I Did It My Way Theatre: Research and Live Theatre as Applied to the Transition of Relocating Older Adults

Relocation is an option for older adults who leave their home to improve their emotional well-being, physical health, and safety. Moves can enhance agency or foster a loss of empowerment. We explored older adults’ transition experiences from a community setting to a retirement community and created messaging to help with experiences of older adults and their self-identified family or friend caregivers. We conducted 30 telephone interviews and analyzed relocation experiences, which informed I Did It My Way Theatre. The theatrical presentation was performed for over 100 older adult residents and caregivers. Our goal was to ease the transition experiences by disseminating findings to those involved in similar relocation situations. Attendees completed a post-performance questionnaire asking how the play helped them understand relocation and held table discussions concerning production themes. Follow-up interviews with 11 participants revealed that the play delivered hard messages in an impactful way.