The journey through life provides many stages. I remember as a child overhearing my mother say to my father, “It’s just a stage she’s going through,†over some now long-forgotten behavior.
At the Seymour Center, the elders of our community also go through stages. Some of them are new to our area, having retired here or come even later, to be close to family living here. They go to the center seeking not only activity, of which myriad opportunities exist, but also friendships. That queasy first-day-of-school feeling does not end with formal education, it continues throughout life with any new venture that places us in unfamiliar circumstances.
Last week, the new season opened for the Prime Time Players, a group at the Seymour Center that provides an opportunity for stretching theatrical muscles to seniors interested in first-time exploration, renewed interest or a continuation of taking a show through the stages of script selection to performance. People who belong to all three phases showed up for the planning meeting.
Mary Freedman, who has taken the reigns this year and led the meeting, has had an amateur involvement with theater since high school, and her husband, Darryl Freedman, a retired electrical engineer, has been a stage technician dealing with lights and sound. He is also a videographer, who records not only shows and classes around the center but other events for airing on the People’s Channel. He has also been studying screenwriting — and is a character — keeping the meeting lively.
The group accepts anyone from age 55 up who is interested. Francine Dolan, who was involved in theater during her college years attended, making her limitations clear. “I use a cane and walk with pain,†she said.
Darryl Freedman offered that she could learn to operate the audio control panel or perhaps work with sound effects for a radio play they will be performing at 3 p.m. on Sept. 20.
Sandra Jones came to the meeting in keeping with her efforts to get involved at the center after recently retiring.
“I’m trying to enhance my creative self,†she said.
Pat Ryan has been performing in amateur productions for years. His late wife was a costumer.
“She used remnants and did amazing things with very little to work from,†he said. “I always wanted to be a magician but I gave up the idea of thinking ‘maybe someday.’†Besides giving a try to Prime Time Players, he sings with the Village Review, which has a steady performance schedule of singing and dancing around the area.
Speaking of stages, the one at the Seymour Center leaves a bit to be desired for performers — a backstage and wings.
It’s just a stage with no place for actors to stand before making an entrance or after exiting, which severely limits the shows they are capable of providing. The theater seats 90 and beautifully accommodates weekly movies and other events, but the stage clearly was not designed with theatrical productions in mind.
“A grant is in the works,†Mary Freedman said.
Like life, it’s a stage to be reached when it gets there.
Contact Valarie Schwartz at 923-3746 or valariekays@mac.com.

