Day: February 9, 2018

I did a casting call at the Mansion Friday for “A Night Of Four Skits,” to be performed in the Mansion Great Room on Wednesday, April 4th, at 6 p.m. The skits are all published by reading2connect, a publishing house specializing in books that promote memory, voice and reading for the elderly.

All of the skits were written for older people by Bi-FOLKal Productions.

I’ve purchased a score of books from reading2connect and its researcher/authors Susan Ostrowski and Peter Diamond. The skits themselves are in the mail.

I came into the Mansion at lunch and announced the plan to perform “Four Skits” for the residents and their families and friends in April. I am getting eight skit books  from reading2connect and will cast four people to read and perform the mini-plays, they are all short and direct.

I am producing and directing the skits, Maria has offered to help, I have accepted.

There was a lot of interest at the Mansion today in being cast for “Four Skits.” Peggie, Tim, Allan, Sylvie (once I promised she could have the script with her) and I think I will invite Joan and read her part. She very much wants to be in one of the four skits, all different subjects ranging from a doctor’s visit to the arrival of winter.

I’m thinking of a  possible set and lighting. Mansion Director Morgan Jones is considering inviting the community.

Madeline is extremely eager to act in the play, she lived for many years in New York, and she played the role of Linda, Willy Loman’s wife, in “Death Of A Salesman” several times in community theater. I told her we would make her a star, and she said she was delighted.

“Count me in,” she said, “I would love to be a star. This is a wonderful thing to be doing here.”

I told her she  had the presence of a star, and she posted for a show  photo or poster. She loved having her photo taken. Madeline is in her 90’s, when I ran into her ten minutes later, she asked me to repeat the casting offer. I did. She accepted it again.

People sometimes ask me if the Mansion residents are suffering from Dementia, and I must confess to hating that term. The Mansion is not a memory care or dementia facility, Red and I have worked in those, and they are very different. The term is offensive to me, I have not yet met any demented people in my therapy work, certainly not at the Mansion.

People associate the term with “demented,” which means “an adjective describing behavior  that is crazy, unhinged, or insane.”

When I look at the news from Washington, or meet the ideological fanatics of the left or the right,  I usually see well-dressed and educated men and woman I consider to be demented, but I never see anyone at the Mansion who would fit that description. In our country, we get our labels screwed up.

Dementia is a persistent disorder of the mental processes caused by brain disease or injury and marked by memory disorders, personality changes and severely impaired reasoning. Dementia patients are usually confined between coded and locked doors.

The Mansion residents are in assisted care, not dementia units, they are free to come and go as they please, they make their own decisions about time and activities, and they take care of themselves, that is a condition of being accepted to the Mansion.

When humans are seen that way – as demented – , and locked away from other people, unseen and unknown, it is a simple thing for the rest of society to ignore them. They know when they are left behind and forgotten. That transcends words.

I want to make these people known by their words and images, so they can’t be ignored, and are not ignored. Madeline is an impressive woman, she saw her brother stab her father to death, and grew up in orphanages in the Bronx. She projects great feeling and passion.

Madeline is a exciting first cast member. If I could have conjured her up, I would have.

She is articulate, funny and quite a ham.

She has acted before. We are off to a good start, I’ll firm up the others next week. I think the biggest fear I see among the residents is being embarrassed or failing in public. It’s my job to see that doesn’t happen, I will be right there with them to offer help if needed, not otherwise.

“Love it,” Susan Ostrowski wrote me this morning when she read about the skits.  “I love every bit of it! You will see qualities of these people not seen in a long time.

She gave me some tips to consider. Read through the skits with the different residents reading them, and switch roles back and forth. Repeat and prompt as often as needed. Go through it again, switching roles with the actors.  Place the actors comfortably close and facing each other, rather than facing me or any staff  member. Positioning, she said, makes all of the difference.

The message I want to send as the producer and director isn’t “I want you to focus on me,” but “You can do this, you don’t need me.” Physical positioning determines which message the residents receive.

Next week, we chose the cast. Then, we start rehearing. I’d love to have some kind of set or background or spotlight, that won’t be easy. More later.

