By Cindy Broome
For Coastal Senior

HOW TO GET INVOLVED The Junior League's Senior Theater Workshop Committee meets Mondays at 4 p.m. at the Junior League headquarters, which is in the Senior Citizens Inc. building at 3025 Bull St. at Washington Avenue. Interested seniors are invited. Membership is free. Call ahead to confirm the meeting location. For more details, call the Junior League headquarters at 790-1002; Mollie Melvin at 897-3161 or Amanda Stephens at 238-8242. MORE ABOUT SENIOR THEATER ArtAge Publications P.O. Box 12271 Portland OR 97212-0271 1-800-858-4998 www.seniortheatre.com Junior League leads the charge to organize a local senior theater.

Mollie Melvin needs a theater.

She needs one soon.

The Junior League of Savannah member, who's chairing a committee that's creating a Senior Theater Workshop, is in the early stages of getting the program off the ground.

Some 42 seniors have signed up so far to be members. They meet weekly at the League headquarters and are busy working on plans for a variety show for its first event.

The show - called "Now and Then" - is planned for May - May 19, to be exact. Which is why Mollie Melvin needs a theater very soon.

"Our single biggest expense is site rental. That is a huge challenge for us right now," Melvin says. Locally, the average rate is $700 for two rehearsals and a show. The cost is understandable, she says, but prohibitive for the fledgling program.

"We are desperately seeking a house, not only for that performance, but also something with a light and sound system. Our ultimate goal would be for a house to adopt us."

Senior theater is a growing concept. One reason is many seniors are in better health. Another is many want to learn new things or return to activities they once enjoyed, according to ArtAge Publications, a Portland, Ore.-based company dedicated to promoting senior theater.

Bonnie L. Vorenberg, director of ArtAge Publications, believes senior theater has grown considerably in the last few years.

"Senior theaters are exploding across the nation," Vorenberg wrote in an e-mail interview. "They have been in existence for some time and are currently growing quickly. I call senior theater one of the fastest-growing forms of the performing arts."

The idea began locally when League members discussed organizing a performing group to visit nursing homes. For various reasons, the idea didn't evolve. But for Melvin, who has a history of theatrical involvement, the idea stuck.

Why not create a group where seniors themselves do the performing she wondered? The simmering idea heated up.

"These are not your stay-at-homes," she says of those involved in the project. "With seniors, there's this sense of freedom. These folks are just gung-ho and jump right in there."

Care 65, the seniors' membership program of St. Joseph's/Candler Health System, produced a variety show a couple of years ago that was a hit. The production may be one reason the Junior League contacted the group about involvement, says Care 65 associate Pati Keaton. About 52 people performed.

"It was very well received," she said. "We had, like, 800 people attend. We had standing ovations.

"They have not left us alone," she said, "so I think the stage has definitely struck them."

Those cast members often ask when they'll perform again, Keaton says. "It was so nice - you got to know each other. This was a full big-time dance, a show-stopping Broadway-type show." They incorporated line dancing, clogging and singing. Entertainers sang songs from the 1910s, '20s, '30s and '40s.

Theater planning began in the Fall, says Melvin, but things began cranking up in January. Workshop members meet weekly on Mondays at the Junior League headquarters. Membership is free and open to any senior.

"You don't have to have any experience. Everyone has something to offer," she says. People are needed to work on set design and construction, costume design and creation, lighting and sound, and fill numerous other roles.

Also needed are a props manager, stage manager, accompanist, choreographer, vocal coach and house manager.

Those who've always wanted to be onstage will have the opportunity.

There's often a need for senior actors, Melvin says. She said a Savannah College of Art and Design student recently contacted her seeking a senior to cast for a short film. She envisions that someday the workshop will be a resource for the city. When a movie is on location here and the production company needs seniors as extras or featured performers, the workshop will be a resource.

One of the Junior League's goals is to build leadership in the group so it can be self-sustaining. Eventually members will learn how to write grants and apply for funds.

"We want to be sure it continues as an entity unto itself once the Junior League moves on to something else," Melvin says, who hopes it will become a nonprofit organization with a board of directors. "The object is to work myself out of a job.

"Anyone who has skills within the theater who would like an audience - to give a workshop, or would like to cast a show - we would welcome them to contact me," she says.

In the future, Melvin hopes the group will offer workshops in subjects like acting and playwriting. Plans include other performances, both musical and nonmusical. The workshop can be anything the seniors want it to be, she says. Melvin talks of retirees who share their busy schedules. Many say they leave the house at 9 in the morning and are gone all day. They're busy dancing or bowling. And now many are adding theater to the list.

"I've said, I wish I could retire so I could do some of this fun stuff."