Lighter Fare

 

Cross Talk by Keith Elkins, Kristen Lichtenthal and the Brainstormers. 

A grumpy old man, his level-headed daughter and tech-savvy grandchild talk at cross-purposes

about whether the grandchild might interview the old guy for a college paper on Cultural History.

 

No Future I by Keith Elkins. In 2021, when the power goes out, a small Idaho hamlet’s mayor

treks deep into the woods to ask for advice about what to do from an old flame who’s been a

reclusive and self-reliant survivalist for years and can still write and read cursive and do arithmetic on paper. 

 

No Future II by Keith Elkins.  Two weeks after No Future I takes place, having discovered that the outage is countrywide, the mayor and the recluse meet again to figure out how the community can reconstitute and rebuild itself without any electronically controlled devices or machines.

 

Power Up by Keith Elkins.  Living in a retirement community named Sunful Acres, Bruce Wayne (aka Batman), Clark Kent (aka Superman) and Diana Prince (aka Wonder Woman) try to figure out what’s happened to their super powers and how to live without them. 

 

​Serious Issues for General Audiences 

Druggie by Keith Elkins.  Tony’s friend Lee tells her that her daughter Bonnie has a new boyfriend named Clyde who uses pot and may be growing and dealing it to under-age kids.  Tony presses

Lee to report Clyde to the authorities.  

 

Exit by Charlotte Grantham.  When a man speaks in favor of assisted suicide during a celebration

of his 80th birthday and asks his three middle-aged children to help him die if his mind goes, they have different reactions.  

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Gun Shy by Keith Elkins.  An anti-gun wife and pro-gun husband argue the pros and cons of training their young grandson in the use of guns in relation to safety and the law.  

 

My Way: The Case for Advance Directives by Neil Garvey and Keith Elkins.  Needing to decide whether or not to permit the hospital to install a feeding tube in her terminally ill and comatose husband, a woman talks to his friend and lawyer about end-of-life legal documents. 

Plug by Keith Elkins.  Middle-aged Lee and her younger brother Tony discuss their terminally ill

and now comatose older brother Bruce.  In the absence of advance directives, the issue is whether

to allow Bruce’s doctor to replace a temporary breathing tube with a permanent one. 

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SSA by Keith Elkins with Margo Davis, Neal Garvey, Charlotte Grantham and Kathleen

Shoemaker.  A young mother of a seriously ill two-year-old and her mother, who works two part-

time jobs with no health benefits, have a painful conversation with their pastor about the morality

of not reporting to the SSA the death of the child’s great-grandmother, who’d stopped taking her

own meds so that the child might live.  

 

Telling Rebecca by Keith Elkins and Veronica Kraus.  Shortly before her wedding, Rebecca’s mother reluctantly tells her that her grandmother is dying of pancreatic cancer.  Furious, Rebecca charges her mother with treating her like a child. 

 

Under The Influence by Carol J. Alaimo. Parents confront the opioid epidemic first hand with

the sudden drug crisis of their adult and only child. 

 

Welcome Home by Keith Elkins.  Discussing whether or not to place an old man in failing health into an assisted living facility against his will, two close relatives take opposing views on their obligations to him and end up in a quandary. 

 

Serious Issues for Seniors 

 

A Blue HORSE? by Keith Elkins.  Long-married seventy-year-olds Kit and Duke argue about why he doesn’t wear his hearing aids in a conversation about some friends who are getting a divorce.​

 

Can We Talk? by Darleen Pickering Hummert.  In overlapping conversations, an elderly couple and their grown-up daughter discuss a range of issues facing the elderly.  

 

Checking Out by Rosalind Cramer.  When Molly says “Kill me” because life isn’t worth it, Dolly objects. They argue and reminisce. Saying they should kill themselves together, Dolly agrees. 

Then… 

 

Details by Keith Elkins.  In talking with another patient in their doctor’s waiting room who wrote about it in an article for her senior group’s newsletter, an elderly couple learn “way more than enough” about the reasons why prescriptions cost so much. 

 

Doctor Doctor by Keith Elkins. A taciturn elderly patient visits a preoccupied doctor alone and

learns very little.  In a replay of the same scene, the patient’s domestic partner is also present and, together, they learn a lot more. 

 

Gotcha! by Keith Elkins.  Speaking to an old friend about the loss of most of her life savings, an elderly woman discovers that she’s been the victim of a phone scam.

 

Gypsy by Keith Elkins.  In the first of two scenes, an elderly woman is persuaded to make a substantial advance payment on some construction work she didn’t know she needed until gypsy contractor knocked on her front door and conned her.  In the second scene, another elderly woman gets suspicious. 

 

Loved for Who I Am by Keith Elkins. In an upscale retirement community, a woman resident comes out as gay to her middle-aged son and daughter. Because her partner is close to death in the ICU, she is under considerable stress and suffers more as she deals with their quite different reactions.

 

Missing Margaret by Anna Kay France.  Unwell and needing her help, an elderly woman has difficulty dealing with to the unexpected death of the middle-aged daughter who’s been taking care

of her. 

 

Mom at Risk by Anna Kay France.  Three middle-aged children react very differently to the struggles of an elderly woman with a gambling addiction who does the only thing she can think of. 

 

Old and Lonely by Keith Elkins.  Three members of a Home Owners Association’s Board of Directors discuss whether the Association has a role to play in monitoring and ensuring the safety and welfare of an older member of the community increasingly unable to take care of himself. 

 

On the Road by Keith Elkins.  In a series of scenes on his road to dementia, a seventy-something old man’s wife, handball friends and sister deal with the increasingly consequential progress of his cognitive decline. 

 

Pajamas at 4 p.m. by Betty Accordino.   Depression in older adults is both common and, unfortunately, often overlooked. Listen in as one woman describes her experience while her two adult children talk about what is happening and how they can help. 

 

Phone Call by Charlotte Grantham.  Scammer Michael calls two elderly women after telling tells each in turn that he’s her grandson and in a jam, he asks if she can send him $5,000 in care of general delivery.  Grandma #1 agrees to send him the money.  Grandma #2 tricks him.

 

The Spirits of Aging by Betty Accordino.  Sitting in front of her make-up mirror, an older

woman having trouble accepting her own aging is visited by five spirits: Acceptance, Gratitude, Imagination, Now, and Growth (A G I N G).   

 

To Drive or Not by Keith Elkins.  Concerned Kate and her grumpy husband George discuss a

series of considerations having to do with his increasing deficiencies as a driver on the one hand

and his reasons for being so reluctant to give up his license on the other. 

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Tomorrow by Keith Elkins. While waiting for the main presentation at an Elder Law Fair on elder abuse, four old friends in their seventies end up discussing what’s going on in their lives in a way suggesting several different kinds of elder abuse.​

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Unfriended by Carol J. Alaimo. A senior lady deals with drastic changes in relationship with her dear old friend and senior facility roommate when that friend 'comes out' as gay. 

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What Matters to Me by Keith Elkins.  An older woman is visited twice by the ghost of her late husband and, in relation to his experiences as he approached his death, discusses with him her wishes about not only what she’d like done when she dies but also and more importantly how she wants to live out the rest of her life.