Feeling isolated and alone was already a problem for seniors prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, but with social distancing measures causing nursing homes to suspend most visits to prevent their populations from becoming ill, the loneliness epidemic became even more exacerbated.
To combat feelings of isolation among this population, dramatist and director Aleta Barthell is leading an effort to help seniors in nursing homes and hospice care share their life experiences through a new series of monologues called “Saving Stories.”
Funded by a $5,000 Humanities For All Quick Grant from California Humanities, the New Village Arts project aims to create a connection toolkit to help seniors cope with feelings of loneliness during the pandemic.
“What I would love to have happen is that this takes off nationally and that different groups, different theaters, are able to pair people all over the country and provide connection for people who need it so much, and also can provide some work for people who really need it right now,” Barthell said.
The Humanities For All Quick Grant is a competitive program that awards grants three times per year to small humanities-based projects. The funding can be used to support public projects that address the needs of Californians and encourage participation in humanities programming, especially by new and underserved audiences.
Aiming to write and develop a series of monologues, the project paired playwrights with seniors living in nursing homes or receiving hospice care so they could learn and write about their life stories as well as their experiences of being alone during the pandemic.
The interviews took place virtually, and then printed copies of scripts were sent to participants so they could read them and make edits.
Barthell said the stories she has heard while conducting interviews for the project have been profound. One of the seniors she spoke with lost her sister — and last remaining relative — to COVID-19 at the beginning of the pandemic. Another woman, who doesn’t have use of her hands and struggles to connect with others using a special software on her computer, was eager to get started as soon as she heard of it.
“She is so excited to be a part of this project (that) even before we got the paperwork signed, she had sent us all of these memories that she had,” Barthell said.
For the first batch of monologues, Barthell worked with playwrights Anthony Golden, Mabelle Reynoso, Gill Sotu and Thelma de Castro to create a series of eight monologues that will be streamed online starting at the end of this month.
Golden — a playwright working from his home in Orlando, Fla. — said getting involved with the “Saving Stories” project was a way to heal the great division among Americans from different parts of the country.
He hopes that sharing the stories of isolation through the series of monologues will help people across the nation realize there are similarities between one another.
“What stuck out to me about this project in particular was the sense of community that I felt,” Golden said. “One thing that I have been fighting for as an individual is keeping community alive, reminding people on the East Coast that the West Coast have people suffering the same type of pain we have, that no matter where you are as an African-American, Black is Black all over the United States and how hard that can be sometimes as well.”
Lemon Grove-based playwright Sotu has previously worked on projects with Centinela State Prison, San Diego Rescue Mission, Veterans Village and juvenile halls to bring the arts into underserved populations.
As with his previous projects, he aims to act as a conductor helping people to tell their own narratives through “Saving Stories,” which he said may inspire younger audiences as they forge their paths in life.
“I think it’s so essential for younger people who are still waiting to discover their stories to hear those who have come before them — to hear their stories, hear their allegories — in order to help shape the path that they’re going to take,” Sotu said. “It’s important for the people who are moving onto the next stage to tell their stories. And it’s important for us as younger folks to listen to those stories.”
Chula Vista playwright Reynoso said the busyness of life in modern society sometimes erases the stories of the community’s elders. She hopes the project will elevate the stories of the population, who are too often forgotten by mainstream society.
“Because of the nature of this project — who we are working with, whose stories we are elevating and giving voice to — it’s really a powerful piece to tell the story of people that might not necessarily be seen anymore,” Reynoso said.
Writing and producing plays about caregiving and senior care issues is a familiar concept for both Barthell and de Castro.
As part of a fundraiser for the Southern Caregiver Resource Center in 2019, Barthell wrote the play “I’m A Caregiver?,” which focused on a woman caregiving for her father with dementia. At the time, she said the script was in part based on her personal experience of caring for her ailing mother while simultaneously caring for her preteen daughter.
In early 2020, Filipino playwright de Castro wrote the docutheater script for “Hand Under Hand,” a musical about caregiving in the Asian Pacific Islander community. Having previously acted as a caregiver to her mother, de Castro wrote the musical in hopes that caregivers would learn that they’re not alone and there are support resources available to them.
With “Saving Stories,” de Castro is once again drawing on her personal history of caregiving for her mom, who was a hospice care recipient 20 years ago, as well as the current experience of caring for her mother-in-law, who was referred to hospice care in the fall. She said the connection between herself and the interview subjects is a key element for creating plays and monologues based on the lived experiences of others.
“There’s me and there’s the person I’m interviewing, and in this really special relationship, I get to ask them about their story,” de Castro said. “It’s like a time machine, like we’re in that moment together … and then that story has the opportunity to connect with others. It might remind someone in the audience of their grandmother.”
“Saving Stories”
When: 7 to 8 p.m. Feb. 26, and 7 to 8 p.m. March 26
What: Each night will include four unique monologues with a discussion between the audience, cast and playwrights to follow.
Tickets: Free
Online: newvillagearts.org/saving-stories
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