About Sisikiyou Senior Players
LIFE IS A STAGE
ARE YOU EVER TOO OLD TO KICK UP YOUR HEELS, be creative and just have fun? The Siskiyou Senior Players, ages 57 to 81, thought not. In the year 2006, Joan Lucas of Broadway, movie and television fame who starred in “Singing in the Rain” with Gene Kelly, brought together a group of seniors to act, sing and dance in Mount Shasta. The effort was dedicated to enhancing the lives of seniors and entertaining the community at local events and a year-end show. Lucas passed away in 2009. In 2011 the mantle of directing the Siskiyou Senior Players, taught as a class open for ages 50 and up at College of the Siskiyous in Weed, was taken up by DeLeon Grabowski.
Grabowski was one of three original members still in the group, and he said he volunteered to be the leader three years ago because “I loved it so much that I wanted to see it stay alive.” “We write and choreograph almost all our own material and members are encouraged to contribute,” Grabowski said. “We satirize the culture, attitudes and politics of our community. We don’t just throw the show together. This is a high level of entertainment.”
Grabowski echoed the sentiments of the other Players when he noted that one of the group's priorities was to just have fun.
“It's was a family. We looked out for each other, took each other to doctor’s appointments and called each other when we were down,” said original member Suzie Boyd. “I was brought into the group by Joan. She was so inviting. I felt needed, necessary and excited and I loved making people laugh.”
Laughter, indeed, was a huge part of the Siskiyou Senior Players, from the sounds of hilarity that echoed every year off the walls of the standingroom-only performances in the Black Box Theater at College of the Siskiyous to the heartfelt togetherness at rehearsals, where there were no mistakes, just support with a humorous jibe and corrections with a smile.
Thamar Wherrit, the oldest member of the cast at 81, and an original Player said, "if it isn’t fun, we didn't do it,” Wherrit said. “At our age, we have the opportunity to engage our creative juices.”
Each year’s performance had a theme and the group provided equal opportunity when it came to taking shots at all political and cultural persuasions.
“We took no prisoners,” Wherrit said of the group's outrageous skits. The Siskiyou Senior Players sported a lot of gray hair and wrinkles, but there was no lack of energy, creativity and camaraderie which translated into a highly entertaining theater group that showed no signs of slowing down.
Unfortunately, the pandemic along with health issues took their toll and in 2019 the Senior Players gave their last performance.
Here's to ever-lasting memories!