Memorable Event
What are we but our memories?
Take them away and what is left?
That's the question confronting the characters in “Absence,” a play running next weekend at Succop Theater at Butler County Community College.
“Absence” is being produced by Newhaven Court at Clearview, 100 Newhaven Lane.
The play centers on the life of 74-year-old Helen Bastion. She begins to suffer lapses in memory, her reality begins to fragment and her sense of self dissolves as her dementia advances. It has special significance for the play's director, Larry Stock, the Cultural Center director at BC3.
“My mother (a Newhaven Court resident) has some memory issues, a touch of dementia from time to time,” he said. “There are memory loops she keeps repeating. This is all a part of this.
“It's a catharsis for me, seeing people that have a more serious thing dealing with it. It is devastating to me. We have to find a cause and a cure,” he said.
“Stephanie Steiger, the sales and marketing director at New Haven Court, approached me about the play and asked 'Would you be interested?'” said Stock. “I was very interested. It was an amazing script.”
Steiger said, “ I knew Larry because his mother is here and I knew his sister, Maggie Stock, was my professor at BC3. When I was asked to produce this play I reached out to him.”
Stock's is the third production of “Absence” mounted under the umbrella of the Wexford-based IntegraCare, Newhaven Court's parent company.
“We are trying to get the voice of dementia out to everyone,” said Butch Cassiday, the lifestyle and life stories regional director of IntegraCare.
“Last year there were productions in Greensburg and Easton, Maryland,” said Cassiday.
“Our goal is to have this production at every one of our communities in the next three years,” said Cassiday.
“Stephanie approached Larry about this production,” said Cassiday. “To be honest, we are not the brains behind the operation. We have the idea and we seek these brains.”
If brains equal theatrical experience, then Stock has them in abundance.
A Butler native, Stock returned to the area in 2002 after stints as senior audio engineer at the House of Blues in North Myrtle Beach, S.C., and state manager and monitor engineer for the Gatlin Brothers Theater in Myrtle Beach, S.C.
“I came back in 2002 when the theater opened. I've probably directed 30 plays or musicals since I've come back to Butler,” he said.
But “Absence,” written by Peter Floyd, a programmer for a medical software company in Cambridge, Mass., presented its own challenges.
Floyd said of his play, “It stems from the time that my siblings and I were dealing with my mother's suffering from dementia, and from my attempt to understand what that must be like for her to find her world not making sense any more.
“I had seen plays and films about people with this condition, but always from the point of view of their caretakers,” he said.
“I also noticed that, while my mother's mind was being ravaged by the disease, and while her memories were erasing themselves out of existence, she seemed happier in her last few years than I'd ever seen her,” said Floyd.
“The cares and burdens she'd been shouldering through her life were now gone, and she was free of worry. I wanted to capture that feeling, the bizarre joy of the second childhood,” he said.
Stock said, “The way it is written, without giving away the show, Helen is diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease, going along until she has no memory.“The other actors begin talking nonsense because that is what she hears,” he said.Stock said he's assembled a strong cast.Usually he works with the BC3 Pioneer Players or the Butler Musical Theater Guild, but for “Absence” he assembled a his own group of local acting veterans.Nedra and Dennis Casey, theater veterans of 50 years or more, were chosen: Nedra Casey to play the afflicted Helen Bastion and Dennis Casey to play Dr. Bright.Jerry Johnston portrays Helen's husband, David; Amy Cannard plays the Bastions' daughter, Barb; and Gabby Lisella is the Bastions' granddaughter, Samantha.Rounding out the six-person cast is Janie Caruso, who is a doctor in the first act and a facility director in the second act.According to Stock, while he's worked with most everyone in the cast before, “this is the first time that I have had the pleasure to direct these amazing actors.”“We started to read through at the end of June and started to rehearse at the end of July,” said Stock.Stock and Steiger said the cast and crew is putting on the production without pay and all proceeds from the performances will go the local Alzheimer's Association chapter.“The cast I have is so amazing that when the cast is talking gibberish they have to sound like they are saying something. They have something like an instinct for doing this type of thing,” said Stock.“I never had the opportunity to direct this group. Despite the topic, it has been a really wonderful experience,” he said.“I saw the play last year in Easton. It is a very powerful play,” said Steiger.The big question is whether someone looking for an entertaining night out will consider a play about a woman succumbing to a horrible disease to be just the ticket.“It is a depressing subject,” said Stock, but it also provides a connection for “anyone dealing with anyone who had this disease.”“There are some comedic moments in the show. It presents Alzheimer's humanely and realistically. And it provides catharsis that allows people to deal with this by seeing how other people dealt with this,” Stock said.Cassiday said, “A lot of people are appreciative because it is hard to live with an Alzheimer's patient, and this play allows them to live in their world.”“Common feedback is that it's eye opening. It gives a better understanding of what their loved ones are dealing with,” said Stock.And that's something more and more people could be dealing with in the future, according to facts from the Alzheimer's Association.The association says Alzheimer's disease is the sixth-leading cause of death in the United States, and 16.1 million Americans provide unpaid care for people with Alzheimer's or other dementias.Between 2000 and 2015, while deaths from heart disease decreased 11 percent, deaths from Alzheimer's increased 123 percent.One in three seniors dies with Alzheimer's or another dementia. It kills more people than breast cancer and prostate cancer combined.Stock said not only would there be a table with information on Alzheimer's provided by Newhaven Court in the theater lobby.Steiger said, “We know someone at work or someone whose family is affected by Alzheimer's. One in six of us is going to get it as the baby boomers age, and we've got to be prepared.”
WHAT: “Absence,” a play about dementiaWHEN: 7 p.m. Sept. 21 and Sept. 22; 2 p.m. Sept. 23WHERE: Succop Theater, Butler County Community College, 107 College DriveINFO: Tickets available by calling Newhaven Court at Clearview at 724-477-8701, Succop Theater box office at 724-284-8505 or by ordering online at bc3.edu/succop-theaterCOST: $15 for adults and $13 for students and seniors; All proceeds from the performances will go the local Alzheimer’s Association chapter.
