Search Results for: clementine

Orange you glad Clementine has moved to Church Square?

February 19, 2018 by Deborah Brown Leave a Comment

Clementine, Wellesley — The sign says Xylem, but the store is actually Clementine, which has moved from Wellesley Hills to 30 Church St.

Clementine women’s clothing boutique has made its move from just off of Rte. 9 in Wellesley Hills to Church Square. The exterior sign over the 30 Church St. space may still say Xylem, but don’t be fooled. Outside, the bright orange paint on the door simply shrieks Clementine. Inside, the space is in a fresh state of transformation, with one lovely nod to the previous owner’s excellent eye for design — in evidence are former Xylem proprietor Madalene Sullivan’s signature white display frames. That must be good feng shui or something.

The Church Square shopping area has undergone significant changes over the past year; currently the former Terrazza, Blue Ginger, and Susu are shuttered. Smith & Wollensky is quickly filling up dumpsters as it renovates the former Blue Ginger space and expects to open in Spring. We’ve heard rumors here and there about what’s going into Terrazza and Susu, but time will tell.

MORE: Wellesley businesses that came and went in 2017

easter display xylem wellesley — These display circles used to hold all manner of fun gifts at Xylem. They’ve been reincarnated by Clementine owner Judi Rizley to display high-end shoes, bags, and other boutique items. Clementine has moved from Wellesley Hills up to 30 Church St. and is open for business.

Clementine moving to new Wellesley location

January 4, 2018 by Bob Brown Leave a Comment

Clementine, the women’s clothing boutique with the familiar orange awning just off of Rte. 9 in Wellesley Hills, is making the move to Church Square.

“We are happily moving to Church St, hopefully mid to end of February. The news is spreading and the feedback has been extremely positive, making us even more excited!” says owner Judi Rizley, whose shop has been in its current Wellesley location for 9.5 years.

The business currently has Sale signs in its windows.

As for Church Square, the shopping area has undergone significant changes over the past year, and ended 2017 with retailers Xylem and Terrazza announcing their plans to close.

MORE: Wellesley businesses that came and went in 2017

Wellesley POPS Senior Profile: Nick Ashraf—How Wellesley High Theatre has shaped his character

June 10, 2022 by admin Leave a Comment

Special to The Swellesley Report courtesy of the Wellesley High School Bradford and Parents of Performing Students (POPS). This is one in a series of POPS senior profiles we’ll be publishing.

Nick Ashraf ’22 believes there is a clear difference between an inspiration and a supporter. To him, an inspiration could be anyone, such as Chris Evans, the actor who portrays Marvel’s Captain America. A supporter, however, is something stronger to Ashraf. The biggest supporters in his life are his family members. Although they may not be personally interested in theatre themselves, they will undoubtedly come to every show and support Ashraf in pursuing his goals.

Ashraf has been participating in theatre since around first grade through his senior year of high school. At Wellesley Middle School, Ashraf was a part of his first school show where he first got a taste of the on-stage buzz from performing multiple days in a row.

From the beginning, Ashraf has been inspiring those around him, especially viewers in the audience. In a separate interview, Nora Jarquin ‘22, one of Ashraf’s close friends and a fellow performer, describes the role he played in influencing the beginning of her personal performing arts experience. “You can tell that he’s put his whole soul into his performance. So I hope to do that too with my work after watching him do it for so long and be so seemingly competent—knowing himself so well that he knows how to put himself into these things.” says Jarquin.

Nick Ashraf, in gray shirt, performing in Mamma Mia!

Entering high school, Ashraf became increasingly involved in the performing arts community. He found passion and joy in being part of the close knit community at WHS and quickly found a strong group of friends.

“I think both in general and at the high school, it’s really inclusive, and you can always find some smaller group that you’re friends with and make really close friends. But then overall, you’re always friends with everybody just because you see each other every single day for like five hours a day,” said Ashraf.

Not only has Ashraf found a community within the Performing Arts department, but he has found a creative outlet for himself. Acting is his way of releasing pent up emotions and learning how to empathize with people through his characters. “I think it’s my way of expressing myself. If I’m having some sort of off day, I always try to think of how I can bring it to rehearsal and use it. Especially if I’m super angry about something and then I have a scene where a character starts yelling at somebody, then I’m going to be actually yelling,” said Ashraf.

While being able to escape into the world of theater may help Ashraf when times get hard, having a supportive figure gives the additional backing that one may sometimes need. Kara Sullivan, the drama teacher at Wellesley High School, is like a second mother to Ashraf. Their close knit relationship has grown from middle school all the way up to the exciting college acceptance phone call. “He’s a very feeling person. He very much wears emotions on his sleeve, which is a really great thing for him. I’ve seen him learn how to balance his drama in life, which we all have. Being able to separate the drama on and off stage is sometimes hard to do, especially at the high school level,” says Sullivan.

