OLLI plays, IlluminAid showcase actor, aid
CHICO » The Osher Lifelong Learning Institute program will be holding two virtual events at the end of April.
The OLLI play festival series, which was developed by OLLI member and artistic director Pam Loyd, is a series of one-act comedies written, directed and staged by OLLI members. Loyd teaches a playwriting class and the play’s authors took her class. This year, eight of the participants include OLLI members from New York, Rhode Island, Minnesota and Florida. The event will take place online and is free.
The festival is transitioning from a physical stage to a virtual stage. The online format has provided new opportunities to expand OLLI Chico’s theater troupe to include people from across the country. The plays will be released in a pre-recorded video April 30.
The plays are each 10 to 20 minutes long. In the past, the plays were performed at the Blue Room prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, but when the pandemic hit, the plays were switched to Zoom, with all rehearsals and the performances taking place virtually. One of the advantages to having virtual plays is that OLLI members from other states can participate. The actors auditioned and rehearsed on Zoom for six weeks.
Loyd is directing two of the plays. When she gave instructions to the playwriting class, she told them the plays must be written in such a way that the characters can’t be in the same room or physically touch due to the virtual platform.
Loyd’s favorite play is called “Sunrise Speaks,” which is about a Zoom advice columnist. Loyd is happy about the fact that women of a certain age are acting, writing and staging the plays. She wanted to showcase actors over 50 and have the plays not be centered on old age or set in a nursing home.
“The plays are lively, energetic, sexy and romantic,” she said. “It’s a positive image for people over 50.”
Roger Gans, who is from south of Rochester, New York and is acting in one of the plays, “Mirror, Mirror,” found the play to be a positive experience. He also does video editing.
Gans has been acting for years. He got involved with the OLLI Chico plays when the OLLI director distributed information about the plays across the country.
There are three other actors in the play.
“It was different being on Zoom while acting,” Gans said.
Gans teaches an OLLI class on flight. He has also taught a course on Darwin and evolution. He has acted in plays written by playwright and actor Wallace Shawn, including “The Designated Mourner.”
“I love the idea of operating on a cross-country basis,” Gans said. “It makes up for the disadvantages of being on Zoom.”
IlluminAid
The second event is an IlluminAid workshop which takes place April 28 from 3 to 4 p.m. on Zoom. IlluminAid Executive Director Matt York will share the purpose and focus of his most recent trips to Togo in West Africa on behalf of the organization. IluminAid’s
mission is to help in educating the world’s poorest people through low-cost video technology.
To watch the three-minute video, visit the IlluminAid website at https:// www.illuminaid.org/ at the end of April.
“We’re highlighting the most recent work we did in the world’s 70 poorest countries,” York said.
So far IlluminAid has completed 35 of these workshops.
“The service we provide is in regards to training people to adopt a different lifestyle,” York said. “We are planting more rice plants per square foot. We teach people to wear a mask if required, to wash their hands after using the bathroom, to use a latrine instead of defecating in public and to use birth control. We want to foster new behaviors in the population. Videos will be shared on cordless video projectors.”
For more information about OLLI, visit https:// rce.csuchico.edu/osher. Links are available on olli. csuchico.edu.
This is a live online event open to all. The Zoom link to enter the event will be posted on the home page of the OLLI website starting in the morning on the day of the event, Thursday, April 28.
The links for the four plays will be accessible through the home page of the OLLI website. The plays have been pre-recorded and will be released April 30. OLLI members, friends and the general public should go to olli. csuchico.edu for information on that day. The links to the recordings are accessible. Participants can click on a link and watch the recording.