‘Blue’s Clues’ lola pens new play on AI and the elderly

Filipino Canadian Carolyn Fe’s play “Aye Caesar” will have a staged reading 2024 SummerWorks Festival in August. CONTRIBUTED

TORONTO — Filipino Canadian Carolyn Fe’s play “Aye Caeser,” which touches on elderly loneliness and technology, will be part of the 2024 SummerWorks Festival in August.

Fe is popularly known as the Lola in the children’s show “Blue’s Clues and You!” She plays the grandmother of the show’s host Josh, played by Filipino American Josh dela Cruz.

She’s also the voice of Gabriela the Philippine Eagle, a post office manager with hot pink feathers, on PBS’s “Work it Out Wombats!”

“Aye Caesar” will have a staged reading by Cahoots Theatre. In the play, Old Person goes online shopping and is assisted by Aye Caesar, a customer service representative. A relationship develops. A life is saved. Is their relationship real?

Inspired

Proudly turning 63 this year (“I’m so happy you asked!”) and a seasoned artist herself, Fe constantly fights against stereotypes of what elderly performers are capable of. She champions the versatility and verve of experienced artists by getting out there and showing everyone what she’s got.

Fe started out as a professional contemporary dancer who toured and choreographed her own professional dance company, then owned and operated a dance school. She has frontlined the Euro-jazz cover band DD Swank, singing in French, English and Spanish under the stage name Mama B.

Fe has released an album of her own original material, while still acting for the stage and for the screen, and running her own theater production company. She recently became a contributing author to Magdaragat: An Anthology of Filipino-Canadian Writing.

“Aye Caesar” is one of six plays that Fe wrote during her recent artist residency at Tarragon Theatre that focus on “the experiences of the older generation.”

“Thus, eventually providing more work opportunities for the marginalized older women of color.”

She points out that “the population is getting older. According to Statistics Canada, there will be three times more people aged 85 and older by 2050.

“Healthcare systems are not equipped to take care of the elderly above and beyond physical disabilities. The geriatric mental health workforce is ill-equipped and scarce. As a consequence of this workforce shortage, the role of the caregiver is fraught with physical, psychological and emotional challenges.

The festival

Fe says she was inspired by British science fiction writer and futurist Arthur C. Clarke’s third law, “Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.”

“This is where AI comes into the play. With all the advancements of AI, anything seems to be possible. Can technology ease and assist the elder community?”

For the festival, Fe will be playing the Old Person and paired up with a younger actor who will play Aye Caesar. “I usually don’t like to act in my own plays as I feel there are enough actors of color, specifically Filipino Canadian actors, out there who should walk the boards.

“However, if my acting of the older character in my own play is any indication, it might be proof there are not enough professional older Filipino Canadian actors out there.

 “Thus my incentive to write stories that include the later-in-life demographics so they can see themselves represented enough to spark their dreams of an artistic life. Including for those who have felt or feel the arts are not a viable career path although deep down they have a yearning.”

She’s receiving support to keep writing more of these stories. Fe recently received the 2024 Joel Beddows Playwrighting Grant from Theatre francais de Toronto.

VISIT summerworks.ca. Walter Ang is the author of Barangay to Broadway: Filipino American Theater. Available at Amazon, Bookshop and other online booksellers.