Throughout his experience, and especially during junior year, Ashraf has supported and mentored younger singers, especially those in his a cappella group, Inchordination, where he provides the same guidance he was once given by older singers. However, he is also able to bring out a sentimental and vulnerable side to teachers. “He’s taught me to be more vulnerable, and he’s taught me to recognize that everybody has a story and when you walk into a room. You don’t know what that person’s story is,” says Sullivan.

To Ashraf, leaving Wellesley High School is a bittersweet feeling. He feels that the Performing Arts department has nurtured his love for acting, but he also feels ready to take on new experiences and challenges. “The department has kind of made me who I am both as a person and a performer,” said Ashraf.

Ashraf will be attending New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts this coming fall of 2022 as part of the class of 2026. He hopes to continue to pursue his goals of acting through theatre performance.

WHS Bradford staff: Clementine Zei ’24, Special Projects News Editor, and Fiona Zhou ’24, Staff Writer.

Wellesley POPS senior profile: Caroline Mack takes on theater both center stage & behind the scenes

May 10, 2022 by admin 1 Comment

Special to The Swellesley Report courtesy of the Wellesley High School Bradford and Parents of Performing Students (POPS). This is one in a series of POPS senior profiles we’ll be publishing.

The velvet curtains open, revealing an audience that spans the large theater. The heat of the blinding stage lights beat down onto your face as you stand center stage. A wave of applause and standing ovation rises in volume as you lower your head to take a bow.

Many crave the adventure and excitement that an acting career can offer and dream of what success might look like. For Caroline Mack, Wellesley High School `22, that dream is becoming a reality. Mack is involved in both the Performing Arts and Choral departments at Wellesley High, and hopes to follow her passions both on and off the stage after she graduates.

Caroline Mack, WHS `22 as Rosie Mulligan in Mamma Mia! (Photo credit: Darren Bovie)

Mack began singing and acting in fourth grade when her parents signed her up for a kid’s theatre group called “Miss Cindy’s Theatre Company’s Cabarets.” Since then, Mack has been passionate about creating meaningful productions with compelling stories. Throughout her time in middle school, she participated in drama and chorus. At the high school, Mack has “been in every show at the high school that [she] possibly could be.” Mack is also an involved member of the Choral Department at the high school. She sings with Concert Choir, Song Sisters, and the Keynotes Singers select ensemble. `

“I have been involved all four years in the Performing Arts Department. I stay involved because I love it! I wouldn’t want to be doing anything else to fill up time. All of my friends participate in performing arts and it is just the best community,” said Mack, “I’ve also created such strong bonds with all of my teachers—especially the drama director, Ms. Sullivan.”

Mack is an excellent and hilarious actor—her skills on stage have warranted praise and many awards throughout her time in middle and high school. In addition to her on-stage presence, Mack’s role as a writer and producer on shows is impressive. Her sophomore year One-Act, Weird, won an acting award, and her freshman year One-Act, I Do You Die, placed third in a competition.

Kara Sullivan, the drama teacher at WHS, has been a guiding figure for Mack over the years. Mack first got to know Sullivan in sixth grade when she was the middle school drama teacher. Coincidentally, they both transitioned to the high school the same year.

“As my grade has grown throughout our time with Ms. Sullivan as our teacher, we have also seen her grow immensely. She is confident, powerful, and hilarious—and I wouldn’t have wanted any other teacher by my side these past seven years. She’s honestly a big part of the reason I am pursuing theatre in college,” said Mack.

Sullivan and Mack have worked together on many productions, student-directed projects, and written works, including the New Works revival for Acting 3. Sullivan commends Mack’s skill for leadership.

“She’s really good at recognizing where she is and where she wants to be and how she can get there, and I really appreciate that about her. She always tried to be better and better and better,” said Sullivan.

Looking to the future

When Mack looks to the future, she imagines herself participating in theatre in any way she can.

“[I’m] definitely looking forward to opportunities in different locations,” said Mack, “I love New York City, obviously a theater hub. So living in different places and experiencing the theater scenes, in cities especially wherever I end up, I’m really looking forward to a broader spectrum of actors, singers, and artists.”

In addition to acting, Mack’s supporters hope that she continues writing and directing after high school.

“Everyone knows Caroline as an actress, but I think she should also try directing. She incorporates feminism into everything in the best way possible, and truly brings so many great ideas to anything she works on—I think she should stick with it,” said Lucy Calcio `22, Mack’s friend and a fellow thespian.

Mack has a passion for writing and poetry. Her favorite subject in school is English, though she is not always confident in sharing her writing.

“[It’s] funny because you’d think someone who goes on stage and stuff shouldn’t be afraid of stuff like that, but I’m so afraid of criticism in my writing, maybe because I care about it so much,” said Mack.

