Senior Troupe of Lifelong offers virtual classes

Starting next month, the Senior Troupe of Lifelong will be holding weekly online storytelling and improv workshops for residents of all ages, adapting the 2-decade-old group to the new normal under COVID-19.

The first class is Thursday, Oct. 8, and classes continue every Thursday from 2 to 3 p.m., ending on Oct. 29. Participants will meet for improv and to read their life stories to one another. The troupe is a project of Lifelong, a local nonprofit that provides a variety of services to support older adults.

The Senior Troupe of Lifelong, led by Sue Perlgut, has been performing around the county for more than 20 years. Members perform stories from their lives based on themes picked by the troupe. As Perlgut explained, the group’s creation was spurred by a feminist theater troupe she started called It’s All Right to be Women Theatre, which ran in the 1970s.

“I thought, ‘Wouldn’t it be great to do senior theater with the seniors with people telling stories of their lives?’ Because after all, we’ve had amazing lives,” she said. “So, I approached Lifelong, … and they said, ‘Great, go for it.’”

Perlgut started the classes with a small group of women, and they would write stories around a theme and perform them. The original classes involved significant physical acting and memorization of lines, but after some feedback from the members, it was clear the model had to be simplified.

“After the first performance, they were like, ‘No, we’re not doing this again. This is too hard. We’re seniors,’” Perlgut said. “They were running around the stage. They were acting things out. It was exhausting.”

After about two years, the class’s model shifted — participants rehearsed, but they read from scripts while performing, and any acting was performed while sitting down to make it easier for everyone to keep up.

Over the years, membership shifted as well, including men and women, as more people heard about and became interested in the troupe. Some older members have since passed away, but more have joined.

In recent years, the Senior Troupe at Lifelong has performed at Lifelong and other places around the community, and audiences love it, Perlgut said.

“We always have a large audience,” she said. “We always have a lot of people who come who love it but don’t particularly want to be in it, but they like watching it. And what it does is it stimulates their own stories. … This stimulates people’s memories. It provides a creative outlet.”

For Lifelong, the troupe provides a chance for older adults to socialize together and participate in creative expression in a fun way. And for audiences, it’s a chance to hear interesting stories from local people and pass down stories for future generations.

“We perform for all ages, and what that does is that young people get to hear the stories from older people about things that happen in their lives,” Perlgut said. “They can refer to it. … It’s a type of theater that nobody else is doing.”

The small but dedicated troupe faced significant challenges once the pandemic hit. As Perlgut explained, she had to work on the fly to figure out what to do next after she realized the troupe couldn’t meet in person anymore.

“One day we were meeting, and the next week, we learned that was that, and it was really sad,” she said. “We couldn’t meet. It was over. I think, at that time, we thought, ‘OK, we’ll meet again in the summer.’ Nobody knew at that time what was going to happen, so by the time the summer came, I thought, ‘OK, let’s do something.’ So, I decided I would hold online classes.”

Perlgut, who has long embraced online platforms, decided to hold classes over Zoom in June. Despite the change in format, most members showed up for the virtual classes, and there were even some new faces.

“I had my sister-in-law from London join, a good friend of New York City join, a good friend from New Jersey join,” she said. “All these people who’ve been hearing about the troupe for all these years got to join. So, it was people from Ithaca and people from all over the world.”

The troupe’s improv continued, just in a new way. Perlgut explained how the format of each meeting changed.

“I figured out some ways to do improv that work online that actually work in little boxes,” she said. “We pick a theme, and they would write a story on the theme, up to 250 words. And so, the next time we met to do some improv exercises, and then everybody would read their story. So, we got to hear [each other’s] stories because it was just for us.”

Based on the success of the summer classes, Perlgut is looking forward to the upcoming fall classes. She encouraged anyone who is interested to reach out, whether to join or just to learn more about the troupe.

To register for the fall classes, call 607-273-1511 or email lifelong@tclifelong.org by Sept. 24. Checks should be sent to Lifelong, 119 W. Court St., Ithaca NY, 14850, by Sept. 24. The cost of the workshop is $20 or pay what you can.

The Senior Troupe of Lifelong is partially supported by funds from the New York State Council on the Arts and administered by the Community Arts Partnership. Visit tclifelong.org for more information.