By James Windell
Sherry Saenz loves being an actor.
“What I enjoy most about being in plays is the ability to step into someone else’s story and to help bring that story to life,” says the South Haven resident. “Mainly, I enjoy the challenge of getting out of my own head to bring a character to life and pushing myself as an actor and continuing to learn new things with every production.”
That’s why Saenz has been involved with the South Haven Readers Theater since Linda LaRocque brought it to Senior Services of Van Buren County more than 15 years ago. The Seniors Readers Theater is a community performance group made up of older adults who present dramatic readings – usually humorous, nostalgic, or literary pieces – without memorizing lines or using full staging. It’s designed as a low pressure, social, and creative outlet for seniors in the South Haven area.
For Jim Marcoux, who will be one of three actors in a play for their June show at Senior Services in South Haven, it’s meant a great deal to hm.
“I got involved in the Reading Theater early in 2023 in response to my wife insisting I needed a distraction from the daily news and the negativity associated with it,” says Marcoux.
Like most of the other nearly two dozen members of the theater group, Marcoux had no previous theater experience. “But what I did have was a lot of podium experience as a marketing and sales guru for two different fortune 500 companies before my retirement in 2003,” Marcoux says.
He says that not only has it been a pleasant diversion from the news of the world, “But it’s fun, especially interacting with our fellow actors, and particularly with the humorous plays, some of which have been hilarious,” he says.
LaRocque, who not only runs the troupe but writes many of the plays they perform, says that the idea for the Readers Theater came about by accident.
“I was meeting with some friends many years ago,” LaRocque explains, “and this one woman said she always wanted to be in the theater. She then asked me if I had any plays we could just sit around and read. So, I found some of my old plays and we did. Later, we went together to the Box Factory in St. Joseph to an audition and she asked me why we couldn’t do this in South Haven.”
When the Director of Senior Services heard about their idea, she invited Linda to set up a program for seniors – and the Readers Theater was born. “And the rest is history,” says LaRocque.
Over the past seven years, according to LaRocque, the group has grown and so has its influence. “We perform annually for Western Michigan University, Andrews University and, most recently, the Corewell Health Residency program,” she says. “They are using our various short plays as teaching tools so the student can get into the mindset of the aging to better serve them.”
The Readers Theater will be showcasing their talent at a spring production of eight short plays June 5 through 7, 2026 at Senior Services. More information about tickets for this show or about joining the Readers Theater is available by contacting valoriedeichman@yahoo.com.
Following a recent rehearsal with Readers Theater director George Ebright, Laura Beckwith summed up what the Readers Theater has meant for her.
“I enjoy getting into the character and bringing them to life with all the idiosyncrasies we humans have,” she says. “But I also like being with my fellow actors for the friendships that have been formed over the years. We have become a family and friends who care and love each other. That may sound like just words, but it is carried out with actions in this group. It has brought me a new way to be connected with wonderful people. I believe that we, as the Storytellers, have a mission and I like being part of accomplishing that.”
