Entertainer Gail Gavan holds a microphone while resident Marjorie Gilmour sings along during an April 22 musical performance at Almonte Country Haven. Resident Christina Watt is seated to the left.
Almonte entertainers hold key to keeping residents’ attention
Audience engagement helps captivate residents during 90-minute performance
Tuesday April 29, 2008 -- Deron Hamel
When Gail Gavan and Mike Ryan took their musical act to Almonte Country Haven on April 22 their performance accomplished something that’s not always easy — keeping the residents’ attention.

For 90 minutes, Gavan and Ryan performed “upbeat” folk, Celtic and country numbers at the Ottawa-area long-term care home. The songs they performed are well-known in the Ottawa Valley, which struck a chord with residents, says life enrichment co-ordinator Darlene Thibault.

Considering it’s usually challenging to keep residents engaged in activities for longer than half an hour, Thibault says the duo accomplished a major task.

“These folks had everybody sitting at the edge of their seat waiting for more music,” she says. “The residents and families had a great time. Many of them were completely star-struck, especially with Gail, who captivated the audience with her stories, charm and fabulous vocals.”

A number of factors, including hearing, visual or cognitive impairments, can cause short attention spans in residents. For this reason, finding entertainment acts which hold everyone’s attention can be a difficult challenge, says Thibault.

What made this performance different, she notes, is that Gavan and Ryan made a point of moving around the activity room during their act, rather than performing in a stationary position.

Adding to this, the pair encouraged audience participation, engaging residents in their performance by coming to them with the microphone and asking them to sing along.

Thibault says this type of audience engagement is something she recommends to anyone performing in a long-term care home. The result of Gavan and Ryan’s performance was an atmosphere of “big smiles and lots of energy.”

Dorothy Scharf is one of the residents who attended the performance.

Scharf, an avid country music fan, says she enjoyed the audience-participation aspect of the performance.

“I thought it was great — it was the best one we’ve had, I think,” says Scharf. “(Gavan) was very outgoing and she went through the whole audience. She didn’t just dance at the front, she came and sang almost with (everyone).”

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