The seventh age on stage: theatre as a socio-cultural product of old-age social inclusion/exclusion

• In Event: 4266 - Section on Aging and the Life Course Refereed Roundtables
  In Refereed Roundtable 100min: 1. Aging Theory

Abstract

Older persons’ involvement in theatre often focuses on health, educational, and therapeutic benefits. Though less examined, artistic depictions of ageing help us understand old-age social exclusion and relational ageism theories. Qualitative textual script analysis was used to analyze the construction of older adults in ten plays produced on/off Broadway, 1991-2017. Traditional character constructions of age emerged–frailty, fear, caregiving burden–with counternarratives of resilience, resistance, and self-reflexivity. Dyadic pairs (frailty/ resistance) served as examples of social exclusion/social inclusion. From this emerged a framework that offers insight about old-age social exclusion to aid in testing this concept in other socio-cultural products.

Authors

• Joyce Weil, University of Northern Colorado

• David Lefkowitz, University of Northern Colorado