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Brooklyn Theater to Stage Play About the Creative Spirit of People with Dementia

January 17, 2014

D-Generation: An Exaltation of Larks, a theater piece about people living with late-stage dementia, will be staged at the Irondale Ensemble Project in Brooklyn, New York, in February.

Artists from the Vermont-based Sandglass Theater company will use puppets and animated video segments to bring to life five characters living with dementia. The performance is based on the artists’ experiences with elders who have dementia in Vermont nursing homes.

The artists came to know the elders through the TimeSlips storytelling method for people with dementia. TimeSlips was created by Dr. Anne Basting of the Center for Age and Community at the University of Wisconsin in Milwaukee.

“The collected stories, which are associative and non-linear…reveal a humor, and playfulness, as well as the dark reality of the disease.” according to the Sandglass Theater’s website.

PHI Conducts TimeSlips Training

Sandglass Theater was trained in the TimeSlips method by PHI Organizational Change Consultant Renya Larson.

“I offered this training because I know how transformative TimeSlips can be for everyone involved,” said Larson.

“It offers people a way to connect meaningfully with each other,” she continued. “This is so valuable because we often assume that dementia robs its victims of connection, of communication, of relationship. TimeSlips teaches us that all of that is still possible, if we have imagination.”

The play will be held at the Irondale Ensemble Project on the evenings of February 6, 7, 8, 13, 14, and 15, with matinee performances on the 8th and 15th.

Tickets are available on the Irondale website.

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