Silver Stars
Senior performers share music and a message
KITCHENER — There was an awful lot of giggling going on, a bit of sashaying, some bump and grind and just wee bit of flouncing. The K-W Silver Stars are not your grandma in a rocking chair sort of senior performers and they were having fun rehearsing for this weekend’s show “Did I Tell You This Before?” at St. Jacobs Country Playhouse.
Former model, Kathryn Heft, was confident singing and dancing in tiny boy shorts and sparkly high heels, looking four decades younger than her age and then there was feisty little 91-year-old Maggie Viveen, dancing to “New York Medley.” The song has a bit of a strip tease vibe.
Age means diddly squat to this group of talented, funny and vivacious senior performers.
Though they are not afraid to get their wiggle on with saucy songs, they can also be self deprecating. Ron Andraza performs “I don’t look good naked anymore” a silly song that sets the tone for the lighter moments in the show.
Written by Brenda Schneider, a retired music educator and longtime performer, “Did I Tell You This Before” is not like anything the Silver Stars has presented in the past.
Schneider said that rather than writing the show then looking for the right cast, she met with Silver Star members who decided to audition, then wrote pieces that would suit their voice and personality.
Mary Ducklow showed up for the audition though she’d just come from the dentist and was unable to sing. So Schneider instead asked her to instead speak about working with Alzheimer’s patients.
“Mary is a PSW and she talked about her job,” said Schneider. “She described working with people with Alzheimer’s, how she had to change because they couldn’t.”
Schneider created a character, played by Heft, who stands faceless behind an Alzheimer’s patient, handing her the same greeting card over and over and for the patient, each time it feels new. This is the life of someone with Alzheimer’s and for Schneider, having an actor play the part of failing memory, makes it more real.
So the Silver Star’s part of the production is really a play within a play as they tell an emotional tale while at the same time using the format of live theatre to dispel myths about Alzheimer’s.
The production is also a fundraiser for the Alzheimer Society of Waterloo Wellington.
In the past, the group has done nostalgic variety shows celebrating specific eras of musical history such as Edwardian, Victorian and Vaudeville, but this is the first time they will be sharing the stage with so many other groups. The Schneider Male Chorus, the Dynamic Downtown Tappers and the Grand River New Horizons Swing Band all join this group of senior performers whose age ranges from 55 to early 90s. They started as the Over the Hill Gang in 1994 until formalizing as an organization and changing their name the following year to the more appropriate Silver Stars.
Schneider said her role has also been to encourage the performers, particularly those who have not been on stage in awhile.
“They’re already polished performers,” she said. “I tell them to find their star quality.
“Hopefully they get something from it as well. You’re never too old to learn.”