‘Old Lady Project’ centers aging women on stage and screen

Angela Allyn started the Old Lady Project because she didn’t see enough aging women on Chicago’s stages. “I’m kind of reclaiming old,” Allyn says. “I don’t understand why old is great for houses or valuable paintings, but it’s not okay for humans.” She solicited scripts and screenplays with the goal of producing a couple staged readings. But in the 2023 submission cycle, she received over 600 scripts from around the world. Between the overwhelming response and the recent success of older adults’ stories in “Everything Everywhere All At Once” and “The Golden Bachelor,” Allyn sees a hunger for complex narratives about aging. In this episode, host Erin Allen talks to Allyn about what we have to gain from telling and watching older adults’ stories.