The seventh age on stage: representation of older adults and aging in US Broadway and Off-Broadway theater

Older persons' involvement in theater often focuses on health, educational, and therapeutic benefits. Though less examined, artistic depictions of aging help bridge gerontological and humanities approaches to this topic. Qualitative textual script analysis was used to analyze the representation of older adults in six plays produced on and off Broadway, 1991-2017. Traditional character constructions of age and older adults emerged - frailty, fear, caregiving burden - with counternarratives of resilience, resistance, and self-reflexivity also present. Uncovered dyadic pairs (e.g. frailty/resistance) served as examples of the complexity of age portrayed on stage. From this dyadic tension present in the plays emerged a way to build upon and expand traditional, and often more limited, societal notions of aging.