I joined Art at lunch today at the Mansion. He looks great, and was as relaxed and at ease as I can remember him being. I asked him what was up, and he told me he had discovered chess, he was playing the game almost every day with Tim.

“I love chess,” he said. “It has really been a gift to me, I feel as if it has given me my mind back.”

I told Art I loved chess and had no one to play with, he challenged me to have a game with him an I accepted. We will square off next week. We are both competitive people and  and we love challenges of the mind. I told him I would almost surely whip his ass.

Art loves a macho challenge, and even though I am an obvious wussy-man, he can’t ever resist the bait.

This cost me a half hour of war stories about Art shooting deer, chipmunks, moles, groundhogs (40 in one day) and his victory in countless turkey shooting contests.

I had nothing to offer to counter that It seemed to me Art very much appreciated exercising his mind, it gave him a focus and a positive outlet for his energy and restlessness. This is also the effect of reading, I believe, and why it is critically important to the elderly.

Art needs to work with his mind, not just his frustration and anger. Chess seems to be softening some edges, I am eager to play him, and I will try to whup his ass, nor will I be surprised if he whups mine. Art is a very smart person.

I can’t think of a better thing for him to do than play chess. It sure beats arguing with people, and he told me he hardly watches television any more. He loved Judge Judy.

He and Tim had a match set up for the afternoon. I got out of the way.

You can send a letter or message to Art care of The Mansion, 11 S. Union Avenue,  Cambridge, N.Y., 12816. I’m thinking I might just go out and get him a chess set, there is one with all kinds of religious figures that I saw somewhere.

 

Tim is unstoppable. He had an awful accident and subsequent illness and has been at the Mansion for more than six months. I often see him riding through town in his automated wheelchair. He is always exercising and trying to get himself back into shape.

it is hard work, he is a determined man.

He volunteers to go on errands for the other residents, and is generous and admired there.

Today, he said he wanted to show me the Hula Hoop he bought at Wal-Mart to exercise with. He got a lot of applause in the Mansion today. Come and see. You can write Tim c/o The Mansion, 11 S.Union Avenue, Cambridge, N.Y., 12816.

He is a letter reader and writer. Go Tim.

Each winter has its own identity. Some winters are just kidding, some blow hot and cold, some just grab you by the throat and challenge your patience and humanity. This winter is the latter, it means business, it arrived with a vengeance and has stayed with a vengeance.

We keep assuring ourselves the worst is over, we keep on being wrong. This winter has us by the throats, it reminds us to be ready, Mother Earth is much stronger than we are, as we are learning. This morning, at sunrise, 9 degrees, I was chilled to the bone.

Of all our animals, only Fate and the sheep seem completely unfazed by winter. It doesn’t seem to affect them at all. The sheep sit out in the sun as they normally do, Fate would happily sleep out with them if we let her.

Gus wants no part of it, Red works right through it. Maria has a cold, and is recovering. We are hoping to see a movie this weekend, and I have to teach my writing workshop, which is moving next week to Bedlam Farm. We have always wanted the farm to be a creative incubas, I’m excited to be moving it here, the class is in its fifth year.

Sunday, we are going to Albany to bring some groceries to a refugee family in need, part of our Refugee Grocery Project. Today I’m going to the Mansion to do some casting for our “Night Of Four Skits.”

To be precise, goldfish don’t actually get pregnant, they are not live-bears, instead they lay eggs. One sign of pregnancy is a round and full belly (yes) another is refusing food after eating heartily another is more sluggish activity as the eggs weigh the mother down.

I used to breed tropical fish, and I’m pretty sure Frida is a female. I’m also fairly certain Diego is a male.

Females can lay eggs without a male, but only a male can fertilize them. Breeding goldfish can be complex and time-consuming, they need to be removed from their parents quickly and put into separate tanks, or plastic holding boxes.

We aren’t really into breeding goldfish so it doesn’t matter, and my guess is that she is not pregnant. Goldfish tend to breed in the summer when the temperature is warmer. If she is close to laying eggs, she will show signs of nesting behavior, staying close to vegetation, or hiding inside of it.  Still, that stomach is pretty ripe.