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February,
2001
This
column usually focuses on an individual or couple. This time we'd
like to salute a whole group of talented seniors who keep healthy
and active by performing for and with kids. Encore Theatre was the
brainchild of theatre professional Eliza Roaring Springs in 1997,
when she decided to combine her love of performing for children
and working with older adults. The happy result was an innovative
theatre company that garners rave reviews from children and teachers
alike.
Since performing for the first time in
February 1998, Encore Theatre has reached more than 20,000 young
people in about 150 schools in western Oregon. According to the
troupe members, this is a great way to keep in shape. Wayland Holmberg,
the oldest member, had surgery for lung cancer in October 1999,
when she was 80. "The doctors said I would need six to eight weeks
of recuperation. I could not accept that--I had a role in Encore
and needed to be there. With help from many people and my Encore
family, I was back onstage in three weeks--and have not missed a
performance."
The members of Encore Theatre perform through
the school year at elementary, middle and high schools, sharing
their deepest emotions and thoughts as they tell their life stories.
They exercise their brains, their vocal chords, and their whole
bodies as they sing and dance their way through 45-minute performances.
According to Lois Diller, "At 75+ what could be healthier than doing
something that gives such pleasure to myself, and to others?!"
Betsy Callahan adds, "I always felt I couldn't
memorize until Encore. Now I realize I probably never tried. It's
a wonderful revelation to learn I can memorize."
For the past two years, Encore members
have spent the month of May working with 12 troubled youth, who
created and performed a show alongside their elders. According to
Encore member Marian Little, "We're not only entertaining them;
we're helping them in ways we may never be able to count."
And, if that isn't enough, Romni Cash says,
"I walked every day before I was in Encore, but now I walk three
times as far. I may become so young I won't qualify for the company!"
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