Serving the Community Both Near and Far

Today we finished a wonderful few weeks of touring the 35-minute radio play version of Arsenic and Old Lace. I’m very proud of this production.

All of us in the cast enjoyed the privilege of performing the show in senior centers and retirement communities throughout Greater Richmond. Phil and I actually acted in this one—something we seldom do. How could we say “no” to the chance to share a stage with such amazing colleagues, most notably our memorable leading ladies, real-life sisters Mary Jane Board and Charlotte McCutcheon? They were terrific—very funny and completely professional. The play also featured the more familiar but equally enjoyable talents of Bob Albertia, Chase Kniffen and Tom McGranahan.

Barksdale’s Bifocals Theatre Project provides a chance for senior actors (55 and up) to perform for senior audiences both near and far (2 shows on our lobby stage at Willow Lawn and 10 performances in various senior enclaves around town). All performances are presented on a sliding scale, with each senior center paying only what it can afford. The Bifocals Theatre Project is another way in which Barksdale reaches out to the community, entertaining and invigorating hundreds of high-spirited Richmonders, many of whom are no longer able to attend our mainstage shows at Willow Lawn and/or Hanover Tavern.

My mother, Amy Miller, is a perfect example of the audience member whom the Bifocals Theatre Project is meant to serve—an audience member who otherwise would be all too easy to overlook. A native New Yorker, my mom was and always will be a true-blue theatre lover. But these days, even though her spirit is willing, her mind is no longer able to make it through a two-hour production, and physically it’s just too difficult for her to leave her safe and comfortable home at Westminster-Canterbury.

And so, through the Bifocals Theatre Project, Barksdale now comes to her—and to hundreds of others who regularly benefit from this exemplary service initiative.

My mom may be 91-years-old, dealing with Alzheimer’s and permanently confined to a wheelchair, but she lit up like a Christmas tree during our recent reading of the Arsenic radio script in Westminster’s beautiful Sara Belle November Theatre. Acting is always fun. Acting in a Bifocals production is not only fun, it’s also uniquely rewarding.

Many thanks to all those who make this and other Bifocals Theatre Project events possible. If you would like to learn more, or participate, or become a sponsor, please contact our Special Projects Manager, Chase Kniffen, at c.kniffen@barksdalerichmond.org . But whatever you do, don’t drink the elderberry wine.