I was happy to see that despite our loss our mascot ended up prominently displayed on a number of screen-printed shirts being cranked out at Calpurnia Peach’s Remake, Revamp.

SPE mascot with name

SPE gorilla with alternate text

Truth be told, we as a team never got around to getting our mascot on our shirts prior to the fated game, so it wasn’t exactly clear to Field Day goers that the sporty ape had a kickball connection. I had actually commissioned my husband, former opera singer and current finance professional/guerilla sketch artist (pun intended), to bring our team name to life. The gorilla’s colorful (re)appearance at field day was a fun surprise. Wear him with pride Minneapolitans.

I recently asked Galen Treuer, Artistic Director of Live Action Set, a few questions about exploring dementia and Alzheimer’s through theater. Treuer and his Live Action Set colleague Noah Bremer co-directed the company’s My Father’s Bookshelf at the Guthrie in June, a play that looked at the powerful effects Alzheimer’s disease has on individuals, families and communities.

Treuer’s efforts illustrate an interest within performing arts to bring the subject of memory loss to the fore. Another local performing arts group engaging people with memory loss is Kairos Dance Theatre. Their The Dancing Heart keeps people living with dementia tapped into the world through movement.

Below is my conversation with Treuer.

Why Alzheimer’s? What got you interested in the subject of dementia and society’s response to this disease?

The idea started a weekend a couple of years ago at my parents’ house. I realized I knew them when they were my age – about thirty – and I started thinking about all the stories I would never hear from them. I imagined making a piece about aging and intergenerational exchange. At the time I was reading “A User’s Guide to the Brain” by John J. Ratey, actually I’d been reading it off and on for the past few years, and was interested in doing a play with neuroscience in it. After talking this idea over with Noah Bremer, we came on the idea of dementia as a good subject for interrupting the story telling. Initially I was drawn to the obscure forms of dementia, but as I read more about Alzheimer’s it became clear we could make something more relevant, less sensational by focusing on the most common form of dementia.

What elements of theater make it an effective media for sharing stories of memory loss?

Theater is a live art. You share the experience with the audience physically, in the moment. People with Alzheimer’s often lose words and the ability to share specific stories, but they gain an ability to live in the present moment. They are not worried about what is going to do tomorrow or the embarrassing thing they said 10 minutes ago. They are concerned with the here and now. Also, our style of theater lends itself to non-linear story telling. Time is flexible, and stories repeat or don’t follow a traditional narrative order. In Alzheimer’s time becomes confused and the linear path of experience breaks down. Also, connection and personal history are the most important thing for people with Alzheimer’s. If someone can’t communicate, at least they can feel like they belong and are heard by creating a connection. And personal histories are the last thing to be forgotten, so they are a great way to build connections. Theater is the energetic connection between an audience and performer. It helps people practice emotionally empathy, and it is a great venue for sharing personal stories.

Theater can also create a neutral ground where scientists, social workers, caregivers, and family members can observe the challenges and nuances of a very personal and scary disease without it being overwhelmingly personal or clinical. The arts create metaphorical space where people can synthesize new perspectives.

At the Walker we’re currently exploring visual arts programming that keeps people with Alzheimer’s and their caregivers engaged in the community. Do you believe joy is possible for people living with Alzheimer’s and that art — visual, performance, musical — may assist in eliciting positive, enriching experiences for them?

Joy is absolutely possible for people living with Alzheimer’s – both those with the disease and their family members. Art is a powerful tool for connecting. It is very emotional and metaphorical. Art provides space to connect and discover each other. There is a lot of wisdom in older individuals (even those with Alzheimer’s), and it’s a joy for both parties whenever you get to share it. Music and dance are especially powerful. I spent an afternoon in a locked memory ward in St. Paul, and when the woman leading the activities started singing the entire room transformed. Everyone became attentive, began humming and started smiling. That afternoon I sat next to a man who had a little radio playing big band music; he just wanted to hold my hand, tap out the rhythm, and tell me,“Yeah, that’s it!” Later, I heard he was never a musician or really all that into music until after he was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s.

In an interview for MPR your directorial partner, Noah Bremer, mentions the importance of laughter and humor for people living with Alzheimer’s and their caregivers. Can you speak to the role you understand humor playing in coping with an ultimately deadly disease?

The most telling thing I noticed in our research was that every nurse I met who spent years in direct contact with Alzheimer’s patients had a wicked sense of humor. In January I spent an hour talking with two nurses at the New York Mills, MN Elders Home about their experience with Alzheimer’s. We probably spent 3/4 of the time laughing. Without laughing, I don’t know how you could deal with the looming tragedy of the disease. It’s also a really great way to keep your interactions dignified. I find humor empowering. It lets us approach uncomfortable topics and laugh at our mistakes and our fears.

In creating My Father’s Bookshelf we needed to use humor, otherwise the play would have been too painful to watch. Ultimately the humor also let the audience connect with Bob (the main character), to love him and respect him. It seems like it made for a more pointed, accessible, and personal tragedy that sat with the audience rather than on the stage.

What was the most meaningful thing you learned during your research and preparation for “My Father’s Bookshelf”

Age related dementia is an epidemic. We will all have to deal with someone who has it at some point, and it’s absolutely possible that I might get it. My family tends to live will into their 80’s, and half of people over 85 show signs of some form of dementia. That said, the way to deal with this is through connection and understanding. It’s what everybody wants no matter how old they are or if they have a disease. We can all start practicing right now. Start collecting stories.

