Performances

Upcoming Performances

“The MemoryCare Plays is a collection that marshals theater’s unique power to confront the human condition with a gaze clear and unwavering…” — Stuart Dybek, MacArthur Fellow and Whiting Writers’ Award Winner, author, The Coast of Chicago, I Sailed with Magellan, and Streets in Their Own Ink

August 23, 2022 in Brown County, WI – A performance of Steering into the Skid, sponsored by The Automobile Gallery, Alzheimer’s Association, and the Brown County Dementia Friendly Community Coalition, will be provided at The Automobile Gallery in Green Bay, WI.

September 15, 2022 in Shawano County, WI – A performance of Steering into the Skid, sponsored by Wolf River Dementia Network, will be provided over lunch at the Wolf River Aging and Disability Resource Center.

More Information

Did you know you can buy these amazing plays on Amazon?

Buy Now

Past Performances

February 12, 2021 at 12:00 pm in Brown Co, WI – A performance of Steering into the Skid sponsored by Dementia Friendly Communities Committee and Wisconsin Alzheimer’s Association will be provided for online attendance.
February through June, 2021 in rural communities in Minnesota and Wisconsin – Virtual performances of “In the Garden” and “Steering into the Skid” as a part of a Spring tour sponsored by the The Remember Project / Metropolitan Area Agency on Aging

November 12, 2020 at 10:00 am in Brown County – WI – A performance of Steering into the Skid, sponsored by Dementia Friendly Communities Committee and Wisconsin Alzheimer’s Association, will be provided for online attendance. There is no fee to attend this event.
November 16, 2020 in Juneau, Crawford, Richland and Sauk Counties, WI – A performance of Steering into the Skid will be provided by the Aging and Disability Resource Center of Eagle Country on week 3 as part of a 5 week Caregiver Boot Camp Series for carepartners of loved ones living with Alzheimer’s disease or related dementias.
July 13, 2020 at 10:30 am in Brown County – WI – A performance of Steering into the Skid, sponsored by Dementia Friendly Communities Committee and Wisconsin Alzheimer’s Association, will be provided for online attendance. There is no fee to attend this event.
March 11, 2020 in Brown County – WI – A performance of Steering into the Skid, sponsored by Dementia Friendly Community Coalition, at the YMCA to help families dealing with a loved one with dementia and the general community. There is no fee to attend this event.
January 28, 2020 in Brown County – WI – A performance of Steering into the Skid, sponsored by Dementia Friendly Community Coalition, at Assisted Living by Hillcrest to help families dealing with a loved one with dementia and the general community. There is no fee to attend this event.

December 10, 2019 in Brown County – WI – A performance of Steering into the Skid, sponsored by Dementia Friendly Community Coalition, with two volunteer actors to be performed for 50 Aging and Disability Resource Center Staff.
November 6, 2019 in Brown County, WI – A performance of Steering into the Skid, sponsored by Dementia Friendly Community Coalition, with two volunteer actors to a group of 40 community members, family members of those who have dementia and other interested people. The event is free to help educate Brown County community about dementia. We will offer a free lunch which is being donated by the Forget Me Not Fund. After the play we will use the questions to facilitate discussion.
September 6 and 7, 2019 in Spooner, WI – A performance of Steering Into the Skid, In the Garden, and Riding the Waves each performed both the 6th and 7th for an Educational and Fundraising event benefitting Alzheimer’s Day Respite Program – Spooner.
July 30, 2019 in Greencastle, IN – A performance of Steering into the Skid and Riding the Waves to benefit Waters of Greencastle – Memory Springs Alzheimer and Dementia Unit.
July 17, 2019 in Hendersonville, NC – A performance of Steering into the Skid to benefit Four Seasons Palliative Care Progam.
May 21, 2019 in Tryon, NC – A performance of Steering into the Skid at the Tryon Arts Center.
April 10, 2019 in Asheville, NC – A performance of Steering Into the Skid as a part of Using Dramatic Arts for Dementia Education at the Four Seasons Palliative Care Immersion Course.

