The World Health Organization (WHO) on Dementia
WHO in its March 15, 2023 fact-sheet on dementia states:
1. People with dementia can take steps to maintain their quality of life and promote their well-being by being physically active and taking part in activities that stimulate the brain and maintain daily function.
2. Dementia is a term for several diseases that affect memory, thinking, and the ability to perform daily activities.
3. There is no cure for dementia but a lot can be done to support both people living with the illness and those who care for them.
4. Currently more than 55 million people have dementia world wide (5 million in the US). Every year there are nearly 10 million new cases.
5. Dementia is common in those 65 or older .. women are disproportionately affected.
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The people behind Acting4Dementia
Jessica Houde-Morris is a second generation Meisner-trained acting instructor and founder of Houde School of Acting, with more than 20 years of Meisner Technique expertise.
Mohamed I. Elmasry PhD, is Emeritus Professor of Computer Engineering at the University of Waterloo with 50 years of research experience in Artificial Neural Networks (the building blocks of AI).
He is the author of iMind: Artificial and Real Intelligence (Routledge, 2024). With Kareem A. Bannis MD, he is currently co-writing a new book about evidence-based holistic lifestyle guidelines that can reduce or prevent dementia.
Jessica and Mohamed are highly motivated to help those affected by dementia and pre-dementia in slowing down its progression and enhancing their quality of life. Jessica lost her father-in-law and Mohamed lost his mother, both to the ravages of dementia.
Kurt Yue is an accomplished actor and acting coach born in Beijing, China and currently residing in Atlanta, Georgia. He spent his formative years in various states, including Iowa, Arizona, and Ohio. Kurt initially pursued a career in computer science and engineering after graduating from The University of Michigan. His journey into acting began unexpectedly at the age of 26 when he stumbled upon the Houde School of Acting in Cleveland, Ohio.
Since then, he has gained recognition for his roles in popular TV series such as Will Trent, Cobra Kai, The Haunting of Hill House, and films like Black Widow and Venom. Kurt has also founded The Acting Career Center YouTube channel, sharing insights from his diverse experiences in the industry. The channel provides resources like audition techniques and industry advice to help actors at all stages of their careers. Through his work both on-screen and online, Kurt aims to inspire and educate others in the performing arts.
A Short Background to Acting4Dementia
When Dr. Elmasry’s latest book, iMind: Artificial and Real Intelligence was published earlier this year, international health and science journalists focused particularly on chapters discussing the combined potential of AI research and holistic health techniques to reduce the debilitating worldwide impact of dementia. Among many others, Newsweek, for example, published the following article:
https://www.newsweek.com/regular-daytime-naps-reduce-dementia-risk-mohamed-elmasry-1927843
iMind explains the differences and similarities between Artificial (Machine) Intelligence, or AI, and Real (Human) Intelligence, or RI, and how both forms of intelligence are affected by aging and wear.
While AI Apps and their associated microchip hardware can last for about 10 years, human RI and its associated hardware, the organic brain and its memory circuits, can now last more than 100 years—if, and only if, healthy lifestyles leading to physical, mental, and spiritual fitness are followed.
iMind also emphasizes two key scientific facts about human intelligence. First, our memory is “smart” because it saves only what it needs. Second, it is “associated” (rather than abstract) because it saves new data by connecting it with previously learned information. Knowing these two facts is vital in learning how to delay, reduce, or even prevent dementia.
As a result of media interest and his own continuing exploration of how dementia works, Elmasry decided to co-author an entire book on the aging process of human memory with a like-minded colleague.
Dementia: 40 Evidence-Based Lifestyle Guidelines, currently being co-written with Arizona-based geriatric specialist, Kareem A. Bannis MD, will focus on how we can maintain optimal memory function in old age.
Their new book uses published research results to support selected lifestyle changes leading to improved physical, mental, and spiritual fitness. The book also includes a self-assessment lifestyle test that will be regularly updated using AI Apps.
Elmasry is also collaborating with Jessica Houde-Morris of the Houde School of Acting to develop a new series of classes called Acting4Dementia, a program geared to help participants improve their smart and associated memory skills so as to better cope with dementia.
Acting4Dementia trains participants to exercise their brains in new ways, using the Meisner Acting Technique, which includes a series of more than a dozen cognitive functions related to learning: reading, writing, verbal and emotional expression, repetition, listening, talking, gestural communication, acting, memorizing, humor, socialization and mobility—all in a fun group environment.
“Language and communication are often affected early on. A person (in the early stages of dementia) may struggle to find the right word in a conversation, or they might not follow what is being said.”
—The Alzheimer's Society, Factsheet 458LP (October 2020).
Testimonials
“Having reviewed the proposed program, Acting4Dementia, I am pleased to report that its designers have crafted an innovative and unique new approach to managing dementia.
Their purposeful and deliberate use of acting aligns with best practices in cognitive development.
I believe participants in this program are likely to experience improved mood, more confidence in mind and thought, and develop new neural highways that can help increase brainpower and access to words, phrases and memories.
