I had never sung in public, but my husband Harvey said I should consider it. I saw an article in the Good Times about the Choraliers and attended a rehearsal. I noticed all the folks there were older than me, and having a good time singing, so this seemed like a safe place to start. At 68, it was an epiphany for me to say Yes, realizing that in ten or twenty years I would have aged like them.
I sang with the Choraliers and after two years, feeling my chops, I auditioned and sang with the Santa Cruz Follies where I met Lynn Knudsen. She had a vision to expand the opportunities for performers age 50 and up in Santa Cruz beyond a once a year performance. We started learning from a similar organization called StageBridge in Oakland who mentored us for a year. Then in 2014, we incorporated NextStage Productions as a non-profit. We started several performance troupes, and offered classes to teach singing, dance, improv and performance skills to support the newbies (like me) who want to perform but would like to improve their skills (or try something totally new).
What I learned while creating NextStage with Lynn and Kathryn is that my organizational skills blended well with theirs. It made our weekly Executive Committee meetings easily productive.
For five years, I managed the troupes that were performing at senior residences, which is so rewarding for the performers and fun for our audiences. Now, many who performed with NextStage perform in the Market Street shows, the Choraliers and still for NextStage. I feel truly proud that NextStage helped to nurture their inner artist, and share that gift with the community.
My experience with Readers Theater and the recent Storytelling performance directed by Brad Roades, have inspired me to take this spoken word theater to the radio, so I am currently enrolled in a class “Learning All About Radio Production” offered by Actor’s Workshop.
Next year marks NextStage’s 10th Anniversary and we are celebrating with a Gala Party. I am on the committee researching venues, and so looking forward to this milestone event.