Watch Treuer’s conversation with nurse Ellen Swanson about My Father’s Bookshelf:

Click here to view the embedded video.

Installation shot of Text/Messages by Gene Pittman

Right now the Walker is celebrating the book, specifically the artist’s book, in its exhibition Text/Messages: Books by Artists. On display are familiar stories illustrated by artists such as Jim Dine and Slavador Dali; visual art made from books such as Rachel Whiteread’s Untitled (Pulp), 1999, a negative plaster cast of a bookshelf; and books that go beyond one’s traditional understanding of the narrative arch. In fact, many of the books in Text/Messages invite people to “read” through images, texture and implied meaning more than actual text.

One thing shared by each artist in Text/Messages is a love and respect for books and the power books have to unleash one’s imagination and expand one’s realm of knowledge. In a way, Text/Messages advocates for literacy, or at least puts the wish out in the world that books can (and should) be for everyone.

Today, the Louis Braille Bicentennial – Braille Literacy Commemorative Coin is being introduced.

The new Braille coin

Louis Braille, like the artists in Text/Messages, understood the important role books play in human development and fulfillment and thus created a system for making the personal and independent act of reading accessible to people without vision through the raised lettering of the Braille alphabet.

Despite Braille’s tremendous intentions, the National Federation for the Blind states, “… in America, only 10 percent of blind children are learning Braille! Yet, studies show that of the blind people who are employed, better than 80 percent of them read and write Braille fluently. Literacy is the key to opening the minds of our young people. Independent reading is true independence of the mind.”

In the spirit of Text/Messages and Louis Braille, let’s all celebrate the beauty and opportunity text can unleash by supporting literacy efforts in the broadest sense.

To learn more about the “Braille Readers Are Leaders” Literacy Campaign visit http://www.nfb.org/nfb/Braille_Initiative.asp.

What is audio description? Here’s a definition from The National Center on Accessible Information Technology in Education:

“Audio description is a term used to describe the descriptive narration of key visual elements in a video or multimedia product. This process allows individuals who are blind to access content that is not otherwise accessible simply by listening to the audio. In audio description, narrators typically describe actions, gestures, scene changes, and other visual information. They also describe titles, speaker names, and other text that may appear on the screen.”

The work is called The Bearded Lady at the Circus and the artist is Layne Lastine. Congratulations Layne!

Layne Lastine, The Bearded Lady at the Circus, 2008, Crayon on paper

Checking out some paintings by Lifeworks clients

Our choice for Best in Show ended up being a portrait done in crayon of a figure whose gender is ambiguous. The person has a gray beard, but has breasts and wears a feminine-cut green and orange blouse, earrings, and blush. He/she is placed against a vibrant magenta background that appears to be sucking the him/her backwards into a vortex of color. The right side of the figure’s head leans toward the upper right-hand corner of the paper, creating a strong vertical line, while the rest of the figure’s body swerves left. The crayon is applied thickly and throughout the surface of the picture are short, lively, meticulous scratch marks. The work is expressive and intensely personal – it doesn’t offer a clear idea of who this person is or how this person is interacting with the world. The viewer isn’t privy to the whole story.

Sorry that I don’t have a picture of the work to share.I’ll post one once one becomes available. I promise. For now you’ll just have to use your imagination.

“What’s Lifeworks?” you may ask. Lifeworks is a private nonprofit organization that serves 1,200 people with developmental disabilities and their families in the Twin Cities metro and Mankato areas, offering its clients career development and social enrichment services. Currently six of the eight Lifeworks locations offer visual arts programming. Lifeworks is partnering with the Walker over the next two years on enhancing tour experiences for visitors with cognitive disabilities through our Open Door Initiative, which focuses on accessibility through tours and art-making. Open Door Initiatives are funded by MetLife Foundation.

Come and learn about the close professional and artistic relationship Robert Rauschenberg shared with the Cunningham Dance Company.Discuss how visual artists in the 50s and 60s were,like choreographers and dancers, incorporating chance andCage’s notion of indeterminacyinto their artmaking practice.

Several public tours have been added for The Fantastic Collision of Art and Dance: Celebrating Ocean. Youcan catch one of these tours at the times listed below. Join us for this multidisciplinary experience!

Thursday, 9/11 at 2pm and 3pm

Friday, 9/12 at 2pm and 3pm

Saturday, 9/13 at 11am, 2pm and 3pm

Sunday, 9/14 at 2pm

Tours are free with gallery admission and will begin in the Bazinet Garden Lobby.

Nancy was sharing her garden wisdom with visitors and checking out the beautiful, newly designed Garden WAC Packs to interested families. As you can see from the photo the packs are actually red totes filled with a variety of hands-on activities that encourage deep and fun engagement with the sculptures in the garden. Kids and caretakers alike will enjoy activating their minds, bodies and imaginations with activities such as “ Balancing Act,” “ Txt Msgs” and “ Match Quest.”

The Garden WAC Packs are free and can be checked out at the Bazinet Lobby desk, from Info Guides in the garden at the WAC Pack Cart, or, beginning soon, from a staff person or volunteer in the FlatPak House.