A Decade of Theatre for Seniors: a Journey of Aesthetics and Innovation in Later Life

By Dr. Felicia Low

A Decade of Theatre for Seniors examines the Theatre For Seniors (TFS) programme started by The Necessary Stage in 2009. This program aimed to make theatre practice avaliable and inclusive to older members of the community. Since 2009, TFS reached an estimated 40 seniors, and can boast of at least 10 formal public performances presented by TNS, alongside commissions to perform at local events such as PassionArts and also at eldercare Homes..

This study asserts that in later life, aspects of aesthetics and innovation are relevant and all the more important, as past roles in life recede. Using a person-centered pedagogical framework for artists working with communities, this report analyses and presents how aesthetics and innovation are demonstrated via engagement with TFS activities, through opportunities for personal, social, cognitive growth and cultural representation. Data was collected by means of interviews with participants and artist-facilitators of the program, together with and studies of past recordings of performances by TFS. Through thick description, the study asserts that proactive engagement with theatre does enable growth towards life fulfilment, responsibility to others, flexible and precise thinking in the later years of life. Proactive engagement in the arts therefore provides the Singaporean senior with a path of growth towards collective maturity and health.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Trafford Publishing
• Release date: Dec 6, 2022
• ISBN: 9781698713458

Dr. Felicia Low

Dr. Felicia Low, a graduate of Goldsmith’s College, is a visual artist, art educator and author. A Lee Kong Chian scholar of the National University of Singapore, Felicia obtained a PhD in Cultural Studies in Asia in 2015. She has also developed research and written a pedagogical guide on Person-centered Arts Practices with Communities, with support from the National Arts Council (Singapore). She continues to work with various social institutions and organisations to conceptualise and coordinate arts programmes and research. Felicia is the founding director of Community Cultural Dimensions, which aims to provide a critical discursive platform for artistic practices that engage with communities in the Asian region. Her publications include Autogenous Culture as Political Form: An Investigation into Participatory Art Practices in Singapore (2017), The Art of Anti-Exclusion (2018) and Person-centered Arts Practices with Communities: A Pedagogical Guide (2019).

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ISBN:    978-1-6987-1346-5 (sc)

            978-1-6987-1345-8 (e)

Trafford rev.    11/17/2022

A Decade of Theatre For Seniors: A Journey of

Aesthetics and Innovation in Later Life

Contents

Acknowledgements

Chapter 1   Re-scripting Later Life in Singapore

1.1 The Changing Context of Ageing: Does Retirement Exist?

1.2 Growing through Later Life

1.3 The Arts As An Innovation for Later Life

1.4 Theatres of Engagement with Seniors

Chapter 2   Researching Theatre For Seniors

2.1 Researching Theatres of Engagement

2.2 Method

Chapter 3   The Theatre for Seniors Programme by the Necessary Stage

Chapter 4   Theatre For Seniors in 4 Dimensions

4.1 The Personal Dimension

4.2 The Social Dimension

4.3 The Cognitive Dimension

4.4 The Cultural Dimension

Chapter 5   Ageing and The Arts Beyond Instrumentalist Ends

5.1 Mature Singaporean Seniors

References

Annex: Listing And Description For All Theatre For Seniors Productions From 2009-2020

Acknowledgements

The author is especially grateful to The Necessary Stage and interviewees from Theatre For Seniors for their support and access to resources. The author is also grateful and acknowledges Associate Professor Charlene Rajendran for her insightful comments and contributions to enrich the theatre related segments of this paper. Last but not least, appreciation is extended to Dr. Heather Hill for her comments on an earlier draft.

CHAPTER 1

Re-scripting Later Life in Singapore

1.1 The Changing Context of Ageing: Does Retirement Exist?

The concept of ageing has changed over time. Pre-modern preoccupations of the human lifespan included ideas and life practices that enhanced longevity. Modern preoccupations with the human lifespan have resulted in various institutions focusing on different areas of later life, thereby defining concepts of ageing in different ways. While gerontology focused on medicinal aspects of preventing illness in later life, governmentality (and academia via the social sciences), focused on politics and policies which come to shape the culture of later life and hence, ways of life available to those in their later years (Katz, 2009). The discourse on ageing is therefore neither nascent nor new. Singapore, who faces an expanded population of those above the age of 65 (Hirschmann, 2020), has inevitably entered the territory of this discourse, alongside its East Asian counterparts, such as Korea and Japan. Health and government institutions alike grapple with the invention of new gerontological and policy approaches which focus no longer solely on physical wellness, but also on personal psychological wellness and social involvement, all of which aim to prevent depression, physical disability and social isolation, as these culminate into greater demands and dilemmas that can potentially generate a culture of despair in an aging society.

