WS Chronicle

By Judie Holcomb-Pack

When Senior Services held its ribbon cutting and open house for the Intergenerational Center for Arts and Wellness on Nov. 17, one group that was excited to now call the center “home” was 40+ Stage Company. They had been offering acting classes for adults at Senior Services and had a “mini-lesson” during the open house. Beginning in February 2024, they will be the resident theatre at the Intergenerational Center.

Corlis Sellers, the president of the 40+ board, as well as an accomplished actor in her own right, said that Lee Covington, the president of Senior Services, approached 40+ early during the planning process for the center to see if they may be interested in being a partner in the project and they eagerly said yes! By getting involved in the beginning, they were able to offer suggestions and Mark Pirolo, 40+ artistic director, helped design the theatre space.

During the acting lesson Sellers held at the open house, students from prior classes performed monologues to demonstrate what they had learned. Then Sellers involved the visitors who stopped in to see what was going on. Each person took a card out of a bag with various emotions written on it. Then Sellers gave each person the same sentence and asked them to stand in the middle of the room and say the sentence while showing the emotion that was on their card. The rest of the group had to identify the emotion. For people who had never acted before, it was amazing to see how they could portray emotion in just one sentence. Corlis said that was just one exercise she uses when conducting acting classes for adults.

Acting classes are funded by Spark the Arts, the N.C. Arts Council, and are free to attend. The six-week sessions cover subjects such as the six steps of acting: character, circumstances, relationships, obstacles, actions and objectives. Exercises are designed around building strengths, improv work, scene work, and monologues. Classes are an hour and a half one day a week. The class schedule for 2024 hasn’t been set yet, but those interested in signing up should follow Senior Services’ Faeebook page for announcements. The classes will be held in the new Intergenerational Center directly behind Senior Services.

Sellers said the goal is for everyone to get what they want out of the class, whether it’s becoming more confident speaking to a group, making new friends, or perhaps pursuing a role in a play. One student of hers has already gone on to perform in local theatre!

40+ Stage Company’s 23-24 season has begun. The current production is “Educating Rita” on Dec.1-2 at 7:30 p.m. and Dec. 3 and 10 at 2 p.m. in the Mountcastle Forum at Milton Rhodes Center for the Arts.

Their Black History Month production will be “Moments with Paul,” a musical play based on the life of Paul Robeson, Feb. 17 and 24 at 7:30 p.m. and Feb. 18 and 25 at 2 p.m. They will end their season with “American Son” by Christopher Demos-Brown, May 10-11 and 17-18 at 7:30 p.m. and May 12 and 19 at 2 p.m.

For information about 40+ Stage Company, visit 40plusstage.com. For tickets to Educating Rita, go to www.intothearts.org and click on Buy Tickets.