Margaret A. Noel; L. E. Grabowski-Cotton; Arnold Johnston; Deborah Ann Percy; Matthew Widman
Synopsis "The Memorycare Plays"
The MemoryCare Plays Three powerful and moving stories by award winning playwrights about families challenged by Alzheimer's disease. Passionate, poignant, funny, these plays can be read privately or performed and shared at theaters, community events or in intimate discussion groups. Since its initial publication in 2014, The MemoryCare Plays have been entertaining audiences, raising awareness, sparking discussion, and promoting understanding across the country as part of the Memorycareplays.org project. Steering Into the Skid by Deborah Ann Percy and Arnold Johnston focuses on Amanda and Tim, both in their sixties, and in twelve short scenes set in their SUV traces a year in their life together from New Year's Day to New Year's Eve. As the months pass, the changes wrought by advancing age and Alzheimer's disease force each character to adjust to new demands on their imperfect but loving marriage. In the Garden by Matthew Widman, portrays a family in crisis. With their beloved father Arthur fighting a losing battle with Alzheimer's disease his three grown children have gathered at the family house to decide what to do. But the choices are not easy. While Arthur may wander off at times, or lash out in anger or forget the names of his grandchildren, at other times he is lucid, funny, and wise. Long ingrained familial tensions boil to the surface as Peter, Karen, and Jamie struggle to treasure their father's last cogent moments before he is lost to them forever. Riding the Waves by L.E. Grabowski-Cotton, tells the story of Isabel Epstein, a woman long suffering from Alzheimer's disease, now lost in her memories around a family day at the beach. Inspired by the comings and goings of the ocean waves, the play follows Isabel's grown children as they struggle to separate their mother's confused present thoughts from her vivid memories of the past and unlock family secrets that have been hidden for far too long. AboutThe MemoryCare Plays Chosen by a juried panel from submissions nationwide, this IPPY award-winning anthology strives to engage and entertain while working to dramatize the life altering impact of progressive memory disorders. Whether it's the person forced to navigate the illness, or the difficult new role for a caregiver, these plays illustrate the richness and complexity of the caregiving relationship, with all of its challenges and rewards. The MemoryCare Plays are edited by Dr. Margaret A. Noel, founder of MemoryCare, a non-profit charitable organization in Asheville, NC, that provides integrated services for persons with Alzheimer's disease and other dementias and their caregivers. All proceeds from this anthology will be donated to benefit families affected by dementia. The playwrights have generously agreed to allow MemoryCare to grant other nonprofit organizations dedicated to dementia care the opportunity to utilize their work for educational, advocacy or fundraising events, provided that all profits raised from any such event will be applied to the care or support of persons affected by dementia. The MemoryCare Plays incorporates the details for non-profits that would like to use these one-acts and provides discussion questions for each play. Visit The MemoryCare Plays project site at memorycareplays.org for more details on how these plays can be utilized for education, advocacy and fund-raising.