In the social sciences, policies that shape ways of life in later years have been dominated by the discourse of labour. ‘Retirement’ as a word defines an age limit whereby an individual is deemed to have fulfilled his or her labour responsibilities and is now ready to transit into a life stage of relaxation and leisure. This definition of ‘retirement’ is commonly associated with a fixed work schedule at established workplace. What the word does not help define is how the life of a person comes to be valued beyond labour. A hint of redundancy due to reduced levels of productivity and possible physical decline haunts the word ‘retirement’, resulting in anti-ageism and anti-ageing movements that try their best to counter assumptions of a devalued life in the later years. Vickerstaff (2015), citing trends from the global north, asserts that the meaning of ‘retirement’ has evolved from its post-labour definitions due to three factors: firstly, a growing population of seniors who have increased health, wealth and aspirations, secondly opportunities for fresh identities and new experiences and lastly, new risks and responsibilities placed on ageing populations to share the burden of governmental healthcare commitments. These factors have also come to influence Singapore’s governmental policies on retirement most recently, as Manpower Minister Josephine Teo in 2019 (MOM, 2019) announced that the retirement age will be raised beyond the age of 62 and re-employment age beyond 67. This change, marked by the term ‘beyond’, is different to prior statements in the Retirement and Re-employment Act (1993, Revised Edition 2012) where the minimum retirement age was set at 62, up to 67 years, (subject to the Minister’s prescription). This change announced by Teo essentially enables seniors to continue to work, or seek out new work identities under re-employment, should they wish to do so past the age of 67. One can also infer that the notion of ‘labour’ has changed from very fixed hours and years of work to more fluid notions of what work might look like now. This change in how ‘work’ might be defined have come along with a greater emphasis on the knowledge and service sector (Vickerstaff, 2015), instead of manufacturing sectors with its clock-in and out hours of factory work. This shift of emphasis is seen in developed countries around the world, including Singapore. The recent Covid-19 pandemic has also come to redefine forms of work radically, as many work from home and work spaces such as the office seem unnecessary and redundant.

What then does this means for seniors in the 21st Century? Quite simply, it really does suggest that life is not defined by one’s predominant work identity. It can now morph and even transform completely in later life. This then opens up other ways of defining ‘life’ and what it can mean in the later years. Institutions, from the World Health Organisation (2002), Singapore’s Committee on Ageing Issues (2006) to Singapore’s Civil Service Collage (Kalyani, 2019) have promoted ‘Active Ageing’ as an approach for both societies and seniors to take when defining their priorities in later life. In short, these global and national institutions encourage seniors to be more proactive in preventing health problems, ensure financial security for their later life needs and participate more actively in the community. Those who have the physical and financial means are encouraged to live out their later life days with a combination of paid work, volunteerism and leisure activities (Vickerstaff, 2015). Being busy and gainfully employed in a myriad of ways have thus enabled seniors to renew or take on new identities and roles in society. This in turn places an implicit emphasis on the possibilities of personal development and discoveries in the later years, an area which might not have been of gerontological priority in the past when later life signified an ‘ending’ of sorts to new possibilities. In Singapore, support is given to seniors who may not have physical and financial means to lead an active later life. Various organisations in Singapore, such as the Agency for Integrated Care, NTUC Active Aging Hubs and the Alzheimer’s Disease Association provide for senior healthcare and financial support in the heartlands. These organisations also provide for programmes and activities which engage with their senior clients, some of whom are at risk of depression or other mental ailments due to social isolation. Amidst the hustle and bustle of later life possibilities, ‘retirement’ becomes a mere technicality that takes a back seat on the still evolving stage of life.

1.2 Growing through Later Life

Dorfman (1994) suggests that ageing is also an inner experience that defines later life beyond the confines of labour. This inner experience of life is unique to other stages of the lifespan, as there is a different awareness of time: one where the future, unhinged from former fixed life roles, is becoming an absolute uncertainty as one faces more unpredictable health situations; Where the past provides for an autobiographical narrative of one’s self and where the present is truly the space and time one gets to experience and be engaged in. In her ethnographic study of 722 senior residents of Franklin Village¹, a ‘continuing care retirement community’ in the United States, Dorfman located five predominant values of the senior participants in her study, and their associated aspirations. The table below presents her findings: