Some organizations, though, focus primarily on themes of growing older. The troupe has performed internationally. Older puppeteers perform for youth in productions where the whole purpose is to shape attitudes about elders and aging. Another program, StageBridge, Oakland, Calif., has worked intensively with an intergenerational focus for more than 20 years. Using dramatized children's stories and fairy tales, it presents productions that teach children about aging and related topics.
History is central to many other senior-theater productions.
For example, Senior Players of Rhode Island, associated with Brown University, Providence, R.I., used important events in local history for its production Meet Me at the Shepard's Clock . Staged in a former department store in downtown Providence, this environmental theater project allowed audience members to move between scenes of local history enacted by elder performers in the store's windows. Street musicians dressed in historical costumes roved among the crowd. Playwrights of all ages are addressing the themes of this new area. Wash. Senior theater has been the driving force in establishing new supportive services like these.