New Project Turns Seniors’ Stories Into Songs

Whitehorse Independent Theatre announces the launching of its latest New Horizons for Seniors Project: Stories into Songs. The goal of the project is to team up seniors (anyone over 55) with senior musicians and to create songs that represent what is on the minds of seniors. In the New Year, these songs will be performed by professional musicians in a concert setting.
 
Similar to WIT’s “Our Stories Ourselves” Story Circles last year, whose documentary is currently playing on Northwestel’s Community Cable 9, a video of the project will be created to document the process from beginning to end, and will be broadcast as well. “We had such a great Story Circle project last year that I wanted to continue working with seniors, and thought using the song as a story format would be fun”. Says coordinator Arlin McFarlane.
 
The project had a soft start during Culture Days when the Yukon Transportation Museum hosted three days of workshops. Musicians Grant Simpson, Annie Avery, and Nicole Edwards participated, along with a number of seniors and two and a half songs were mapped out. According to McFarlane, “Participants saw their ideas turn into melodies and grow before their eyes into stanzas and choruses. There was lots of laughter and huge excitement in the room. We got many flip-chart pages of ideas and about two and a half songs mapped out. It was fun”.
 
More workshops will be scheduled through October, November and January, and anyone who would like to participate is encouraged to email [email protected] for a schedule of dates and times. For more information visit wittheatre.ca, find us on Facebook at WIT – Whitehorse Independent Theatre, or phone McFarlane at 336-2015.
 
The Stories into Songs project is funded in part by the Government of Canada’s New Horizons for Seniors Program.