“Improv,” said Anne Bastings. “Improv accepts what anybody has to offer.”
Bastings, a professor at the Uni-
versity of Wisconsin–Milwaukee, has worked with Luther Manor, Wauwatosa, Wis., for more than 10 years to engage seniors with demen- tia through improv work, includ- ing photography, sculpting and storytelling.
Last spring they put on Finding Penelope, a play based on Homer’s The Odyssey. With three sold-out shows, it was so successful that sev- eral participants also gave a presen- tation at the October 2011 Leading Age (a national association for non- profit senior facilities) conference in Washington, D.C. Luther Manor’s day participants,
residents (independent living, assisted living and nursing home) and staff worked with Bastings; the university’s Center on Age and Community (which Bastings directs) and theater department; and Sojourn Theater, a national company. The play hinged on three con-
cepts: What was it like for Penelope to wait 20 years for her husband to return? Did Odysseus wonder how Penelope might have changed? What would it be like for a modern- day adult to visit her estranged, memory-challenged mother in a nursing home?
Instead of handing out scripts, university students asked the seniors questions. “Have you ever been lonely? How do you feel about this? All of our answers were worked into the script,” said Rusty Tym, an inde- pendent living resident and former radio announcer.
The more than 100 suitors that
Homer’s Penelope fights off became “issues we fight off as we age: bro- ken hips, Alzheimer’s, children who don’t visit, food that doesn’t taste good, even macular degeneration,”
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said Beth Meyer-Arnold, director for adult day services.
The play also overcame what Bastings calls “chronic underestimatitus.” Meyer-Arnold explained: “Sometimes we don’t expect
Try this
Congregations and families can use professor Anne Bastings’ free storytell- ing software with people who have dementia. Visit
www.timeslips.org.
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enough of seniors, especially those who are very frail or cognitively impaired. But [here] residents became so intent on this project that they were dressed and prepared for every rehearsal. They felt it changed their lives.”
April 2012 37
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