The past two years have made live performances very difficult for the drama and choral departments, so for Mack the return to normalcy means more than just taking off her mask. The performing arts are about community, for Mack and for the people that participate in the department alongside her.

“My favorite thing about being part of singing and acting at school is probably the community, which sounds cheesy. I think everybody has found their own places at the high school, whether you’re into art or sports or whatever. I don’t know where else I’d be if I wasn’t acting and singing.”

Mack was able to perform in the widely-enjoyed a cappella performances: Acatober, this past October, and Acastock in March. Most recently, she performed in the school musical, Mamma Mia!, one of the first mask-less performances in a few years.

“It can be easy to forget why we perform until we actually get to do so. I miss the performance rush–the pre-show jitters, the post-show celebrations, the onstage connections–it’s something that feels like a long lost memory,” said Mack. “So I guess what I’ve learned is to appreciate every moment we get. We are so lucky to live in a town that allows us so many performance opportunities and we might never have this freedom and abundance of shows ever again,” said Mack.

Next fall, Mack will attend Marymount Manhattan College where she intends to pursue a BA in Theater Arts, with a minor in Gender and Sexuality studies.

Article written by WHS Bradford staff: Clementine Zei `24, Special Projects News Editor, and Annabelle Nolan `23, Assistant Features Editor.

Photo credit: Paula Swift

Photo credit: Melissa Mack

Wellesley Business Buzz: Goddard School looking to open; Storefront art project up through April

April 20, 2022 by Bob Brown Leave a Comment

Our roundup of the latest Wellesley, Mass., business news:

Goddard School looking to open in town

The Goddard School, which operates early childhood education centers across the state and country, is seeking town approvals to open a 16-classroom facility at 141 Linden St., that will also include two outdoor playgrounds and an indoor play space.

Goddard’s plan would be to renovate some 15,000 sq. ft. of the property. LINX, which runs summer camps, will continue to operate its offices at the building, and HYP Yoga, making its return to Wellesley, is a new tenant.

The Goddard School had been looking to do a big renovation at the St. Paul School on Washington Street a couple of years back but plans for that fell through due to financing issues. Private school Star Academy wound up moving into that space last year.

More than a dozen Goddard Schools are located in Massachusetts, including nearby in Wayland, Weston, and Dedham. The Goddard School serves more than 70,000 students from six weeks to six years old in more than 570 locations in 38 states, according to the business.

The design plans for the property will include improved parking and traffic circulation, and an all-stucco veneer, according to a presentation made about an hour into the Wellesley Media recording of the April 13 Design Review Board meeting.

The project team must receive design and other town approvals before going forward.

Storefront art project up through April

Art Wellesley has revealed a craft paper project to enliven some of the remaining empty shop windows in Wellesley Square.

Partnering with local property owners Bullfinch and Linear, Art Wellesley hosted a couple of maker nights in an empty store to work on the pieces, which use a limited palette of black, white and yellow paint on brown craft paper. The theme is “peace,” and the art will be on display throughout the month.

Participating artists included two Wellesley High School students, Clementine Zei and Evan Chu; a handful of local
artists, including Lala O’Neil, Jenny Schneider, Elizabeth Cohen-Pratt, and Chelsea Sebastian; and Art Wellesley founders Annie Newman, Laura Robert and Julie Vari-Nikolewski.

art peace — Photo courtesy of Art Wellesley

Jesamondo welcomes new stylist

SPONSORED CONTENT: Congratulations to long-time Swellesley supporter Jesamondo Salon & Spa as the Natick beauty business welcomes back Master Stylist Morgan McDonald and her unique flair for creating looks that make her customers look and feel in. Whether it’s a blunt bob, a balayage, or long lock with undercuts, her creations are always on-trend and extraordinary. Please call (508) 907-7171 or go online to schedule your appointment at https://jesamondo.com/book-an-appointment.

Meet our advertisers

The Swellesley Report Business Index

From Student To Teacher

September 9, 2021 by Fiona Zhou Leave a Comment

What a summer journalism course has taught me about teaching and working on the thing I love most.

Over the past two weeks I have been teaching journalism to young and aspiring middle school journalists. The program I taught was a student-run and student-established course called: First to the Frontpage, created in the Summer of 2020 by Wellesley High School students Suzie Kim (’23), Ian Lei (’21), and Felipé Lopez (’22). Their first summer teaching was my first summer learning.

At first, journalism seemed intimidating to me. There was so much to write and report about. The mentors I had threw information at me left and right. Journalism itself sounded so different from the creative writing and argument writing I had known. And to be frank, I thought the only forms of journalism out there were newspapers talking about politics or two people sitting in front of a huge television screen reading off a paper script. Honestly, sitting in front of my computer that summer, I couldn’t imagine myself as a journalist, not even one, but five years into the future. When I opened the doors to the world of reporting, I peeked my head instead of striding in like some peers. But as a student and even as a journalist, it’s important to step out of your comfort zone. Whether that be reporting stories that are tough to write about, ones that require more research, or even having to sit through long and boring conference meetings. As learners we have lots to figure out and improve on.

