panel discussion on ageism in Hollywood.<\/a><\/p>\nAgeism is so problematic that in 2017 the California state legislature passed a law allowing actors to request the removal of their date of birth from industry databases, like IMDB.com. Actors\u2019 unions argued that the law was necessary to protect actors from age discrimination. (In February 2018, US District Judge Vince Chhabria declared the law unconstitutional.)<\/p>\n
On Broadway, many directors have begun experimenting with \u201ccolor-blind\u201d and \u201cgender-blind\u201d casting\u2014choosing actors without regard to race or gender, according to Mark Lowry, editor and theater critic for TheaterJones.com, a regional arts website. But \u201cage-blind\u201d casting hasn\u2019t caught on in the same way.<\/p>\n
\u201cAge is a little more complicated,\u201d Lowry said. \u201cPlaywrights generally specify an age, and directors try to honor playwrights\u2019 intentions.\u201d<\/p>\n
However, there are a few directors trying \u201cage-blind\u201d casting. A 2017 West End (London) revival of the comedy Daisy Pulls It Off<\/em> featured actresses in a wide range of ages, all playing teen schoolgirls. And in his 2015 production of Romeo and Juliet<\/em>, Kenneth Branagh cast Derek Jacobi, then 76, as Mercutio, a move the Guardian<\/em> said \u201cboldly challenges our prejudices about age on stage.\u201d<\/p>\n\nDirectors may be more willing now to be more realistic in casting and to choose older actors to play mature characters.<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n
At the regional level, Carolyn Wickwire, 81, a professional actress in Albuquerque, NM, says she\u2019s been surprised by how many roles she has been able to play. She has no experience to compare from her youth\u2014Wickwire didn\u2019t start acting professionally until age 51, after retiring from an administrator job. But she\u2019s been so busy with roles in local theater productions, as well as gigs in TV series shot in Albuquerque (Better Call Saul<\/em>, Longmire<\/em> and Manhattan<\/em>), that she\u2019s had to pass up some tempting auditions. She has played characters ranging from age 65 to 91.<\/p>\n\u201cThey\u2019re not always the biggest roles, but sometimes they are leads [or] strong supporting roles,\u201d Wickwire said. She believes directors are moving toward \u201cmore realistic casting\u201d and are more willing to include older characters and more apt to choose older actors for mature roles.<\/p>\n
Some directors consciously tweak the ages of cast members to create a fresh dynamic. The revival of My Fair Lady<\/em> on Broadway, which opened April 20, 2018, paired Lauren Ambrose, 40, as Eliza, with a slightly younger British actor, Harry Hadden-Paton, 37, as Professor Higgins. That\u2019s a big departure from the original, in which 20-year-old Julie Andrews played opposite Rex Harrison, who was almost 50. The new version was soon sold out.<\/p>\nNot all performing arts prize youth as stubbornly as the stage and screen. It\u2019s not uncommon in opera, for example, for older women to be cast as characters who are younger. Lowry notes that in the Richard Strauss opera Romeo and Juliet<\/em>, Juliet is a girl of 14, but the role was written for a woman with a more mature voice, usually someone in her late 20s or early 30s.<\/p>\nEven in ballet, where few survive professionally past age 40, more dramatic roles often go to more experienced dancers.<\/p>\n
\u201cCertain roles require youth and energy, but the older ballerina \u2026 brings maturity and experience that a younger person might not have,\u201d said Michelle Gifford, a former dancer with New York City Ballet and Texas Ballet Theater.<\/p>\n
Ageism in Fine Arts<\/strong><\/p>\nEven visual artists\u2014working in arenas where unwrinkled faces or agile young bodies aren\u2019t required\u2014can encounter ageism, according to Joan Jeffri, director and founder of the Research Center for Arts and Culture in New York City.<\/p>\n
The organization\u2019s recent study, \u201cAbove Ground: Information on Artists III: Special Focus New York City Aging Artists,\u201d found that 43 percent experienced discrimination because of age. In focus groups, artists reported that if a grant application asked their age, they felt certain \u201cthe application went right into the garbage,\u201d Jeffri said.<\/p>\n
Some galleries are trying to rectify that. The Carter Burden Gallery in New York\u2019s Chelsea neighborhood shows only the work of artists 60 and older. The Museum of Modern Art in New York is currently running a yearlong installation, The Long Run, of works created by artists after age 45, including a piece created in 1977 by Georgia O\u2019Keeffe at age 90.<\/p>\n
Older artists have become \u201cthe rage\u201d lately, Jeffri said, but even that poses a dilemma because the trend positions older artists as a \u201cpeculiarity, when they should be the norm. Age shouldn\u2019t matter.\u201d<\/p>\n
Adjusting for Age<\/strong><\/p>\nThe physical and cognitive changes that accompany aging often affect artists\u2019 ability to create or perform. Recent advances in medicine, nutrition and physical therapy have delayed that somewhat: orthopedic surgery might give a ballet dancer another year or two on an injured knee; a good fitness trainer and a skilled dermatologist might enable an actress to pass as an ingenue into her early 40s. But most older artists eventually must make some adjustments for aging.<\/p>\n
For vocalists, for example, aging reduces the flexibility of cartilage around the vocal cords, limiting older singers\u2019 ability to hit certain notes. And hormonal changes may lower a voice.<\/p>\n
\u201cSinging is being an athlete, pure and simple,\u201d said Mallette of Texas Christian University. Like athletes, vocalists can use exercises and preventive measures to maintain their voices. Many older vocalists adjust the way they sing certain songs. She noted that Willie Nelson, 85, uses the twang in his singing style as a technique to avoid straining his vocal cords.<\/p>\n
