Drama About Alzheimer’s to Open on New York Stage

Sept. 29, 2004 - A new play, “The Alzheimer’s Monologues,” that explores the thoughts and emotions of victims and caregivers impacted by Alzheimer’s Disease, opens for a limited engagement in New York on Oct. 27 at the Producers Club.

The play emerged from the creative talents of Mary Crescenzo, who first wrote a poetry book that contained some of the monologues now performed on stage. The book is now out of print but some of the poetry has been described as “strong and intense.”

The setting for the play is a facility for Alzheimer’s patients but the stage is almost bare of props. Various actors of various ages portray multiple roles as this drama observes and imagines the inner lives of patients, family members and staff caregivers.

Crescenzo's interest and work with Alzheimer's patients began with a program called, "Drawing on Memories," that was created in Tulsa, Oklahoma, by artist, Mel Lee, which uses visual art with Alzheimer's patients to tap their creative spirit. She has facilitated this program since 1997, in Oklahoma, and then at St. Cabrini's Nursing Home, Dobbs Ferry, NY. She has expanded the program to include other forms of art - movement, music, dance.

Crescenzo, also an internationally published writer, began to turn her experience working with Alzheimer’s victims into poems in a small book called, "Art in the Alzheimer's Wing." Last year, she decided this work would be best expressed in theatrical form, an so, she says, “’The Alzheimer's Monologues’ was born.”

Crescenzo describes herself as “independent working artist/cultural worker/community artist,” who has worked to bring art to unlikely places.

She began work with the elderly at 18 years old, almost 40 years ago, in a summer job at a Bronx nursing home doing art with elders. She has been professional involved in the arts as an actress, singer, dancer, visual artist and performance artist, often with emphasis on community and social issues.

She has a BA in Art Education from Hunter College, NY, an MA degree in Liberal Studies from The University of Oklahoma, and graduate studies in arts education and art therapy from the College of New Rochelle, NY.

As for the program that inspired this theatrical work, "Drawing on Memories" is not a program of busy work with residents, nor is it arts and crafts. It is the art process, from a trained facilitator's perspective, who works with others to bring out that creative spirit that is within us - from day one to the last days of our lives.

Crescenzo says, “art is the great equalizer and so is Alzheimer's disease. We can all experience art, no matter our age, color or economic status.”

Art with Alzheimer's patients is not, she says, “for product, but for process. It's the doing, not the making of a house, a tree, a flower, a face, but the making of a stroke with a paint brush. What happens or what it looks like comes later. The elements of art are what we are working with. Basic expression - line, shape, tone, size, texture.”

She is confident that if we remember that these individuals deserve respect and the dignity of life, no matter what their health condition is, this creative experience will be fruitful for all.

Ms. Crescenzo also gives lectures on the creative process and the Alzheimer's patients, and runs seminars in creative writing in regard to the disease for staff and family care givers.

Art work of Alzheimer's patients that Ms. Crescenzo has worked with was on display at the International Alzheimer's Conference in 2000 in Washington, DC.

Copyright: SeniorJournal.com