Resource Center on Aging, University of California, Berkeley

Fall, 2008

Instructors: Guy Micco, MD with Linda Spector, Drama director, instructor and playwright
Units: 1 (2^nd unit for independent study possible)
Maximum class size: 10 students, graduate level (upper division undergraduate by permission of instructor)
Course number: HMS 210 (HMS 298 for 2^nd unit, discuss with Guy Micco)
Room: 104 Dwinelle Hall and Salem Lutheran Home (see class schedule)
Course Meetings: Wednesdays, 5:30 to 8:30 PM, from September 3 thru November 5, plus two “performances” toward the end of the course, dates TBA

Live performances help bring new interpretations and new meanings to the written word. Readers' theater is a technique used in the performance of literature in which texts are staged with minimal production values and scripts are not fully memorized. Plays are not the only form of literature that can be “performed.” Poems and short stories, even novels and memoirs (and many other forms of fiction and nonfiction) have been successfully adapted for the stage. With Readers’ Theater, rehearsal and preparation time are significantly reduced so that non-professional performers, who cannot commit to the six to eight weeks of nightly rehearsal traditionally necessary for a fully staged production, can participate; and, performances can be made available to communities with fewer resources.

In this course, we will choose stories, plays, and poems that have to do with aging and old age; we hope they will deal with the pleasures as well as the problems and concerns brought to us by aging in our society. This year, the course will last ten weeks, with weekly class-time and two or three outside performances. We anticipate a lively intergenerational and interdisciplinary dialogue among Berkeley graduate students in healthcare professions, humanities, and social sciences, and a group of elders at Salem Lutheran Home, a continuing care retirement community in Oakland. Our course will begin on the Berkeley campus, but several class meetings will be at Salem Lutheran with interested elders who reside there. To spark discussion, we will engage in a variety of theater and role-playing activities in which the topics will pertain to old age and aging, and to intergenerational exchanges. We will also practice dramatic exercises and techniques that focus on voice, body and presentation. In one class, we will have a guest from the UCB Department of Performance Studies who will guide us through exercises developed by radical Brazilian theatrical director and writer Augusto Boal (founder of “Theater of the Oppressed”). In addition, for those who are interested, there will be opportunities to visit and participate in Linda Spector’s “Imagination Workshop” at a skilled nursing elder-care community in Berkeley.

We will have time to prepare and perform only a few texts; though we will read and discuss many others together. At the end of the course, we will all perform together at Salem Lutheran and on the Berkeley campus, for a wider audience from both sites. After a performance, we will engage in a discussion with our audience. This is perhaps the richest aspect of Readers’ Theater. We look forward to an exciting and fun class!

Some of our rehearsals, performances and after-show discussions may be recorded on digital video to be used as teaching tools. (A dvd comprised of a performance and comments by members of a former class and audience is available.)

Course Objectives By the end of this course, students will:

have discussed and learned from examples of the vast literature (poetry, novels, plays, essays, stories, myths) devoted to aging and end-of-life matters in all societies.
have successfully performed (with the Readers’ Theater technique) various types of "aging" literature before audiences of elders and of their (student) peers.
have practiced and employed presentational skills such as vocal expression and proper posture while performing.
better understand the relationship between old and young in all societies and how that relationship is changing as we are living longer.
begin to recognize the contributions of wisdom and experience that older people make to all societies.
have learned better how to communicate with elders in a positive and relaxed manner.
understand the importance of using dramatic improvisation for the purposes of better communication and comprehension of ideas.
understand the various uses of theatre to provoke action, changes in relationships, and comprehension of ideas. (E.g., dramatic improvisation; Augusto Boal and the “Theatre of the Oppressed.")

Course Requirements:

Attend and participate in all class meetings. Assignments, including readings and writing, are to be completed prior to each class. If a class must be missed, a 3-page paper, discussing the reading for the week, or another topic agreed upon with instructors, will be due the following week. (This will be in addition to any written assignment for the week.)
Participate in at least two Readers’ Theater presentations near the end of course - one at Salem Lutheran Home, the other at UC Berkeley (These will likely occur during the week of October 27 and/or November 3rd.

Readings

Readers’ Theater: On Aging and Old Age (HMS 210) COURSE SYLLABUS

September 3 (Dwinelle Hall, Room 104)

Assignment for September 10

September 10 (Dwinelle Hall, Room 104)

Assignment for September 17

Medical Readers Theater

Performing Literature

September 17 (Salem Lutheran - meet at University and Oxford to car pool)

Assignment for September 24

September 24 (Dwinelle Hall, Room 104)
- Discuss last week – What worked? What didn’t? Surprises? Delights? Disappointments? What do we need to be prepared for?
Assignment for October 1
Find at least one new reading, write a précis and email to the class by next Wednesday; be prepared to direct an adaptation of it.
October 1 (Salem Lutheran) -
- Warm-ups
- Role-playing/improv games
- Discuss what comes up, both in terms of form and content; talk about whether any of this can work in performance contexts, and why; how could (or couldn’t) the audience be introduced into this process.
Assignment for October 8
Find at least one new reading, write a précis and email to the class by next Wednesday; be prepared to direct an adaptation of it.
October 8 (Salem Lutheran)
- Warm-ups -
- First half – continue trying out and discussing texts -
- Second half – final decisions for performance, re-reading texts
Assignment for October 15
READ: Boal, from Theatre of the Oppressed (in course Reader)
Come up with ideas for scenarios (one for each of two different Boal exercises of your choosing) that relate to intergenerational exchange, aging, etc, using the tools that Boal presents.
October 15 (Salem Lutheran)
- Boal workshop with guest Kate Kokontis, PhD candidate in Performance Studies, UCB
October 22 (Salem Lutheran)
- Warm-ups
- Rehearsals
October 29 (Salem Lutheran) -
- Warm-ups
- Rehearsals
November 5 – Final class (104 Dwinelle) -
- Wrap-up, course evaluation

Note: Our two performances will be during the weeks of October 27 and/or November 3

Linda Spector is a Drama director, instructor and playwright. For 40 years, she has taught acting, improvisation, and drama techniques to students from 6 to 100 in a variety of settings including public and private schools, senior facilities, hospitals, community centers, and conferences. For 27 years, she served as co-director, playwright and instructor for Stagebridge, a senior theater company whose goal is to use Drama and Storytelling to bridge the gap between the generations, present plays about aging, and make dramatic activities an opportunity for older people. She has written and directed more than 30 plays concerned with aging, intergenerational, and societal issues that have been performed in theaters, schools, and community centers. Linda has also developed "Imagination Workshops" using drama techniques such as improvisation, stream of consciousness, visualization, and sense memory exercises. Meeting with classes in convalescent homes and dementia facilities, senior centers and assisted living residences, she works to keep the participants' imaginations, memories, and five senses vital and active. The hour workshops are characterized by a sense of fun, exploration, and fantasy. Students may elect to participate in and learn about how to conduct these sessions.______________

"We spend time and money to feed, house, and clothe our frail elderly and disabled, but their imaginations are relegated to watching television or the view from a window."