Since the earliest days of the pandemic, when we were creating what is now the Global Play Brigade (GPB), we knew that we wanted to bring the transformational power of play into nursing homes and assisted living facilities around the world to address the isolation of our elders.

My father lived at The Actors Fund Home in Englewood, New Jersey for five years until he passed away on August 22nd, 2020. During my visits, I fell in love with the facility and many of its residents. It’s a unique Assisted Living and Nursing Home, with a proud history of caring for a wide variety of professionals in performing arts and entertainment, including designers, writers, sound technicians, musicians, dancers, administrators, directors, film editors, stagehands, actors, and more. 

After months of crisis inside U.S. nursing homes — where COVID was rampant — I reached out to the activities staff and asked how the Global Play Brigade could support them with programming. I had already shared with them our Ode to Frontline Workers video, which they were showing on screens around the facility.

Jon deAngelis, a dedicated and talented drama therapist and Activities Coordinator at The Actors Home, and I put our heads together. Inspired by the power of storytelling, we created a pilot project we call the Global Play Brigade Story Chain; an innovative way to lend support and provide a fun activity that connects resident story writers/storytellers with Global Play Brigadiers around the world.

We are creating a collective, ongoing, improvisational “story chain” by having residents write (dictate) the first sentence, paragraph, or paragraphs of a story. Then, The Actors Home’s recreation staff and Jon DeAngelis, with support from improviser and staff member Angela Dohrmann, email the stories to me, the Brigadier responsible for the pilot project. 

I then email the story to a Brigadier somewhere in the world, and they add a paragraph or more, and email it back to both me and Jon. The resident storyteller/originator continues the story, and it comes back to us, and so on, and so on. 

We hope that this pilot project will become a model that we can roll out to other nursing and assisted living facilities around the world in many languages. For now, all stories are in English and all the Brigadiers, irrespective of their first language, are writing in English.

We began with three resident story writers: Claire, Martha, and Pam. Of those three stories begun in June, two are completed, and new story writers have come on board since. The stories have traveled from the USA to the UK, Nigeria, Greece, Mexico, Turkey, New Zealand and Australia. We have eight active stories representing nine residents. Our latest story was written by a mother/daughter at The Actors Home and is being sent to a mother/daughter in India! We have 16 active Brigadier story writers.

“I am creating a story with someone who is far away and I do not feel any sense of age and aging in our stories. I am surprised by a sense of wonder and great freshness!” - Brigadier/Storyteller Claudita Fanni Fertino (Italy)

“I sat down with Claire this morning, and before we even looked at the story, she seemed resolved to find an ending…. I told her endings are often found at the story’s beginning so she agreed I should read her the story from the very beginning. When we came to Vic’s latest contribution, Claire’s face lit up and she began excitedly dictating to me her latest contribution.”  - Angela Dohrmann, Activities Staff, The Actors Fund Home

“The simple act of creating a narrative with someone living over 3000 miles away is both oddly touching and exciting. When you’ve never met the person that you’re improvising with, and yet you still feel such a strong connection and sense of fun, it’s like magic. I always look forward to seeing what direction Claire has taken our tale." - Brigadier/Improviser Vic Hogg (United Kingdom)

“I want to commend the entire Brigade for their outstanding commitment and effort in making these activities a unique, connecting experience for the participants. I am very impressed, excited and humbled by the interest and talent going into our residents’ wellbeing and happiness.”  - Jon DeAngelis, Activities Coordinator, The Actors Fund Home

“Meeting someone through creative play creates an instant connection. Through a shared story we get a glimpse of how someone imagines and plays and they get a glimpse of us. It is a warm feeling and I enjoy it immensely. There is something so sweet in Pam’s words. She wants people to have a nice happy time. I wonder if there is some memory mixed in here. Whatever story she wants, we shall find it together.” - Brigadier/Improviser Patti Stiles (Australia)

Pam's Story 

(Brigadiers’ additions in italics)

There was a little boy and girl. They were liking each other an awful lot, which was good.

Every Saturday, after they finished their chores, they would meet at their secret place by the river. Sometimes they would swim. Sometimes they would watch the clouds. Whatever they did they made each other laugh. They enjoyed each other’s company.

The boy and girl went back to their friends who were glad to see them. It was evening time. The boy and the girl and their friends went to walk in the sand. They had to come back for dinner at the girl’s house. Her mother was a good cook.

The boy and girl hugged all of their friends goodbye and went back home for dinner. Pattie, the girl’s mother, had prepared a Sunday roast that smelled like heaven and a sweet cherry pie for dessert. They ate, talked and laughed a lot, yet Pattie looked sad and wouldn’t tell them why. So, the girl and boy decided to take her to their secret place by the river and cheer her up.

They arrived at the secret place and had a swim. The swim was so good, they went back to find their brothers. The swim cheered Pattie up.

The brothers were at the house waiting for them. They had warmed the cherry pie and made fresh coffee. It was all on the front porch waiting for the boy, girl and Pattie to arrive. Everyone complimented Pattie’s cherry pie, she really was a good cook. Her pies had won many ribbons for being the best at the Country Fair. The girl went in the house and put a record on. “Remember this song?” she asked with a smile “Shall we dance?”

As we await Pam’s next installment, it is hitting me that the Global Play Brigade Story Chain — and all that we do — asks the question: Shall we dance?