Theater ignites seniors’ youthful spirit

EPOCH’s budding actors eager to take center stage

The East Side Drama Club was initiated in the fall of 2008 when five theater-loving residents suggested to Life Enrichment Director Karen Ferranti that they do drama readings. “I told them, ‘If you’re going to do that, we might as well perform it!’  ” Ferranti said. Although the group members were a little nervous, they set about organizing a theater production.

Their first performance was “Bell, Book and Candle” – John Van Druten’s successful Broadway play about a witch who grapples with losing her supernatural powers in order to follow her heart. Although initially wary of performing, the group loved it. “It was a big success with both the actors and the audience,” Ferranti said. The performance was so successful, it launched an annual tradition.

Since then, the club has performed abridged versions of Stanley Houghton’s “Dear Departed,” George Kaufman and Moss Hart’s “The Man Who Came to Dinner,” Neil Simon’s “Brighton Beach Memoirs” and, most recently, Neil Simon’s “The Odd Couple.”

The group has steered toward comedies, partly because they’re more fun to perform and partly because the audience prefers them to dramas. When choosing which plays to perform, the group members always consider what their audience would like. “Everyone enjoys laughing,” Ferranti said.

Some of the East Side actors are living out an unfulfilled dream for the first time while others are reigniting an old passion. Morton Paige, for example, performed in high school plays but hadn’t acted since graduating more than 70 years ago. Now he’s a leading man. “I have the freedom now to explore being an actor,” Paige said. Last year, he starred as Felix in the club’s production of “The Odd Couple.”

Although these are informal productions, the group takes them seriously. They stick to their rehearsal schedule and are passionate about putting on a great show. And if the warm reception and regular bouts of laughter erupting from the audience tell us anything, it’s that this is one talented group.

“I wouldn’t be able to do what I do here if it wasn’t for how good they are,” Ferranti said. “You can’t create a long-running program like this with just anyone.” Their talent grows every year.

Their first production exuded energy and made the audience laugh. “By the time they got to ‘The Man Who Came to Dinner,’ ” Ferranti said, “they were taking over the personalities of their characters. In ‘The Odd Couple,’ Morton Paige and Lee Fiore were Felix and Oscar.

They want to do it right. And they do – the East Side Drama Club’s plays are the best-attended programs at the community. It’s one of the only programs that the whole building consistently comes to watch. Among all the residents, staff and family members, they always have a full house.

The next play the actors intend to perform is Joseph Fields and Jerome Chodorov’s 1940 “My Sister Eileen,” which tells the story of Ruth and Eileen Sherwood’s move from Columbus, Ohio, to Greenwich Village to pursue careers in writing and acting, respectively. Casting and rehearsals will begin in the next few months, with a performance to follow in the fall.

These actors may be in their 90s, but these productions revitalize them with youthful energy. As Paige said, “I became a different person. It made me realize growing old was not so bad after all.” Ferranti believes it’s because the plays give them something to work toward, look forward to and get involved in. No matter how old you are, a sense of community and accomplishment is important. So it comes as little surprise that the minute a play ends, the actors eagerly ask Ferranti, “What are we going to do next!?” just like young thespians, high on life.

MELISSA BROOKS is a writer who frequently covers senior activities, issues and events.