architecture and design and to learn the difference between good design and no design. Architectural schools have always been laboratories for new ideas, but now the A+D Museum is presenting the world of design and architecture to the public in an accessible way. Longtime Los Angeles architect Bernard Zimmerman always wanted a museum to bring attention to architecture and design, says Palisadian Stephen Kanner, who trained with Zimmerman and is currently the president of the A+D board of directors,. The idea evolved from the success of a number of exhibitions over the last decade specifically dedicated to design. For instance, in 1998 Zimmerman conceived New Blood 102, which brought together 102 of the newest talents in the fields of architecture, interior design, fashion design, graphic design, landscape architecture and product design. But Zimmerman’s dream came together unexpectedly at a Passover dinner at Santa Monica Canyon real estate developer Ira Yellin’s house. Kanner asked Yellin, who at the time was the owner of the historic Bradbury Building downtown, if he had any space available for the museum. He did, and up until Yellin’s death last year, the A+D Museum, which opened in January 2001, was comfortably ensconced in that eclectic Victorian landmark. The museum recently relocated to an airy, 5,000-sq.- ft. space on Sunset in West Hollywood, where white walls and polished concrete floors provide a tabula rasa for a wide range of design exhibitions. With a home secure, the museum has gone full steam ahead booking exhibitions to the fall of 2006, including Richard Neutra’s VDL House, where he lived with his family; 2X8, an AIA-sponsored exhibit from eight L.A. architecture and design schools; and Vroom!!, a cutting edge automobile design exhibit that explores the world’s foremost driving machines. This schedule demonstrates A+D’s commitment to presenting the broadest definition of design. The current exhibit showcases recent designs for development and improvement of L.A. The projects included range from homeless shelters and daycare centers to pedestrian amenities and greenways. The way in which the show has been mounted is one key to its success. Each of the projects is presented with a full-color rendering and a short text description. These ‘packages’ of information have been photoscreened onto translucent scrims that act as partitions in the gallery. And each project is identified by a color’pumpkin for a transitional housing shelter; brown for the Gramercy Court shade structure’so the visitor can easily identify each project. The museum’s board of directors not only serves as the clearing house in scheduling exhibitions, but is also very much a working board. Director of Installations Tom Hinerfeld installed the current exhibition, and Creative Director Tyrone Drake donated the cards, posters and repro graphics for the shows that are generated by the museum itself. ‘A lot of this is work in kind,’ Kanner says.’We refer a lot of architects and designers to them.’ Kanner’s involvement with A+D is a natural extension of his dedication to the work of other architects. In 1994 in celebration of the American Institute of Architects (AIA) Los Angeles Chapter, he co-chaired the 100-100 exhibition, which was an exhibit of the work of 100 high-quality architecture firms in Los Angeles. And as president-elect of the L. A. chapter of AIA, he seems dedicated to broadening the vision of the association. ‘As president I will be working to connect AIA with college and high school students and the public with exhibitions and programs at the museum,’ Kanner says. ‘The AIA awards presentation will be held at the museum in October.’ While Kanner readily accedes that he spends considerable time on museum activities’three to four meetings a week and an average of 12 phone calls a day’he is still thoroughly engaged and energized by his own architectural practice of 25 architects. ‘Although I don’t draw every line as I used to do in the early days, I still sketch the concepts for the projects,’ projects that range from one of the 34 homes commissioned by New York developer Coco Brown to occupy a unique subdivision in Sagaponac, Long Island, to the low-income housing project to be built at the corner of Santa Monica Boulevard and 26th St. For the Sagaponac project, architect Richard Meier was asked to choose architects who ranged in age and accomplishment’including Philip Johnson, Zaha Hadid and Steven Holl’to create an anti-tract where each house would be an expression of an individual’s vision. Kanner’s design, a simple two-story rectangle sited on a two-foot high wooden plinth, maximizes the sunlight that penetrates the dense forest surrounding the house, and reiterates the clarity, strength and optimism of his work. Kanner believes the principles of modernism continue to hold true, despite the fact that modernism is often interpreted as architecture that is cold and inhospitable. ‘It’s about light, space, materials and problem-solving,’ says Kanner, who designed the modernist home in the Palisades which he shares with his wife Cynthia and daughters Caroline, 9, and Charlotte, 3 1/2. ‘It’s an architecture that makes a good modern home feel good.’ The A+D Museum , 8560 Sunset, one block west of La Cienega, is open Monday through Friday, 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. and Sunday, noon to 6 p.m. Admission is free.

