Who dis ... new phone: Considering engaged intergenerational storytelling: partnership, participation and pandemic

Abstract

ABSTRACT This essay takes as its starting point a creative aging project in partnership with the Mesa Arts Center’s, Art in Mind Program; TimeSlips (founded by MacArthur Fellow Ann Basting); and a Projects in Community-Based Theatre graduate course at Arizona State University within the Theatre for Youth and Community MFA and PhD programs. This non-memory-based storytelling collaboration focused on elders living with memory loss and/or dementia and centered a core theatre for youth value — all humans deserve to participate in creative and cultural life no matter their age, neuro-cognitive or physical abilities. A parallel focus of the collaboration was the belief that such creative engagements also allow elder-care systems and families to benefit from participating with their residents and loved-ones — impacting adaptive and expressive creativity, emotional connections, and joyful participation in imaginative life.