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Art of laughs – seniors at play

If laughter is the best medicine, this is one healthy group of seniors.
Senior's Theatre
Antics: Joanne Leatherdale

If laughter is the best medicine, this is one healthy group of seniors.

Every Tuesday morning from 9 to 11 a.m., several area seniors go to Shuswap Theatre for an invigorating dose of fun.

“It’s one of the best two hours of the week,” said Joyce Henderson, who has been a member of the group for three years. “Last week, it was the only big-gut laughter I had.”

Henderson says participants are given a scenario and divided into groups of three or four.

“Your challenge is to meet with your group and see where that leads you to,” she says. “Then you have to do a skit.”

And it’s all about fun and companionship.

Henderson says one woman who found joy by joining was a widow.

Her husband had died about 14 months earlier and she had nobody to talk to.

“She read out loud just to hear her voice, but since she started coming here, her whole world has changed,” Henderson says. “She is now working front of house and has taken responsibility for seniors theatre finances.”

Nina Dickins has been a Salmon Arm relaxation group facilitator for 17 years and says it is wonderful to have that focus in her life.

But her “play time” is Tuesday at Shuswap Theatre.

“It’s designed to keep us fit mentally and physically and it does it magnificently,” Dickins says, noting no matter how far outside a participant’s comfort zone it goes, people know they’re in a safe, supported place. “It’s a disparate group of people who come together once a week to basically play with theatre-type exercises.”

Henderson asked for comments from members of the group and received many laudatory emails from people who did not want to be named.

“First thing that comes to mind is the opportunity to be part of a seniors’ group that offers the chance to be more of myself – that never existed before this,” said one respondent. “How wonderful to improve my mind while having such a good time! I have become more creative, spontaneous and have a feeling of belonging to a group of seniors.”

“Seniors’ Theatre, even though I’m not a senior quite yet, is my favourite activity of the week,” wrote another.

And yet another senior wrote, “It’s a wonderful way to spend a few hours every week doing absolutely nothing, for no reason at all – to not be concerned about how I look, what I say and do, and to be with people who are not judging me. I really do look forward to it and hate to miss a single session.”

One couple describes the Tuesday program as a valuable weekly session which allows them to challenge their imagination, stimulate their memory and generally contribute to keeping them engaged.

“The leader(s) have a great deal of expertise and talent and always bring a wide variety of activities,” they wrote. “They are well-prepared and challenge us to move out of our comfort zones. I believe this is an important addition to the community and a critical asset to seniors with the challenges of age.”

That is echoed by another member, who maintains the group feeds her  body, mind and spirit and allows her to “get up and out of bed on Tuesdays, which is a physical challenge, especially in winter.”

Henderson received many more emails, all along the same vein.

Playwright and author Peter Blacklock got the group going but has handed the leadership of the Salmon Arm group over to professional actress Astrid Varnes.

Blacklock continues to lead a group in South Shuswap and is planning a series of vignettes on aging to perform at the second annual Shuswap Theatre on the Edge in July.

In the meantime, there’s always room for more playful seniors and the doors to Shuswap Theatre open at 9 a.m. Tuesdays. The cost is $10 to join the Shuswap Theatre Society, which covers insurance, and a $2 weekly drop-in fee.

“And you have to be able laugh,” adds Henderson. “If you don’t like to laugh, you might not like it.”