St. Matthew’s Summer Camp, celebrating its 50th summer, is inviting all past and present campers, staff and their families to a 50th anniversary celebration in St. Matthew’s meadow on Saturday, June 26 from 5 to 9 p.m. Members of the anniversary committee are hoping that all past and present campers, staff and their families will attend. Many campers have a long-term connection to the camp. Palisadian Bruce Harlan, who was a camper at the school in the 1970s, started working at the camp in 1980 as an arts and crafts assistant, then continued working at different jobs and eventually served as camp director until 1999. Harlan, whose son Kelly, 6, is entering the camp for the first time this year, is now a science teacher at St. Matthew’s School. ‘The main thing about the camp for me is that it’s one of the few things that really celebrates kids being kids,’ says Harlan. ‘It doesn’t have any fancy equipment, no video games, waterskiing or trips to Disneyland. It’s just kids with groups of friends and counselors. They run through the hills and get dirty, make up games, with no goal other than to enjoy summer and enjoy being a kid. In the Palisades, that’s pretty amazing.’ The camp, now led by Erik Warren and Katie Wood, was started in 1954. There are 16 groups of kids, divided into boys and girls, with two counselors per group and a total of 240 campers. Groups make up names for themselves, such as Road Runners, Scrubbing Bubbles and Minor Aches and Pains. In preparing for the 50th anniversary, Harlan and his co-committee members found pictures from the camp in the 1950s, and noticed that the camp activities, such as making forts and playing hide-and-seek, haven’t changed much. The campers still play games such as Ditch, chasing each other through the hills of the 34-acre property off of Bienveneda. Jolly Roger’s Cave on the campus is a favorite storytelling spot. Campers come for the entire six-week session, which Harlan says allows for team-building and relationships, more so than camps that operate two-week sessions. There is often a waiting list for campers, although the camp always reserves space for about a dozen children from the Oakwood area of Venice who attend free of charge. The counselors make the camp, Harlan says, adding that the camp receives about 150 applications each summer for counselor jobs. ‘They’re creative and energetic. It’s a really sought after job.’ The staff, many of whom were once campers themselves, often stay for several years. One college student and one teenager are in charge of each group. In addition to the planned activities’morning chapel (songs, prayers and a thought for the day), swimming at the outdoor pool and music or arts and crafts’the counselors make up each day’s activities for their group. The camp also features its own traditions’World Day with a kid-created Town Fair, Costume Day with skits, and Tournament Day with a watermelon-eating contest, relay races and water fights. ‘Gus Alexander was director of the camp most of the time the camp has been in existence,’ Harlan says. ‘He was a huge personality who made the camp the way it was for close to 30 years.’ On the 50th reunion Web site, John Meyers, who is starting his 24th year on staff at the camp, wrote: ‘The memories that I will take to the grave are of the teenagers and young adults in our community who year after year become the loving older brothers and sisters to our campers. This ‘Camper-Counselor Relationship’ as Gus defined it is the very heart and core of St. Matthew’s Day Camp… It is no coincidence that of the 50 persons we had on staff last summer, all but 11 of them were former campers.’ ‘We have an esprit de corps we’ve never seen in other camps,’ Meyers, the athletic director at Our Lady of Malibu School, told the Palisadian-Post. ‘I feel I’m very lucky to be a part of it.’ Organizers are hoping for a large turnout at the reunion at St. Matthew’s meadow. RSVP to smdc@stmatthews.com or 573-7787, ext. 6. For more information, go to www.stmatthews.com/smdc50.html.