\nA study found that most artists have no plans to retire because they find their work meaningful and absorbing.<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\nSimilarly, the Art Cart program at the Research Center for Art and Culture helped visual artists with occupational therapy, such as fitting a painter with a special built-up paintbrush that helped her keep her hands steady. (The Art Cart program is now the Performing Arts Legacy Project for performers age 62 and up and is housed at The Actors Fund.)<\/p>\n
And artists\u2019 creative instincts help them adapt. One older artist had spent years creating sculptures out of safety pins; after developing arthritis, she worked in watercolor instead.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe didn\u2019t for a minute think she\u2019d stop doing art,\u201d Jeffri said. \u201cShe just found a new way to do it.\u201d<\/p>\n
That productive sense of joy can keep older artists engaged in their work well into their later years\u2014and ultimately allow them to age more successfully, Jeffri said. The Above Ground study found that most artists had no plans to retire; most reported high levels of life satisfaction because their work was meaningful and absorbing.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe found they are often more resilient than the general population,\u201d Jeffri said. \u201cMany older artists continue to go to the studio every day or every week, even if it takes an hour and a half to walk two blocks to get there.\u201d<\/p>\n
Out of the Game<\/strong><\/p>\nIn some cases, getting older eventually necessitates leaving an artistic profession. With its joint-punishing leaps and turns, plus the difficulties of pointe work for female dancers, ballet is a young person\u2019s pursuit. Professional dancers know from the start that they\u2019ll likely retire by age 40.<\/p>\n
\u201cAt some point you start asking yourself, \u2018What else is there in life besides the stage life?\u2019\u201d said Gifford, the former dancer.<\/p>\n
Spurred by a painful ankle injury as well as a desire to do something new, she retired at age 47. Now she\u2019s teaching and working as a r\u00e9p\u00e9titeur with the George Balanchine Trust. (R\u00e9p\u00e9titeurs are hand-picked dancers with intimate knowledge of particular ballets, authorized to teach the steps and choreography to performing companies.)<\/p>\n
Gifford knows former dancers who made more drastic career changes, morphing into lawyers, professors, doctors, full-time parents. \u201cIt\u2019s a really great opportunity to recreate yourself; it\u2019s pretty amazing if you take advantage of the life in front of you.\u201d<\/p>\n
Depth with Maturity<\/strong><\/p>\nFor those who do continue to perform or create, maturity brings depth and self-assurance.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe main thing I see in older age is confidence,\u201d said Linnea Glatt, 68, an artist in Dallas, TX, who works in mixed media. \u201cWhen I was younger, I worried that people didn\u2019t \u2018get\u2019 what I was doing. Now I don\u2019t worry about that so much.\u201d<\/p>\n
Illness or disability can force fallow periods that ultimately prove creatively nurturing. Glatt saw that when she took a year off in 2001 for breast cancer treatment.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was the most productive time in my career, even though I did no work at all,\u201d she said. \u201cI looked through my old sketchbooks, something I never had time for, and began to really realize what I was after. I could see the beginning of the thread, the trajectory of my work.\u201d<\/p>\n
Even in acting, where youth seems so important, Albuquerque actress Wickwire sees benefits in getting older.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor actors, in terms of life experience and understanding, being older is an advantage,\u201d she said. \u201cWe bring a lot to the table.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Opera star Pl\u00e1cido Domingo made his name as a tenor. …But now, at age 77, Domingo is a baritone.<\/p>\n
Read more Older Artists Keep Creating and Growing<\/span> ›<\/span><\/a><\/div>\n<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":5089,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_FSMCFIC_featured_image_caption":"","_FSMCFIC_featured_image_nocaption":null,"_FSMCFIC_featured_image_hide":null,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,7,4,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5088","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-getting-older","category-healthspan","category-issues-in-aging","category-voices-views"],"cc_featured_image_caption":{"caption_text":"","source_text":"","source_url":""},"wps_subtitle":"But ageism raises obstacles for many","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/78.142.243.82\/~silvercentury\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5088","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/78.142.243.82\/~silvercentury\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/78.142.243.82\/~silvercentury\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/78.142.243.82\/~silvercentury\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/13"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/78.142.243.82\/~silvercentury\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5088"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"http:\/\/78.142.243.82\/~silvercentury\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5088\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5200,"href":"http:\/\/78.142.243.82\/~silvercentury\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5088\/revisions\/5200"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/78.142.243.82\/~silvercentury\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5089"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/78.142.243.82\/~silvercentury\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5088"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/78.142.243.82\/~silvercentury\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5088"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/78.142.243.82\/~silvercentury\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5088"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}