Prime Time
by Nuria Casado-Guel
directed by Daniel Gidron
Gloria Aran (Annette Miller) is the star of a soap opera that has been on TV for 40 years. Asked to the Producer’s (Lee Mikeska Gardner) office, she anticipates that they want to describe and pay tribute to her next season, but what they plan for the series is to remove its lead via sudden death because the audience curve reflects a continued decline in audience age.
When the term “ageism” was coined in 1969, many problems of exclusion seemed resolved by government programs like Social Security and Medicare. These days, as people live longer lives, ageism is as insidious and prevalent as the other social “isms.” Age-related shaming takes many forms – the shove in the street, the cold shoulder at the party, the deaf ear at the meeting, the assumption of withered passion — and if you are a woman and already fighting sexism and external beauty battles – not only the discrimination but the “not-seeing” of you is overt. Building on the love story between two 68 year-olds in The Midvale High School 50th Reunion, in Prime Time, The Nora delivers a heroine who will not “die” without a fight.
Tickets for Prime Time are free. However we suggest making advance reservations since our readings often fill up.
This rehearsed reading is part of the Nora Theatre Company‘s That’s What She Said: A Feminine Perspective series.