D-Generation: TimeSlips and Sandglass Theater

D-Generation: TimeSlips and Sandglass Theater



SandGlass Workshops
 


D-generation – An Exaltation of Larks

With a Little Help, CarePartners, and the Greenwood Senior Center, are excited to partner in bringing Vermont-based Sandglass Puppet Theater to Seattle! The play “D-Generation, An Exaltation of Larks” is based on 2016 MacArthur Fellow award-winning Anne Bastings’ Timeslips – “an elegantly simple revolution in elder care ”.

“D-Generation, An Exaltation of Larks” is a full-length theater piece based upon stories written collaboratively by TimeSlips participants with late-stage dementia. Three puppeteers portray the caregivers and enliven the five puppets who play the residents of a care-community. The work shows the inner lives of the characters, and reflects the stigma and acceptance, despair and joy of those with dementia, their caregivers, and families.

TimeSlips – A beautiful way to connect with people living with dementia

If you know someone who has Alzheimer’s or another dementia, you know that trying to communicate with them can be heartbreaking, and in the later stages of the disease it can feel positively futile.

Anne Bastings’ TimeSlips, a creative storytelling endeavor based in Wisconsin that started with the Penelope Project, has been working hard to find ways to provide an opportunity for people with dementia to communicate with us in a creative and fun way, free of the pressure to remember, and with encouragement to imagine.

Dementia or not, all of us can and do benefit from being encouraged to be creative and imaginative. The beauty of offering this to people with dementia is it sometimes can be the only way for them to communicate.

The key to unlocking a door

Maxine Lennon is a TimeSlips certified facilitator in Ellensburg, WA. Lennon, whose parents both had Alzheimer’s, is passionate about finding “keys to unlock the doors that people with dementia are held prisoner behind”, and she has found TimeSlips to be one of these keys.

Lennon tells us that when the communication of people with Alzheimer’s or other dementias begins to be jumbled, inaccurate, or confusing to the listener, often their loved ones, caregivers, and friends try to correct them or encourage them to remember accurately. This well-meaning but negative reaction in turn generates shame and creates fear in the person with dementia and over time a person with dementia will talk less and less. In fact, Lennon says, their voice volume level often gets dialed down to a mere whisper.

TimeSlips sessions can help dispel those fears and take the pressure off remembering what “actually happened”, or “what’s true”. Instead, participants are free to create whatever story they want, complete with imaginative details, from simple to fantastic. There is no right or wrong, and there are no judgements; rather, there is constant reassurance to keep going.

“Our loved ones with dementia have moved into their own world and they cannot get back into our world; instead, we have to get into theirs,” Lennon explains. By encouraging their imagination and letting them say, for example, “the sky is green”, the facilitator has stepped into their world.

Lennon says she is trying to find ways to encourage care communities and individual caregivers to do this. “The more keys we have to unlock the doors to the world of those with dementia, the better.”

Theater piece from TimeSlips stories

Don’t miss this profound experience. Lennon notes, “To go and see a TimeSlips theatre piece is a wonderful source of light within something that people see as very dark.”

The D-Generation: An Exaltation of Larks theater event will be on Sunday, March 5, 2017 at 3:00 pm at the University Prep Theater (8000 25th Ave NE, Seattle, WA 98115) and is open to the public.

Sandglass Theater Workshops

Click Here to Purchase Tickets or to Register for Workshops

Sandglass Puppet Theater is offering a week of workshops and discussions in Seattle from March 6 – 9, as shown below:

Note: All workshops will introduce TimeSlips.

Sunday, March 5th
Matinee Performance: D Generation: An Exaltation of Larks
Followed by discussion with artists
3:00 pm
University Prep Theater
8000 25th Ave NE
Seattle, WA 98115
[map]


Monday, March 6th
Workshop 1: The Freedom to Imagine; Drawing on the TimeSlips Technique
For Home Care Providers
10:00-11:30 am
This workshop will offer those working with people living with memory loss, an understanding of the TimeSLips process. Participants will see how it can be utilized in a long term care setting and other practices.
Phinney Neighborhood Center
6532 Phinney Avenue North, Room 1
Seattle, WA 98103
[map]


Workshop 2: The Freedom to Imagine: Drawing on the TimeSlips Technique
For Memory Loss Professionals
2:00-3:30 pm
This workshop will offer professionals working with people living with memory loss, an understanding of the TimeSlips process. Participants will experience/witness using the method and discuss ways it can be used at their facility.
Phinney Neighborhood Center
6532 Phinney Avenue North, Room 1
Seattle, WA 98103
[map]


Tuesday, March 7
Workshop 3: The Freedom to Imagine: Drawing on the TimeSlips Technique
For Clergy and members of Congregational Caring Communities
10:00-11:30 am
This workshop will offer clergy, administrators, and members of congregations, information about the TimeSlip process and ways to be more supportive of those congregants living with memory loss.
Greenwood Senior Center
525 N 85th St
Seattle, WA 98103
[map]


Workshop 4: The Freedom to Imagine: Drawing on the TimeSlips Technique
For Family Members and Loved Ones of those with Dementia
2:00-3:30 pm
This workshop will offer family members of those living with memory loss an understanding of the TimeSlips process and ways the techniques might be utilized in the home setting.
Greenwood Senior Center
525 N 85th St
Seattle, WA 98103
[map]


Wednesday, March 8
Workshop 5: The Soul of the Puppet
Workshop for puppeteers
10:00-11:30 am
Northwest Puppet Center
9123 15th Ave NE
Seattle, WA 98115
[map]


Workshop 6: Lecture/Presentation: Making D Generation-Style Puppets
Workshop for puppeteers (and aspiring puppeteers)
2:00-3:30 pm
Northwest Puppet Center
9123 15th Ave NE
Seattle, WA 98115
[map]

CLICK HERE TODAY to Register for With a Little Help’s 3rd Annual Conference

Thursday, March 9
Workshop 7: Empower and Encourage Through Story Telling
Workshop is part of With a Little Help’s 3rd Annual Care Conference
9:00-10:30 am
This workshop will offer those working with people living with memory loss an understanding of the TimeSlips process. Participants will see how it can be utilized in home settings, wherever home is! The hour and a half presentation will provide 1.5 CEU’s for care caregivers, social workers, care managers, nurses and guardians.
North Seattle College
9600 College Way N
Seattle, WA 98103
[map]

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jenn@kauferdmc.com

With A Little Help is a local in-home care company serving the Northwest for 21 years. We provide high-quality 1-on-1 home care to those who need it most. We don't just make a meal for our clients; we sit down and share a meal with them. Companionship is the reason for everything we do, and our mission is that all client/caregiver relationships are authentic and meaningful.