“The show must go on…”

Shakespeare told stories that taught life’s lessons. Even though Shakespeare imparted these truths without using Power Point or video conferencing, his audience remembered those directives and often applied them to their own lives. The use of dramatic enactments in the classroom both to teach specific subjects and/or to develop students’ interpersonal professional skills is documented in the literature, but seldom observed.

The power of theater lies in its capacity to arouse, clarify, and resolve. It is an innovative and entertaining strategy for most topics and courses to achieve educational objectives. Instructors can assist adult learners and practitioners use playacting to dispel myths about aging and positively shape society’s responses to growing old.

There are numerous books that have been compiled with scenes, monologues and short plays that depict topics relevant to aging. The plays can be staged in class or in a larger auditorium. It is advisable that the actors receive their scripts beforehand and rehearse instead of giving impromptu presentations.

By answering the following questions, each actor can portray his/her character with greater wisdom and imagination:

1. What does your character want to achieve? If you don’t know what your character wants to accomplish, then your performance will lack clarity and purpose. You need to immerse yourself in the role in order to discover your character’s true motives.

2. What obstacles keep your character from achieving his/her goals?

3. What is your character willing to do in order to achieve his/her objectives?

Remind participants that theater, whether it is serious or comic is about human conditions of discomfort and desperation and about people who want resolution of these conditions. Theater resembles life and, therefore, using drama/comedy as a learning tool prepares us for real life encounters (Langer & Tirrito, 2004).

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.