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Is it possible for a group of seniors who live at the Stoneridge Creek senior living community to travel on a subway, argue while driving a truck and have lover’s spats on a cruise all at the same time? The answer is yes, and all while being in the same room … thanks to improv.
About a year ago, Stoneridge Creek resident Kathy Mello began teaching improvisation in the art studio at the senior living community. Improv is a form of theater where participants act out random scenes that are unplanned and unscripted.
But while the improvised scenes may seem like just a group of people saying random things while pretending to be in random places, Mello said the classes are so much more than just that. She said they act as a way to keep the minds of those seniors active and healthy.
“Everything that I’ve read, this type of focus helps seniors to be stronger mentally,” Mello told the Weekly. “I’ve seen it in my class; I’ve seen it in myself.”
Mello is a longtime professional in the improv world and acting. She holds a bachelor’s degree in drama and has worked at the Improv Playhouse of San Francisco as well as having played various roles in television shows.
Two years ago, she moved into the Stoneridge Creek community in Pleasanton and thought her improv days were behind her. That was until about a year ago when Stoneridge Creek residents Denise Evans and Renee Bauer heard about Mello moving into the community.
Evans has been at Stoneridge for 10 years and originally was in the drama club, which was inevitably canceled because they couldn’t keep a drama director long enough to keep the club going. But when she and Bauer — who also had a love for the drama club — heard that Mello had taught improv before, they decided to approach Mello one day during lunch and ask if she would be interested in teaching an improv class.
Evans said she has done community theater in the past and has always been into drama, but because they didn’t have a club anymore at Stoneridge, she wanted to give improv a shot, even if she thought it was scary.
“I was so into drama for so long that I was so happy to try something new,” Evans told the Weekly. “And Kathy made it so easy that it wasn’t frightening.”
Ever since then, the group has grown from as little as three members to as much as 18 members on given days. Mello said the classes consist of physical activities, name recognition, storytelling games, two person scenes and plenty of other improv exercises.
She said that she has loved hosting the class because it allows her to keep doing improv and sharing her passion with others.
“It has kept me in my world,” Mello said. “It’s kept it alive for me.”
It has also ignited a passion for the seniors who attend these classes.
On May 3, the Weekly was able to sit in during one of these sessions led by fellow improv enthusiast and former longtime recreation coordinator for the city of Pleasanton Mark Duncanson.
Duncanson participated in the Bay Area Theater Sports (BATS) improv theater company at the same time Mello did during the ’90s and early 2000s.
He said the two were reunited more recently when Mello attended one of Duncanson’s improv shows at the Firehouse Arts Center. He then performed at the Stoneridge Creek community in January, at Mello’s request, which is when he told her he was thinking of retiring.
It was at that moment that she asked him to help her out with teaching her improv class while she is away on trips and eventually take over the class when she’s gone, which is why Duncanson was the substitute teacher on May 3.
He said what he has learned over his many years of doing improv is that experience breeds excellent improv, which is why he enjoys teaching the senior class.
“There are a lot of excellent experiences — professionally, personally — in the room in facilities and groups like this,” Duncanson told the Weekly. “It brings a certain form of performance that you don’t see anywhere else.”
During the class, 13 seniors were moving around, acting out randomly hilarious scenes, playing fake instruments and joking with each other as if they were at their drama class in high school.
“We laugh a lot,” Bauer said. “There is a family kind of closeness about us.”
The residents were coming up with characters on the spot and keeping up with each other, which is what Mello said makes improv such a healthy mental exercise for the seniors.
“It’s being in the moment, not letting your mind wander,” Mello said. “It’s so important for seniors especially to focus.”
According to a peer reviewed article titled “Effects of Improv Training on Older Adults in a Long Term Care Facility”, which was published in the National Library of Medicine, improv encourages creativity and adaptive cognitive stimulation.
But specifically after analyzing a group of senior citizens who live in long-term care facilities, the article found that improv training significantly improves the lives of older adults.
“Participants experienced significant improvements in social isolation and perceived stress, and trend improvements in positive affect, self-efficacy, and anxiety,” according to the article. “Participants described themes of increased attentiveness, becoming more relaxed, increased cognitive stimulation, and improved communication skills.”
But it also gives them so much more than that, according to Stoneridge Creek resident Tom Michalski, who is also in the improv club. It gives them a chance to be themselves.
“We all have in us a desire and an ability to express ourselves but we tend to be quiet,” Michalski told the Weekly. “Over the years you get used to not opening your mouth all the time and in situations.”
He said at the club, they don’t have to worry about expressing themselves and they’re free to say whatever they want about how they feel without any risk. Whether it’s raunchy jokes or playful jabs at each other, he said he feels like he can kid around with all of the club members.
“That sense of being able to do that is kind of like a freedom,” Michalski said. “It’s just fun.”
Mello also said that apart from seeing her students be more present, being able to actively listen to each other and be more social, she has seen so much growth in their improv skills to the point where they’re even planning on putting together improv shows for the Stoneridge Creek community in the future.
“Watching what I think is happening with my students, being appreciated by them and them coming up to me and telling me how much this means to them, it has meant a lot to me,” Mello said. “I just love watching them just improve. They’re becoming improvisers.”