October 18, 2018 in Asheville, NC – A performance of Steering Into the Skid as a part of Using Dramatic Arts for Dementia Education at the Four Seasons Palliative Care Immersion Course
October 5, 2018 in Spartanburg, SC – A performance of Steering into the Skid at the Spartanburg Regional Palliative Care Conference.
July 18, 2018 in Asheville, NC – A performance of Steering Into the Skid as a part of Using Dramatic Arts for Dementia Education at the Four Seasons Palliative Care Immersion Course.
May 22, 2018 in Eaton Town, NC – A performance of Steering Into the Skid and In the Garden at the 2018 Healthcare Association of New Jersey Assisted Living Conference.
April 18, 2018 in Asheville, NC – A performance of Steering Into the Skid as a part of Using Dramatic Arts for Dementia Education at the Four Seasons Palliative Care Immersion Course.

July 12, 2017 in Asheville, NC – A performance of Steering Into the Skid by Peggy Noel as a part of the Four Seasons Palliative Care Education Course.
June 6, 2017 in New Richmond,WI – New Richmond Community Education hosted a performance of Steering into the Skid.
April 6, 2017 in Chapel Hill, NC – Carol Woods Retirement Community hosted a performance of Steering into the Skid.
February 22, 2017 in Morris Township, New Jersey – A performance of The MemoryCare Plays at the Frelinghuysen Arboretum.
February 9, 10, & 14, 2017 at Boulder, Colorado Senior Centers – A performace of Steering into the Skid by the VIVA Theater Troupe.

November 10, 2016 in Spartanburg, SC – Staged readings of In the Garden and Riding the Waves was performed at the Chapman Cultural Center, hosted by Spartanburg Little Theatre. Free to the public, all donations benefited the Alzheimer’s Association. Co-sponsored by the Alzheimer’s Association and Eden Terrace.
October 22, 2016 in Lake Tahoe, NV—A performance of In the Garden with other winners of the WordWave One-Act Play Competition at the Tallac Historic Site at the Boathouse Theatre.
October 8, 2016 in Olympia, WA—A performance of both Steering Into the Skid and In the Garden for Epsilon Sigma Alpha service sorority.
September 19, 2016 in Lacey, WA—A performance of In the Garden at the Panorama Retirement Community for residents.
September 15, 2016 in Olympia, WA—A reading of Steering Into the Skid at the Garden Courte residential facility.
August 15, 2016 in Lacey, WA—A performance of Riding the Waves at the Panorama Retirement Community for residents.
July 18, 2016 in Lacey, WA—A performance of Steering Into the Skid at Panorama Retirement Community for residents.
July 9, 2016 in Dallas, TX—A performance of Steering Into the Skid at Grace United Methodist Church to benefit seniors of Grace United Methodist Church living with dementia. Co-organized by Grace United Methodist Church and the Alzheimer’s Association of Greater Dallas.
June 24, 2016 in Lihue, Kauai, HI—A performance of Steering Into the Skid and Into the Garden at St. Michael’s Episcopal Church to benefit the Alzheimer’s Association WALK in Kauai.
May 6, 2016 in Lacey, WA—A performance of Steering Into the Skid as a part of the Alzheimer’s Caregivers Conference.
May 5, 2016 in Wisconsin Dells, WI—A performance of Steering Into the Skid.
April 19, 2016 in Olympia, WA—A second evening of performances of Steering Into the Skid, In the Garden, and Riding the Waves at the Olympia Public Library to benefit South Sound Seniors.
April 6, 2016 in Asheville, NC—A performance of Steering Into the Skid by Peggy Noel as a part of the Four Seasons Palliative Care Education Course.
March 22, 2016 in Olympia, WA—Performances of Steering Into the Skid, In the Garden, and Riding the Waves at the Olympia Public Library to benefit South Sound Seniors.

