PINELLAS COUNTY, Fla. — The Seniors Actors Guild and Education Services’ motto is “plays with purpose.”

By mixing comedy and drama into plays around issues that affect seniors, SAGES aims to empower older adults through their performances.

Letty Mendoza, who is starring in the play Defying Gravity, said acting in plays that are aimed at older adults is important to her.

“We do plays with purpose about issues that affect seniors and nobody else was doing anything like that,” she said. 

From plays about falling to others about phone scams and driver safety, SAGES puts on plays that involved senior issues while using senior actors.  

“People have had to take away grandpa’s car keys or their father’s car keys and they know how difficult it is,” she said. “So we try to present it in a funny way, but it’s a serious subject so we want to get a lesson in there.”

SAGES Co-Founder Christine Hamacher said they put on these plays to empower seniors. 

The topics may not be easy to talk about but by doing so, Christine said they can help older adults continue the quality of life they deserve. 

“People don’t want to talk about aging and the things they are afraid of. Fear is a big part of that,” she said. “Working on this particular issue, defying gravity, which is about fall prevention, we’re able to help people stop falls. We’ve actually worked with 911 and our fire rescue to reduce the number of falls in Pinellas County for the first time ever.” 

According to the CDC, around 3 million older adults are treated for fall injuries in emergency departments every year. 

Letty said those watching their plays may know about falling risks, but through this medium, they’re educated in a much more entertaining way. 

“You could stand up in a lecture hall, give a lecture on it and it would be so boring,” she said. “But people remember when it’s a play, when you got a little bit of humor and a little bit of pathos and a little bit of tragedy.” 

The next performance of Defying Gravity will be on Sept. 14 in Dunedin, and it is free.