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.