When Linda Parsons decided to pen a musical, she took inspiration from her own life.
Parsons says that for 25 years, she took care of her elderly mother who was in various assisted living facilities and eventually lived in a nursing home. “PILLS” is a musical that will emphasize this along with end-of-life issues, she says.
“I began to formulate this idea about a musical comedy, about end of life issues, about things that happen to you as you begin to age,” Parsons says.
Parsons has been a member of the Red Brick Players theater group, located in Cochranville, Pa. for about five years.
“I just had the idea that no matter how you start out in life, everybody ends up pretty much the same,” she says. “It doesn’t matter whether you’re rich or poor, whether you’re male or female — pretty much at the end of your life, it seemed to me that people are often on a lot of medication and pills. And before I knew it, my mother, who was 94 when she died, was on a lot of medication. So I decided to write this musical.”
Parsons says she wrote the musical both with humor and hope because she believes that people caring for their aging parents is a real social issue. She says caring for a parent is a big responsibility.
“It’s tiring and it’s often frustrating and it’s often sad,” Parsons says. “You’re losing a parent and yet you almost are taking over duties almost as if you’re caring for a child.”
The Red Brick Players are a part of the Philly Fringe, an internationally recognized presenter of performing arts, according to the group's Web site.
The Philadelphia Fringe Festival showed “PILLS” last weekend. The Octorara YMCA will be showing it this upcoming weekend, Sept. 18 and 19 at 7:30 p.m., and Sept. 20 at 3:00 p.m.
The Philly Fringe, along with their large local mailing list, enables the players to “get the word out” and advertise their work.
“We were basically sold out every night and the audience response was excellent so we thought, ‘Okay, why don’t we take it to Philadelphia just to see if an urban audience reacts as well,’ ” says Jim Norton, the leader of the Red Brick Players and the director and producer of “PILLS.”
“It’s a very interesting thing coming into Philadelphia trying to actually find a space that you could use for one weekend.”
The musical came into production when Parsons expressed interest in writing a script and Debra Torok, another Red Brick Players member, had the knowledge and whereabouts to write and orchestrate the music, Jim Norton says.
Torok wrote all of the music in “PILLS,” including what Parsons referred to as a “hauntingly beautiful single” called “Old.”
“I got the idea that this is a story about end-of-life issues and about giving up and about no matter how old you may be you can still make plans,” Parsons says. “You can still have hopes and you can still reach out if you feel inclined to your fellow man.”
Norton says the musical includes a full orchestra and ten musical numbers. The YMCA can house approximately 100 people including the actors on stage and the orchestra members, so he hopes to have a full venue, he says.
Nicole Norton, who is Jim Norton’s daughter and a graduate of the university, used to be a theater director in Boulder, Colo., and is the choreographer of “PILLS.” While attending the university in the ‘90s, Nicole Norton directed and choreographed “Jesus Christ: Superstar” and choreographed “West Side Story.”
Jim Norton says Nicole also helped the Red Brick Players with their production of “Urinetown” while she was still in Colorado. He says the group liked working with her, so he asked her to help out with “PILLS.”
Nicole says the play will have some dancing — but not too much — because there are actual senior citizens in it. While there is one actor who uses a cane consistently throughout the play, there is no dancing with the actors using canes or walkers, she says.
“Their dancing experience or ability is something that we have to work with,” Nicole Norton says. “So you’re not talking about high kicks and things like that.”
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