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Freedom Square struts on stage

By WAVENEY ANN MOORE
Published January 24, 2007

This week Marian Laracy will give audiences an irreverent, hilarious and at times poignant peek into the lives of people regularly dismissed as just old.

Laracy, 84, has written a play, The Way We Are, a laugh-out-loud comedy about life at Freedom Square, a large retirement community behind Seminole Mall. But, she adds, her take on the lives of the long retired could apply to most older communities.

"I think a lot of people, they think that going into a retirement center as being in hell and being the end of everything," said Laracy, wearing a periwinkle cashmere sweater with oodles of ruffles, jewelry and a hat to match, along with a flirty black skirt with black stockings.

"I've got almost 70 hats," she said. "I had an unhappy romance when I was 80. I decided I was going to buy a lot of new clothes and put on more makeup." The hat collection started then, she said.

This balmy Florida afternoon, Laracy is directing rehearsals of her play, which will be performed for Freedom Square residents Thursday afternoon and Friday night and to an invited audience Monday.

The cast, made up of seven women and four men, is going through the paces in an auditorium off geranium- and petunia-edged paths and a short walk from a gazebo with piped-in classical music.

There's talk about whether there is need for more makeup, and the sound system acts up. Otherwise everything proceeds relatively smoothly.

There is introductory music and lip synching by John Holliday, who also organizes line dancing for fellow residents. Bernadine Allen plays the lead.

Laracy set her play in the Freedom Square lobby. It's where residents gather to chat, dance, have a cup of coffee or simply watch the world pass by. The play opens with a woman greeting a new widower. He says that when his wife died, he wondered who would cook for him, but he need not have worried.

"They came to the door, there were pastries galore! There were blonds and brunets. Older ones with hairnets! They were fat, they were trim. Some were shy, some were bold."

He decided to move into the retirement community, he says, when "the pastry and casserole brigade dribbled to a stop."

The play has its poignant moments, telling of lonely people seeking companionship or something more. One character says her friends warn her to be careful, "because as a rule, older men aren't governed by sexual need. ... nurse or a purse, is that really true?" she asks. "Which of these two will I mean to you?"

"You know what every widow's dream is?" Laracy asks during an interview. "It's an escort who drives at night."

The work is a bit risque, with references to Viagra and "good sex."

"It's all the truth. The whole thing is based on the truth," Laracy said, smiling. "Sex never dies, I don't think. Everybody gets a laugh out of it."

She acknowledged that fear comes with being old, but then added, "My biggest fear is being bored to death." She likes to watch classic movies and read. "I'm not great for mysteries," she said. "I get confused."

A former real estate agent, Laracy moved to Florida from New Jersey 15 years ago. She has lived at Freedom Square for almost two years. She has four sons and a daughter, 15 grandchildren and 13 great-grandchildren.

"I've been lucky," said Laracy, who married young and divorced after two children. Her second marriage lasted 40 years. Her husband died in 1990.

She enjoys writing, though she said she has a love-hate relationship with her computer. In 1998, she published a book of poetry. Some pieces have made it into her play.

"It's been a lot of fun," she said.

[Last modified January 24, 2007, 07:07:48]