Even teachers are still students. That was one thing I learned while teaching this summer. Little details mattered a lot more than I thought. There had been points and tips I had missed even as a writer which I realize now are crucial to the structure and layout of a piece. My students at times were confused, but that got me to take a different approach in teaching the lesson in a different style. A form for which middle school students would understand– also keeping in mind that I shouldn’t overload them with work.

As Albert Einstein more or less said: “If you can’t explain it simply, then you don’t understand it well enough.” Now this quote applied specifically to my teaching because I tended to go on long tangents explaining curriculum and giving advice. This didn’t give the students enough time to digest the feedback and information they were receiving. In the future, I strive to make my explanations more condensed as well as giving the students room to write by themselves instead of me leading them every step of the way.

On a more daily basis, the program would work on building a news article– focusing on one key aspect every day until a sandwiched story was created. This included skills such as working in quotations, interview skills, the structure of each article– ultimately working up to their final project of writing their own news story, an opinion or feature.

journalism instructors — Instructors Suzie Kim, Clementine Zei, and Fiona Zhou teaching Session 1 with slides

Over the course of these two weeks our efforts were not without struggle. The first session went pretty well with packed classes and heavily engaged writers. That wasn’t to say there were no difficulties reaching out to interviewees who had tight schedules or who simply just didn’t respond. But by making quick changes and finding a solution without altering the course of the story was good practice, even as a learning journalist myself. Making these tough transitions and finding a solution fast when a story idea is taken or when elements fall apart is something we as writers and teachers need to grasp.

The second session this summer had only two students. Although their learning was more personalized, receiving feedback sooner, the environment was less engaging and the community of writers who could peer edit and learn together was restricted.

Through these two weeks I have indeed learned more as a journalist and teacher. Knowing how to lead classes, provide focused feedback, make quick and easy changes to a story, and hand down the knowledge I have for one of my passions. It was a great learning experience for my co-workers and I as well as the students. I hope to continue teaching at similar programs so that I can pass down what I learn to younger students as I work on becoming a better journalist myself.

P.S. If you are interested in the course I taught at, First to the Frontpage, please email us at: [email protected]. Our website is located at: https://firsttothefrontpage.weebly.com/

Wellesley Business Buzz: 87 Central St., opening up; Truly’s has a bracket; Meet The Moving-Pictures Co.; Celebrating women-owned businesses

March 28, 2021 by Bob Brown Leave a Comment

Our roundup of the latest Wellesley, Mass., business news:

87 Central St., opening up

ArtWellesley might need to crank up some more storefront window art. The property manager for 87 Central St., currently home of Wildflower, a flower and gift shop that opened in the space last October, has posted that the 550 sq. ft. space plus basement will be available in September. Wildflower’s business began as flower truck, and we’ve reached out to the owner to see what her future storefront plans might be.

Truly’s has a bracket

With the NCAA men’s and women’s basketball tournaments in full swing, Truly’s has gotten into the spirit with a bracket of its own that naturally pits ice cream flavors against one another. If you guess all of the match ups correctly, you will win a $1,000 Truly’s gift card. If you guess only the final winner correctly, you will win a $5 Truly’s gift card.

Meet the Moving-Pictures Company

Paul Falcone, a former news videographer for Wellesley Media, has been shooting weddings and events for over 25 years. But before he got there, he first had to go through his giant monsters phase. The Rhode Island School of Design graduate started out making films at the age of five at the Yellow Ball Workshop, an animation school run by his parents. His first solo animated movie was effort was titled Underwater Creatures about—you guessed it—big and really scary sea monsters.

That’s been out of his system for a while now, and as principal of The Moving-Pictures Company, Paul now focuses his lens on engagements, weddings, proms, graduations, sports, and other events. As a freelancer Paul has worked on a wide spectrum of projects including corporate events, sports, courtroom video, commercials, music videos, children’s TV, feature films and of course weddings. He’d be happy to work with you on your photography needs.

Chamber scholarship deadline extended

The Newton-Needham Regional Chamber is offering scholarships to three students who either live in or go to school in Needham, Newton or Wellesley and who are going to an accredited college or university in the next academic year. The deadline for applying for these roughly $2,000 scholarships is April 13. The application and more details are available at nnchamber.com/scholarship

And a shout-out to some women who make Wellesley go round

March is Women’s History Month, and we’d like to give a nod of respect to some of the town’s women-owned businesses. Fun fact: Swelleley’s a women-owned business, too. Here’s a partial list below, with more to follow in our next Business Buzz: