Acting Our Age Creators

Acting Our Age Creators

Lyndall Hare (Co-creator, Gerontologist) is a PhD gerontologist (Union University and Institute, Cincinnati) who has worked with elders in her native South Africa and elsewhere for over 40 years. She holds a Social Work degree from University of Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, and her roles have included being a community organizer, case manager, advocate, coach, board member and consultant on projects related to aging, including her mentor/mentee program Living the Vision and the Acting Our Age series. She is the author of the book In the Belly of the Beast: South African Women’s Lives of Activism, Exile and Aging. 

Steve Umberger (Co-creator, Director/Producer) has directed/produced 200+ stage and film/video projects for many companies. He has founded or co-developed four companies including directing/producing 100+ plays as Founder & Artistic Director of Charlotte Repertory Theatre (LORT). The Rep team included Tony Award, Academy Award, Emmy Award and Pulitzer Prize winning guest artists. Film/television includes An Appalachian Trilogy (co-writer/director), Call Me By My Name (director/writer) and Acting Our Age. He is Founder/Director of The Playworks Group LLC, and a member of Stage Directors & Choreographers Society and Actors' Equity.

From Lyndall Hare:

“I am in awe of the brave elders who have come forward to bare their souls in telling their life stories and describe how they have used their voices so powerfully during their rich lives. Multiple generations are now ‘meeting in retirement’ - and they have intriguing stories to tell you from several eras of American history. Acting Our Age has given its participants an opportunity to represent the many who have chosen to age with other elders in community.”

From Steve Umberger

Everyone has a story, and somewhere along the road it inevitably intersects with history. That idea is at the heart of the Acting Our Age series. It’s been a great pleasure to explore these stories over the past six years with many groups in an intensive year-long program of conversation and writing that we distill into the script for the live events. I had become interested in creating a kind of documentary work I hadn't seen, and I felt that the voices of long lives had a perspective that would be valuable. We hope that, seen from up close, these projects capture the essence of the participants — and, from a distance, where they fit in the context of the history they helped to make. I'm grateful to Lyndall for the partnership, and we're grateful to Aldersgate, Plymouth Harbor and especially Jeff Weathrhead for this opportunity.

Jeff Weatherhead (CEO of Plymouth Harbor in Sarasota; below center with Steve Umberger) was the catalyst for the original Acting Our Age, seeking a way to honor the lives of the people he was working with. He enlisted the advice of Lyndall, a long-time consultant, who in turn enlisted the support of Steve, a long-time colleague. Lyndall and Steve created and developed Acting Our Age through Playworks.

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