Please turn to

Britain has a new Consul General in Hancock Park Brightman is Ebell’s first ever Executive Director

By Billy Taylor

British Consul General Emily Cloke is the latest representative from her country to call the 1928 Wallace Neff house in Hancock Park home.

“I feel privileged to live in a house that has been a symbol of the U.K.-U.S. relationship,” Cloke said of the June Street property purchased by the British Government in 1957. In fact, Cloke told the Chronicle last month over Zoom, she has come to love the neighborhood.

“Larchmont is incredibly green and welcoming. And as a ‘foodie,’ I have been to Jeni’s Ice Cream and Larchmont Wine and Cheese many times,” she said with a laugh. “And we’ve spent a lot of time at Chevalier’s Books.

“Larchmont is an amazing place,” said Cloke.

Having arrived in Los Angeles last fall with her husband

EMILY CLOKE

Rhodes School

(Continued from page 3) any technological issue we have whether it be with new media we’re using or the website or digitizing something. He’s just great to work with, always pleasant and a true advocate for business on Larchmont.”

Here at the paper, it’s been a delight chronicling the Rhodes story. Also, now I know who to call whenever I have a musical, creative or technological emergency. Tony and a new toddler — Cloke was on maternity leave up until her new assignment began — she admits that getting set up in her new post hasn’t been the easiest due to the pandemic. “There is a different dynamic,” she says of the challenges that come with working around pandemic related restrictions. Still, she’s focused on the work at hand.

“What we do at the consulate is look for partnerships. We are looking for opportunities. I’m here to represent the U.K. and look for ways to work together,” said Cloke, who has an impressive background in diplomacy, law and trade issues. Having grown up in London, which she describes as “an amazing, global city with lots of multi-cultural influences,” Cloke studied law at Cambridge and started her career as a lawyer in the City of London. Her recent roles include as Deputy CEO for the UK-Africa Investment Summit hosted by the Prime (Please turn to page 19) By Helene Seifer

Most organizations are counting their blessings if they survived the pandemic. The Ebell of Los Angeles is emerging from lockdown with renewed vigor and a new executive director, Dr. Stacy Brightman, the first to hold the position in the club’s 125-year history.

Brightman comes to the women’s organization from the Los Angeles Opera where, as vice president of LA Opera Connects, she oversaw four countywide festivals, some of which were presented at The Ebell. She grew the opera community and education programs and fostered partnership opportunities. She was responsible for expanding the reach of the Opera by hundreds of thousands of constituents.

Brightman believes The Ebell and opera have a lot in common. “Opera is the magical interdisciplinary art,” she muses, as it combines theater, dance, literature, music. “In its own way,” she continues, “The Ebell is quite operatic. It encompasses so much.”

A live theater-lover, she earned her doctorate in dramatic arts and theater research from the University of California, Davis. Coincidentally, Brightman wrote her dissertation on Los Angeles theater in the 1930s, in which the Wilshire Ebell Theatre played a prominent part. Her career in the arts also includes teaching theatrical history at the Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandizing and an eight-year stint at the Thornton School of Music at the University of Southern California. She currently is enrolled in a masters degree

AMY FORBES

Amy Forbes heads Center Theatre Group; Ahmanson joins

STACY BRIGHTMAN

By John Welborne The Center Theatre Group Board of Directors has elected Amy R. Forbes as its president. The longtime Windsor Square resident began her new post July 1. She is a current member of the Windsor Square Association board of directors, and she was an influential leader of the successful effort to make Windsor Square an Historic Preservation Overlay Zone (HPOZ). Forbes has spent her legal (Please turn to page 9) (Please turn to page 16)

Editorial

(Continued from page 2)

Our two representatives are: Richard Bloom, Assembly District 50 (basically Plymouth to the west), local telephone number 310-450-0041; and Miguel Santiago, Assembly District 53 (basically Plymouth to the east), local telephone number 213-6204646.

If you know other Assemblymembers, anywhere in California, call them too!

Ask them to vote NO on SB 9, SB 10 and SB 478.

For additional information, take a look at an article in the specialist publication, “The Planning Report,” written recently by Fifth District City Councilmember Paul Koretz. This excellent, current commentary on the three bad bills also urges us residents to reach out to our Assemblymembers. See: tinyurl.com/4b5tbwec

In addition, many of our local homeowner associations are members of United Neighbors, a Sherman Oaks-based community group opposed to the bad bills and also a repository of excellent explanatory information at: unitedneighbors.net