I encourage you, your support person, and/or caregiver to consider engaging in this innovative approach to exercising the brain and memory.”
– Prof. Bill McHenry PhD, LPC-S, Professor, Counseling,
St. Edward’s University, Austin, Texas. Professor McHenry has served as a counselor-educator for more than 20 years. He is a co-author of What Therapists Say and Why They Say It: Effective Therapeutic Responses and Techniques (Routledge) and A Counselor's Introduction to Neuroscience (Routledge).
“Acting4Dementia stimulates seniors’ cognitive functions including memory.”
– Prof. Peter Eglin, PhD, Emeritus Professor of Sociology, Wilfred Laurier University, Waterloo, Ontario, Canada.
“Acting4Dementia classes are interesting intervention in training our mind and our memory.”
- Dr. Elsie Taylor, EdD
Acting4Dementia: Q&A
Q1: What are Acting4Dementia classes?
A1: Acting4Dementia is a series of acting classes using the Meisner Repetition Technique, offered by the Houde School of Acting to help elderly people who want a self-help approach to slowing down the onset of dementia.
Q2: In what format are the classes taught?
A2: Acting4Dementia is offered online and in-person to couples. Each couple includes an elderly participant, accompanied by a support person; this can be a spouse, friend, adult son, or daughter.
Q3: What does the Acting4Dementia program involve?
A3: Acting4Dementia has 3 parts.
The first part is a 90-minute group class of 5 couples. It is devoted to learning the Meisner Repetition Acting Technique.
The second part happens between class sessions in each participant’s home, where they work on a brief play assigned to them by the teacher, and perform it with their support person.
The third part is another 90-minute group class, where the couples report on their homework to the teacher and learn more about the Meisner Repetition Acting Technique, this time with humor added.
Q4: What is the short play being used for the homework component of the program?
A4: We chose a fascinating 10-minute play, Ohio Impromptu, by 1969 Nobel Literature prizewinner, Samuel Becket.
In 1981, Samuel Beckett (1906-1989) was commissioned to write this play by Ohio State University, in celebration of his own 75th birthday.
There are only two characters, the Reader and the Listener, who must be “as alike in appearance as possible.” One speaks/reads and the other is silent, but responds with gestures and facial expressions.
In Ohio Impromptu, the Reader and the Listener suggest different facets of the same person. The Reader speaks words from a book about a “sad tale,” with the Listener as audience.
The story begins with “Little is left to tell,” and ends with "Nothing is left to tell.” And then, silence.
Beckett never described Ohio Impromptu as a reflection on dementia, but since he wrote it to mark his 75th birthday, it very likely connected with some personal feelings about the identity loss that comes with dementia.
Becket’s biographers came to the same conclusion; that the play shows the impact of dementia on a person.
See, for example, this YouTube performance:
https://youtu.be/1NH7R8NPoLQ?si=smMYqnsn5Ox373DB
In Ohio Impromptu, we find intuitive relationships; verbal repetition; tentative phrases, as if one is simultaneously hearing an internal voice; the Listener using only hand gestures and facial expressions to communicate understanding, approval, despair, or a desire for the Reader to continue; the touching of hands; feeling and turning the pages of a single shared book; following printed words with one’s fingers; frequent eye contact; and mirroring one another’s gestures as the play draws to a close.
Q5: Can Acting4Dementia participants enrol for more sessions after the first ones?
A5: Absolutely! The experience of exploring dementia through acting will be different every time.
Q6: Can Acting4Dementia actually slow down the development of dementia?
A6: We are inviting researchers to study and measure how much help Acting4Dementia offers.
The good news is that participants actively practice more than a dozen cognitive activities including: learning, reading, writing, verbal and emotional expression, repetition, listening attentively, talking, communicating, acting, memorizing, using humor, socializing, and being mobile—all in a fun group environment.
Acting4Dementia can also help participants manage BPSD (behavioral and psychological symptoms of dementia) in non-pharmacological ways.
Q7: When will Acting4Dementia classes start?
A7: Classes will begin in November 2024. People can register online through the Houde School of Acting website. We are also offering gift certificates with a 20% discount.
Q8: What can Acting4Dementia offer to participants?
A8: We hope that Acting4Dementia will offer help to pre- or early dementia (stage 1) people, similar to what patients suffering from other diseases or conditions (such as obesity, diabetics, heart conditions, depression or cancer) experience when they join a gym, hire a personal trainer, or consult a dietitian, either during treatment or recovery.
Combining a structured activity like Acting4Dementia classes with medical treatment benefits a person’s overall quality of life in so many ways.
Privacy Acting4Dementia fully respects the privacy of all participants and those attending our programs with them. We will not share any participant’s personal information with for-profit or not-for-profit organizations or research institutions without their express written permission.DisclaimerThe Houde School of Acting, its staff and/or associates, assume no responsibility or liability for any injuries, damages, or losses incurred by participants in Acting4Dementia classes. Participants are urged to consult with their medical and therapeutic health care professionals prior to enrolling in Acting4Dementia.