November 12, 2015 in Asheville, NC—A reading of Steering Into the Skid during A Meeting of the Minds: Enhancing Clniical & Practical Dementia Care at the Mountain Area Health and Education Center (MAHEC) Dementia Summit. This performace featured original actors, Dick and Saundra Cuyler, from the featured Night of One Acts performace in May of 2013.
October 2, 2015 in Charlotte, NC—A reading of Steering Into the Skid incorporated into the session “Using the Arts to Educate About Caregiver Issues.” This session was a part of the Charlotte Neurosciences Foundation Symposium hosted by Charlotte AHEC.
September 11-12 2015 in Portland, OR—Two nights of staged readings of The MemoryCare Plays performed by the Readers Theatre Repertory.
September 9, 2015 in Monroe, NC—A reading of In the Garden during the Annual Meeting for Council on Aging in Union County.
September-December 2015 in Southeast Wisconsin and Minnesota—Steering Into the Skid, In the Garden, and Riding the Waves performed by a traveling theatre company. Produced by Aging and Disability Resources Center of St. Croix in Wisconsin and Family Means in Minnesota. Supported by the St. Croix Valley Foundation.
August 18, 2015 in Boulder, Colorado—Hosted by VIVA at the Assembly Room, Diana Hoguet and Mark Read performed Steering Into the Skid, an “affectionate portrait of a loving couple’s dealing with the challenges of memory.” Jan Grenda introduced the play, which ran approximately 30 minutes and included a discussino after the performance.
July 15, 2015 in Asheville, NC—”The MemoryCare Plays: Lessons for Palliative Care,” MAHEC/Four Seasons Palliative Care Boot Camp.
May 8-9, 2015 in Seattle, WA—Two nights of staged readings of The MemoryCare Plays directed by Scott Nolte at the Taproot Theatre. There was an opening night gala and each night’s sold-out performance was followed by a Q & A and audience discussion with Dr. Soo Borson, Director Emerita of the Memory Disorders Clinic at the University of Washington, and Matthew Widman, playwright of In the Garden, one of the three one-act plays in the anthology. Produced by the Phinney Neighborhood Association’s Greenwood Senior Center, Full Life Care, and the Taproot Theatre, all proceeds were given to developing arts programs for organizations serving individuals with memory loss and their caregivers. The weekend benefit was followed by a roundtable meeting of community Alheimer’s care groups to discuss how to continue to use The MemoryCare Plays to help encourage continued local community involvement and national policy advocacy.
March 28, 2015 in Asheville, NC—”The MemoryCare Plays: Lessons for Palliative Care,” MAHEC/Four Seasons Palliative Care Boot Camp.
March 23, 2015 in New York, NY—TheMemoryCare Plays have been incorporated into a graduate course at New York University in the MA program for students training to become professional mental health counselors. The course, Program Development & Evaluation in Counseling, is a required course for all students in the program and is taught by Dr. Alisha Ali. Students in the course read In the Garden in preparation for class discussion on counseling approaches for Alzheimer’s Disease and dementia. During the class session, Steering into the Skid was performed by tow acting students from NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts. After the performance, Dr. Ali and Matthew Widman, playwright of In the Garden, held a class discussion addressing the work of counseling families and individuals dealing with memory loss. Student feedback on the class session was extremely positive: students noted in their evaluations that the plays “dealt with these important issues in a way that the usual academic discussion does not,” and that the “use of the theatre as a mode of teaching allowed for greater depth of discussion in the class.”
February 26, 2015 in Philadelphia, PA—Staged reading of Steering Into the Skid at the annual meeting of the Academy of Hospice and Palliative Medicine (a presentation of “Steering Into the Skid: Utilizing the dramatic arts to educate and increase awareness of the impact of dementia on families”).

