Reading of “Norman and Beatrice” – a Play About Caring for a Loved One with Dementia, written by Barbara Hammond

Brought to you by: Dartmouth Health Geriatric Center of Excellence, the Aging Resource Center, and the Dementia Resource Team

Held in-person at: Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center, Auditorium G
Also on Webex.  The Webex link will be sent to the email address you provide in your registration.

You are invited to attend a reading of a play written by and performed by well-known Upper Valley community members.  After the reading, there will be a panel discussion with the actors, play write, Caregivers, and RN/care manager.

“Norman and Beatrice” is a one-act play about both the challenges with and the love involved in caring for a spouse with dementia. Beatrice wants what is best for her husband of fifty years, but does Norman know what is best for himself? Beatrice navigates the unpredictable responses from Norman as he navigates his unpredictable relationship with his illness and his sense of himself.

Playwright:

Barbara Hammond, a New Dramatists resident playwright from 2011 to 2018, is a 2010 Edward Albee Foundation Fellow, a Yale Playwrights Festival mentor playwright, a member of the Dramatists Guild, and was named one of the Influential Women of 2011 by the Irish Voice. Her plays and film have been produced and won awards all over the world—Berlin, Dublin, London, Paris, Australia—as well as New York City; San Francisco; Thetford, VT; and Hanover, NH. She won the Special Jury Award at the First Irish 2009 Theatre Festival, and was a finalist at the Tennessee Williams One-Act-Play Festival.

“It is startling and heartening to see humor brought into a play about dementia. . . . Ms. Hammond has written a simple, honest, and beautiful account of what Alzheimer’s does, and doesn’t, change.” Margaret Cross in Broadway World

Actors:

Bill Hammond as Norman
Jean Brown as Beatrice

Bill was a high-school teacher for thirty years and an elementary-school principal for seven. Besides teaching math and English, he produced or directed or designed seventy-five (or so) productions with Hanover High’s theater program; more recently, he enjoys sharing his sister’s plays with the community.

Jean Brown has lived in Hanover for the last 22 years, but her first career was as an actor in New York City. For twelve years she acted in shows (They’re Playing our Song), a few movies (Taxi Driver), and a couple of commercials (Dr. Pepper). She then moved into marketing public relations, then politics, and finally became the executive director of the Friends of Dartmouth Cancer Center, where she produced The Prouty (and myriad other events) for 17 years. Jean retired in 2020.