About the Book:

Acting Up! is a practical guide outlining improvisational acting techniques for older adults.

Acting Up! is a text-handbook that details the experiences of a unique improvisational theatre troupe made up of actors 65 and older; who write and perform their own work. Using humour and outspoken honesty, Acting Up!: An Innovative Approach to Creative Drama for Older Adults offers techniques, exercises and sketches aimed at helping older people draw on their own life stories as they learn to express themselves, create and perform. The authors Marcie Telander, Flora Quinlan, and Karol Verson are the directors of the Acting Up! drama group and write: "If you care about quality communication between people, if you are willing to take a risk in order to create, if you are willing to be open, flexible, vulnerable and experimental, you can successfully lead an Acting Up! drama group."

What people say:

"The book, Acting Up!, records a sensitive and knowledgeable Odyssey through relatively uncharted territory — a creative project of trial and error sustained by dedicated leaders in a working partnership with older adults. The authors and participants have unstintingly shared their experiences and laid out a process, with which all who are interested in improvisation and creative may not totally agree, but from which all can learn. It is a welcome addition to a growing body of literature in the arts and aging field." — Jacqueline Sunderland, Director National Center on Arts and the Aging

"Acting Up! provides a poignant vehicle for shattering the myths of ageism. It is a must for all theatre professionals working with senior adults." — Victoria Tait Coffman, Professor (Emeritus), Department of Communication and Theatre, Montana State University-Billings

"The special value of Acting Up! for all directors of Senior Adult Theatre lies in the wealth of exercises and illustrative material used to develop each individual's personality and share it with others. Any director will find these exercises invaluable, whether working on performance of plays or improvisational drama. And, the book serves as a useful text for the members as well." — Dr. C. Robert Kase, Senior Adult Theatre Program American Theatre Association

"I used to think of myself as a coloring-book outline. Whatever the world wanted to color me, I reacted to — if they colored me happy, I was; if they colored me boring, I was. But now I see that I have the crayon, and I'm going to color myself all those colors I've never used but always loved." — Acting Up! troupe member Bernice Weiss

About the Author:

Marcie Telander is an Internationally Registered Expressive Arts Therapist and Licensed Professional Counselor. She served the founding Director of the theater troupe Acting Up!, a company whose mission is to explode the myths of aging. She is is the co-author with Flora Quinlan, and Karol Verson of Acting Up!: An Innovative Approach to Creative Drama for Older Adults.