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Excerpts from: Bringing a Smile to seniors The age-old marketing mantra is simple: give the people what they want. For most seniors, what they want is what they had -- quality entertainment at an affordable price. Smile Theatre's mandate is to bring them just that. ... By bringing musicals directly to homes for seniors, the theatre ... mounts five productions a year, offering young actors a chance to perform hour-long Canadian plays written specifically for the elderly. The unusual constraints of bare-bones productions in impromptu venues has unexpected rewards, says Tom Carson, artistic director of the company. "As an actor in the theatre, you're used to the lights in your eyes and you can't see the audience. You're up there singing and dancing, hoping they're not bored," Carson says. "This is so different. You can see their faces. They respond immediately. You end up playing right to the audience." That makes Smile Theatre a great training ground for new, young actors, Carson says. He likes to turn a theatre adage on its head. "When the actors see the impact they have on the audience, you often say they become better performers. I say, here, they become better human beings." Board president Janet Martin says Smile Theatre is more than recreation. Her late father loved to dance and perform in his home town of Port Stanley but had no access to music in the last nine years of his life, which he spent in a nursing home. "The plays, the songs and dances -- it would have meant the world to him," Martin says. ... (Tom) Kneebone, recipient of the Order of Ontario, the Order of Canada and the Queen's Jubilee Award, wrote and directed many of Smile Theatre's productions, running as many as four each year until his death in November 2003. Today, performers like Seana-Lee Wood continue the tradition. She's criss-crossing Canada with her show Good Morning Cottage Country, which features small-town radio broadcaster Edna Sharp, circa 1938. She says even people who are cognitively impaired can sing along to songs like Frank Sinatra's "World on a String" and commercial jingles like "Chiquita Banana." "It's an amazing experience watching people wake up," she says. "When I tell a joke or sing a song, you can see their faces change. It brings back these enormous, wonderful memories for people." When Wood performed recently at Roberta Place residence in Barrie, one enthusiastic member of the audience was Retired Master Warrant Officer Ed Clayton, a Barrie resident whose wife Natalie lives at the care facility. "They're definitely getting something out of it," he says of the residents' response. "What seems to have the most profound effect is the music. You watch their body language and their eyes and you can see something there -- it really means something to them." With Ontario's population aging fast, Smile Theatre won't be running out of audiences any time soon. It's no longer the shoestring operation it was at the start. Now there are big names on its advisory board, including Isabel Bassett and David and Ed Mirvish, and the annual budget is $500,000. Although venues are asked to pay ... Smile Theatre fundraising associate Carol Jamieson says every effort is made to bring the shows to senior residences, whatever their circumstances. Money raised through fundraising -- 22 per cent from foundations and corporations and the rest from individual donors -- allows Smile Theatre to perform at as many senior residences as possible. "At least 10 per cent of them each year cannot afford the fee," Jamieson says, referring to the venues, "so we ask them to pay what they can and we absorb the rest." In the case of Roberta Place, the volunteer council raised $1,000 and management kicked in $500 so all six shows are being performed. As Martin says, "It's our goal to continue to expand, to reach the seniors and remind the people who do support us that none of us are getting any younger." By Cheryl Browne, a freelance writer based in Barrie, Special to the Star, April 24, 2006. Copyright Toronto Star Newspapers Limited. www.thestar.com |
