Florida theater group helps older adults fight scams

No one thinks it’ll happen to them.

Scams are something that happen to other people. Like falling and breaking a hip. Or losing the ability to drive.

“Police ... can give people information, but it’s like, ‘Oh, it doesn’t apply to me, I’m smart. I’m not gonna fall for a scam,’” said Linda Goldman, 76, a playwright based in Tampa Bay. “They walk away unmoved.”

So Goldman decided to bring “other people” to center stage.

On a recent Sunday, a cast of senior actors looked out at an audience of roughly 300 people — who were themselves almost exclusively older adults — at the Central Park Performing Arts Center in Largo, Florida.

The play, titled "Phoney Baloney," was a comedy. But it had a serious mission — to alert seniors about tactics scammers use and boost their strategies to combat them.

It’s the latest work from Senior Actors Guild & Education Services, or SAGES, an all-senior theater group that uses acting to empower and educate audiences on issues older adults may encounter in everyday life — but seldom talk about.

“When you do a play, and it emotionally resonates, people are going to remember the information,” Goldman said. “It’s a way to get through to people and break through that barrier.”

Birth of a nonprofit

As she entered later adulthood, Goldman, a lifelong theatergoer, stopped seeing people on stage who looked like her.

When older adults were featured, they tended to be more caricature than character.

“We were more or less the butt of jokes,” said Goldman, who at the time had never drafted a play. “I said, ‘I can write a better play than that.’ And I did.”

In 2019, the nonprofit SAGES Theater Inc. was born.

The troupe, composed of adults between the ages of 50 to 88, isn’t afraid to confront experiences of aging that are often considered taboo.

Its first performance, "Denying Gravity," aimed to teach senior audience members about fall prevention. Another grappled with questions about when it’s time to surrender the car keys. The next play, which Goldman is currently writing, will deal with memory loss and dementia.

“But it’s a comedy,” she said. “Because life is not all horrible or all funny. It’s a mix. That’s what we put in there.”

Notably, at a time of rising costs, all of the nonprofit’s plays are free. Christine Hamacher, executive director of SAGES, said sponsors make it possible to keep costs down.

Consulted with police

SAGES staff met with law enforcement before writing the script for "Phoney Baloney." The play features real-life tactics scammers use to target older adults, from romance scams to fake sweepstakes to impersonating a grandchild in crisis.

It highlights guiding principles like, “You should never have to give money to get money,” and “If you don’t recognize the number, use voicemail to screen your calls.”

Initiatives like this, which focus on prevention, are vital, according to police officer Joel Quattlebaum, senior services officer for the city of Largo. Because once money is transferred to a scammer, there’s often little law enforcement can do to retrieve it.

Scams targeting older adults are on the rise, according to the Federal Bureau of Investigation. In 2021, seniors reported losses totaling $1.7 billion — roughly a 75% increase from the previous year. Many crimes go underreported because victims are scared, embarrassed or don’t know where to turn.

“That’s why a program like this is so beneficial,” Quattlebaum said. “It’s proactive. It’s empowering.”

With humor, believable characters and a healthy dose of audience participation, the show also aims to dispel the shame that’s often associated with falling prey to a scam.

The reflexive response can be to isolate, Hamacher said — but as characters in "Phoney Baloney" realize, bringing scams to light is the best way to help others avoid becoming the next victim.

“To put it on stage takes the oomph out of it,” she said. “We want to live trusting lives, but we have to protect ourselves. And we just have to talk about it.”

Play 'kits' for other theaters 

As a group that prides itself on creating “plays with a purpose,” like its slogan states, SAGES doesn’t want its work to stay in Tampa Bay.

“We create kits so that this can be produced in any community — we’ve already been able to connect with Delaware, Maryland, Texas and Washington,” Hamacher said. “We’re very excited to see this take off in other areas as well.”