Stagebridge Offers Summer Camp For Mature-But-Still-Budding Performers

Who says summer camp is just for kids?

Stagebridge, the nation's oldest senior theatre company, will hold its second annual Performing Arts Camp in Oakland from July 21-25.

The week-long camp, geared for adults ages 50 and up, gives participants a chance to try their hand at a range of performing arts, from acting, clowning and dance to drumming, improvisation and voice.

No previous artistic training or experience is required. "The purpose of the camp is to have fun. As a child, many people have this kind of experience. But as you get older it gets harder to find time to play," said Stuart Kandell, Stagebridge's founder and executive director. "The camp gives people an opportunity to learn, to challenge themselves, and to play and work together."

Campers are able to sample a mix of classes in the mornings and afternoons, and receive tips and individual coaching from professional artists. Campers also participate in a final-day show that showcases the skills they have honed during the week, and there are opportunities throughout the week to hobnob with fellow students and guest artists at picnics and extra-curricular outings.

Last year's Performing Arts Camp, the first professional training program of its kind aimed at midlife and older adults in the United States, drew more than 50 participants from around Northern California. Some campers were seasoned Stagebridge regulars, but most (more than 60 percent) were first-timers with Stagebridge, and many had no previous performing arts experience. Campers ranged in age from 48 to 79.

Billy Pond, a retired San Francisco cable car crew supervisor, hadn't taken any performing arts classes since high school before attending last year's camp. Pond, 66, said he was attracted by "the opportunity to learn from professionals about how to utilize the talents I thought I had." Pond said he "always found storytelling and skits interesting personally, and I thought I could share the fun and get more fun out if it if I had some professional guidance."

Anita Goldstein, 74, has been taking improvisation classes at Stagebridge for several years. "I had never done theatre or plays, but after I turned 50 I began to let this child out and started doing some of the things I had always wanted to do," said Goldstein, an East Bay resident, during a break in a clowning class.

Like many campers, Goldstein said she has no professional performance goals: "My number one goal here is simply to have fun and laugh. I also love the permission that acting and clowning gives you to connect with people."

Stagebridge Performing Arts Camp 2007

Goldstein, who formerly ran a speakers bureau at the University of Southern California and now works as a volunteer teacher, said the skills she's been building at Stagebridge "help in other areas of life. It gives me confidence to come out of the box and beyond the comfort zone, and it gives credence in relating to people and doing what comes natural to me."

Demand is strong once again for this year's Performing Arts Camp, which has ballooned to 84 registered participants, including 22 returning campers from 2007.

In addition to the Performing Arts Camp, Stagebridge offers classes and workshops in acting, storytelling, improvisation, singing and other arts throughout the year at its headquarters near Oakland's Lake Merritt. Stagebridge artists perform occasionally for public audiences -- an improv troupe and a musical comedy revue will perform on July 27 at the San Francisco Theatre Festival at Yerba Buena Gardens.

The average age of Stagebridge students is 70. The company is dedicated to narrowing the gaps between generations and to stimulating positive attitudes toward aging through theatre, storytelling and other performing arts mediums.

Stagebridge "celebrates the wisdom that comes from older age," said Kandell, who hit upon the idea for Stagebridge in 1978 while teaching an acting class at a senior center. "Attitudes toward older people have got to change, and that is what we're about. We help to promote the idea that older people are creative and vital and have a lot to offer to others."

The company offers a variety of community-focused programs. Its Storybridge Schools program brings improvisation, oral history and storytelling to elementary schoolchildren throughout the Bay Area, with a goal of improving literacy and public speaking skills. Its Seniors Reaching Out program brings workshops and entertainment to retirement homes, senior centers, hospitals and community groups. And its See Me! program trains nurses and other healthcare professionals to better understand older adults.

Stagebridge has won numerous local and national awards for its work, and its work has been featured by ABC-TV, CNN, PBS, National Public Radio and other leading media outlets.

Stagebridge is also the West Coast representative for the National Center for Creative Aging (NCCA), an organization dedicated to fostering an understanding of the vital relationship between creative expression and the quality of life of older people.

The NCCA's initiatives are supported, in part, by the American Society on Aging and the National Endowment for the Arts. The NCCA, based in Washington DC, is partnered with The George Washington University's Center on Aging, Health & Humanities (CAHH).

Research has found a direct relationship between creative expression and healthy aging. A 2006 study headed by Dr. Gene D. Cohen, director of CAHH, found that participation in professionally conducted community-based cultural programs by adults ages 65 and older was associated with better overall physical health, fewer doctor visits, less medication use, lower rates of depression and fewer instances of falls.

Instructor guides a student in mask class

For more information about Stagebridge and the Performing Arts Camp, see http://www.stagebridge.org. The phone number for Stagebridge is (510) 444-4755. Stagebridge is based at Arts First Oakland at the First Congregational Church, 2501 Harrison Street (near Lake Merritt) in Oakland. For information about the National Center for Creative Aging, see http://www.creativeaging.org.

(This article originally appeared in the Summer 2008 issue of Bay Area Summit)