November 6, 2014 in New York City, NY—Staged reading of In the Garden by Matthew Widman at The Drama Bookshop, directed by Gwynn MacDonald
October 14, 2014 in Asheville, NC—”Steering Into the Skid: Utilizing the dramatic arts to educate and increase awareness of the impact of the dementia on families,” Mission Palliative Care, SECU Cancer Center.
September 19, 2014 in Southport, NC—Staged reading of Steering Into the Skid.
August 21, 2014 in Burnsville, NC—A staged reading of Steering Into the Skid in conjunction with community education on dementia and resources for the aging.
July 24, 2014 in Waynesville, NC—Staged reading of Steering Into the Skid in conjunction with community education on driving with dementia
June 26, 2014 in Asheville, NC—Staged reading of Steering Into the Skid at The Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at UNC Asheville
February 28, 2014 in Asheville, NC—Staged reading of Steering Into the Skid by at the North Carolina Arboretum, Asheville, NC

May 4, 2013 in Mills River, NC—Debut performance of The MemoryCare Plays at The Grace Center; Directed by Dusty McNabb Campbell. Original cast: Saundra Cuyler, Dick Cuyler, Lori Hilliard, McCrae Hilliard, Ed Mathis, Matt Moss, Catherine Zayatz

Host a Performance

This anthology was commissioned specifically to create awareness about dementia and to help fund care for those affected by memory loss through the performance of its plays and sale of the playbook itself. We invite you to use this remarkable set of plays in any way you choose to further these two goals.

Whether read or performed, the plays will increase the public’s understanding of dementia. The anthology includes discussion questions for book groups, benefit performances, educational outreach, and support groups.

Instructions for Utilizing These Plays

The playwrights of these three one act plays have graciously granted MemoryCare the authority to grant other nonprofit organizations dedicated to dementia care a non-exclusive, royalty free license to perform the approved version of their plays, in whole or in part, at any educational, advocacy or fundraising event, provided that such nonprofit organization agrees that all profits raised from any such event will be applied to the care or support of persons affected by dementia. All monies earned are yours to distribute as you wish to the dementia related non-profit of your choice.

Any license granted by MemoryCare to a nonprofit organization dedicated to dementia care shall be granted on a single-use basis and the playwright shall be notified when MemoryCare grants a license for the performance of their work.

In all printed, published and licensed performances of the approved work, whole or part, the playwright must be credited as well as the published source, The MemoryCare Plays edited by Margaret A. Noel, MD. If only part of the play is published, printed or performed, it must be acknowledged in the credits that the presented work is part of a longer work by the playwright and published by MemoryCare. Please see below for an example:

“Steering into the Skid, by Arnold Johnston and Deborah Ann Percy, was published in The MemoryCare Plays, a book of three one-act plays compiled and edited by Dr. Margaret A. Noel. In 12 short scenes, one per month – starting on New Year’s Eve – and all taking place in the couple’s SUV, the audience comes to know Tim and Amanda and bear witness to the early progression of dementia. As the months pass, the audience sees the subtle changes and adjustments this loving couple is forced to deal with due to memory loss. For more information visit www.memorycare.org/plays.”

Any person or entity requesting to perform these plays that is not a non-profit organization dedicated to dementia care will be referred directly to the playwright.

For further information on utilizing these plays for educational, advocacy, or fundraising purposes, please contact MemoryCare. Bulk rate pricing is available for purchasing copies of the play anthology.

Contact Margaret Noel at MemoryCare (noel@memorycare.org).

“It is a gracious way to raise consciousness about this issue of memory loss–people will respond to these plays in very positive ways. Art can sometimes reach people when science cannot.” — C. Robert Jones, Professor emeritus, Mars Hill University

Award Winning

The MemoryCare Plays received a bronze medal for best anthology at the 2014 Independent Publisher Book Awards. The “IPPY” Awards honor the year’s best independently published books. In 2014, the contest drew over 91 entries from authors and publishers in all 50 U.S. states, nine Canadian provinces, and 32 countries overseas.