A new theatre piece produced by Vintage Creative Therapies will revolve around how people think, feel and act towards others, based on age.

‘Aware’ will premiere at the 2023 Adelaide Fringe.

Visual theatre interspersed with short verbatim theatre performances, will be used to illustrate the impacts of ageist stereotypes, prejudices, and discrimination.

Community consultations in September and October turned up ideas such as "taking responsibility for who you are", "mixing with all the young ones", and showing that "older people have so much to offer", are helping to inform the production.

Older community members will attend the first group rehearsals in December, working alongside professional theatre makers who have been designing scenes since November.

“We are putting a great team together to help progress this piece from a design concept to the stage,” said Alan Hendry, Community Arts Director from Vintage Creative Therapies.

“The team is keen to show that not everybody ages the same way, and that older people don't want to be dismissed or made to feel invisible.”

Alan has a strong desire to support diversity and inclusion for audiences and performers. The mostly visual nature of the production reduces the need for formal training and learning lines for performers, while audiences will not have to process and reflect on large chunks of dialogue.

Alan believes that giving the voice and stage to older people will ensure the performance is authentic and hopes audiences across all age ranges will be attracted to the production.

By raising public awareness of how people think, feel and act about age, Vintage Creative Therapies hope to engender wider discussion on the need to influence community attitudes to older people.

For more information and insights into the project’s progress, visit Vintage Creative Therapies website, Facebook page and Instagram.

The project is supported by Office for Ageing Well, SA Health.