Nobody puts Ellen Wacher in a corner.
Years ago, when Wacher was advocating for more roles for older actors at a Screen Actors Guild meeting someone suggested that would happen, well, “when pigs fly.” So Wacher made sure they did. She founded Fort Lauderdale’s Pigs Do Fly Productions, which produces plays about the lives of people over 50 years old played by actors over 50.
Wacher is adamant about how age is portrayed in her productions which run twice a year.
“None of the plays are about old people. They are about people over 50 doing interesting things with their lives,” says Wacher, who is also executive producer of Pigs Do Fly.
Pigs Do Fly’s next play, “Painting Churches” by American playwright Tina Howe, who was nominated for Pulitzer Prize in drama for the play, reflects this commitment. However, it also departs from the humorous shows the production company usually gravitates to and that its audiences have come to expect.
“It’s time for us to take a little bit of a new direction to something that is more serious, but still has humor,” says Wacher. “This is a big step for us to show that (we are) more than just ‘hardy har har’ funny but it is still about an older couple and the changes going on in their lives.”
Directed by Deborah Kondelik of Plantation, who has acted and directed for the company before, “Painting Churches” centers on an older married couple, Fanny (played by Carbonell award-winner Laura Turnbull) and Gardner (played by William Mahone), as well as their grown daughter, Mags (played by Ana Marie Calise) as the couple prepares to move from their Beacon Hill home in Boston to their summer cottage on Cape Cod. It runs Tuesday, April 11 to Sunday, May 4 at Empire Stage in Fort Lauderdale.
“This is a really interesting play with three very fine actors,” says Wacher. “It’s about family. It’s a story of people with humor and moving forward with life.”
Wacher, who calls the play deep with humor, says that Empire Stage is the perfect venue for it.
“It’s an Off-Off Broadway (type of) theater and it’s very popular,” she says of the Fort Lauderdale venue just off the bustling Sunrise Boulevard. “There is nothing else there except a railroad track across the street. I think a lot of our theatergoers probably lived in New York and I think it reminds them of Greenwich Village and its Off-Off Broadway theaters.”
Wacher thinks that over the last nine years of Pigs Do Fly Productions, age has become less of an issue. She says that while she thinks her theater has made a small impact, it still makes a statement.
“When I first opened, we had to pull people to get them to audition or come in,” she says of her production company that uses local talent. “Now when we have auditions, we get a lot of people.” Wacher insists on using South Florida-based actors and the company employs both Equity and non-Equity actors, she says.
As the production company approaches its 10-year anniversary, Wacher aims to keep moving forward.
“That means to continue entertaining at a high level, hiring the best people and continuing our mission of people over 50 doing interesting things,” she says. “There is nobody being old in the place. It’s being what we are today—living full lives.”
If You Go
WHAT: Pigs Do Fly Productions Presents “Painting Churches” by Tina Howe
WHEN: 8 p.m. Friday; Saturday. 5 p.m. Sunday. Opens Friday, April 11 through Sunday, May 4.
TICKETS: $45
WHERE: Empire Stage, 1140 N. Flagler Dr., Fort Lauderdale
INFORMATION: pigsdoflyproductions.com
