The Over 60 project involved, in Turin, a group of women in a Social and Community Theatre™ training to discover the meaning of their age, investigating the need to redefine themselves or perhaps not to define themselves at all. Old age, youth, maturity are not absolute concepts, they are worlds that can be outlined and transformed in their interweaving and confrontation.
Over 60 – The life that lasts
Discovery and promise do not belong solely to youth; age is not excluded from revelation. (James Hillman)
Sct Centre is a partner of the Sopra 60 project together with the Turin Civic Libraries and the Bloomers Club (leader), a non-profit association based in Turin that aims to create opportunities for cultural gathering and enrichment for the Members (all over 50), enhancing their professional and personal experiences and promoting the growth of a different culture of ageing.
The Sopra 60 Project aims to develop a different vision of ageing and to create a community that recognizes values, needs, common expectations working on the theme of the identity of a generation, the generation of babyboomers that has greatly influenced the changes in lifestyles, using new languages that has allowed people to express themselves in a freerer way. Within the project, which also includes conferences, reading groups and festive moments, SCT Centre has planned and ran a Social and Community Theatre™ training with a group of women who want to talk about themselves, their age and their need to redefine themselves.
Despite the high average life expectancy and the general increase in quality of health and social conditions, the perception of ageing does not seem to change: when discussing old age, it is too often associated with the concept of “burden” and not to that of “value”. Ageing well is an art and a strategy. It implies the definition, or redefinition, of an identity in a period of life in which our place in society appears more uncertain. It involves, more than any other periods in life, the use of memory and the ability to keep the imagination awake. It involves listening, too. An art that the old people can exert admirably not being pressed by haste.
The Social and Community Theatre™ workshop was led by Esther Ruggiero – actress, director and dramatist – in collaboration
with the actress Federica Tripodi. They insisted on these two aspects: memory and listening as a basis for rediscovering oneself and the bonds with the others, creating wellbeing and, consequently, acting in a perspective of prevention and health. The meetings involved a group of 20 women, all over 60 and all members of the Association Le Bloomers Club. The workshop was held weekly and took to the show “The life that lasts”.
THE SHOW “THE LIFE THAT LASTS” LO SPETTACOLO TEATRALE
Teatro Astra, Torino – 25 novembre 2017, 21.00
Considering the positive and innovative outcome of the experience of the SCT workshop, the show “The life that lasts” was considered by the Astra Theater and inserted in the 2017/2018 program. The workshop’s participants acted together with professional actors. It is an imaginative exploration of life beyond adulthood. Two actors – Oscar Ferrari and Federica Tripodi – and a chorus to sing the journey, a dialogue between generations, because old age, youth, maturity, are not absolute concepts, are worlds that could be delineated and transformed in their intertwining.
BEYOND THEATRE
There have been moments of meeting and sharing between people belonging to different generations, in order to consolidate relationships and exchange mutual knowledge, according to the methodology of Social and Community Theatre™.
