In 1996, when she was 50 years old, playwright Donna Guthrie celebrated her birthday by walking five miles in each of the 50 states - using Burlington for her Vermont walk. This year for her 60th, she has organized "6 Women @ 60 in 2006," a celebration of the energy and creativity of older women through the staging of six short plays in six locations across the country. "You may see that I have this number thing going," she says.

This weekend the show comes to Vermont through the Valley Players, Mad River Valley's community theater in Waitsfield. Besides staged readings each evening of six plays by women who have turned 60 this year, the Valley Players will also sponsor a reception and fund-raiser for Central Vermont Battered Women Services on Thursday, a brown bag lunch conversation with the six writers on Saturday, and a potluck lunch forum on "Women and Aging" on Sunday.

Six poems celebrating aging by Vermont women over 60 will be included in the playbill, and an art show featuring work by older Vermont women will grace the theater gallery's walls. Copies of "When I Grow Up I Want To Be Sixty" by Wendy Reid Crisp will be given out as door prizes. After each performance, the audience will be invited to "talk back" to the playwrights, directors, and actors. And birthday cake will be served.

"When I first heard about "6 Women @ 60 in 2006," I thought it sounded fabulous," says Jennifer Howard, board chair of the Valley Players, producer of the show, and actress in one of the plays. Over 60 herself, Howard knows first-hand how few roles are available for older actresses. "I love the idea of celebrating the creativity of older women artists and how this expands to older women in general. It intrigues me," she says. "This is what 60 really is." She notes that even the birthday cakes are a celebration of the art of an older woman. Roberta Tracey of Barre created them through her business, Sweet Creations.

The idea for 6 Women @ 60 in 2006" was born during a conversation between Guthrie and fellow playwright Nancy Gall-Clayton in 1998. Both born in 1946, they agreed to mark their 60th birthdays with six plays written by 60 year-old female playwrights and highlighting roles for older women. An ad in the Dramatists Guild magazine led them to four other prize-winning writers, and the 6 Women team was formed. Festivals have been held in Florida, Kentucky, Colorado, California, and New York. Waitsfield hosts the sixth and last, the only site where all six playwrights will be present. Vermont and the Valley players were chosen because Guthrie had heard about the Players and was in Vermont last January when she received a Masters in Fine Arts degree from Vermont College.

The plays are short - from 5 to 25 minutes in duration. The performance of all six takes only as long as one traditional play. They are staged readings, different from typical dramatic productions in that the actors hold scripts in their hands. Rehearsal time, props, and lighting are minimal. Local directors include Teresa Langston of Fayston, Alex Maclay of Warren, and Ruth Ann Pattee of Waitsfield. The actors are from central Vermont, and the women range in age from 28 to 72.

"It's a very grassroots production," says Guthrie. "The performances are constantly changing and impacted by the local directors and actors. I think that the audience will be surprised by how strong a staged reading is."

The plays deal incisively and often humorously with basic issues of love, death, aging, and companionship.

• "Felicity's Family Tree" by Gall-Clayton questions the meaning of family
• "Mimi and Me by Kitty Dubin has a perky young volunteer face a 90 year-old nursing home resident who wants to die
• In just a few minutes Judith Estrine's "She/He" distills the essence of a life-long love.
• In "The Missing Zygote," Donna Guthrie playfully looks back on the influences that shaped a 60 year-old woman's life
• In "The Airport Encounter," Linda Holland Rathkopf has a woman confront her former therapist about his bad advice.
• "Sadie and Ida" by Susan Shafer presents two women, roommates for 30 years, who discover the truth about each other

"Join the party," says Howard. "You don't have to be 60. You just have to want to get there or appreciate getting beyond it. And you don't have to be female. You just have to enjoy being around them at all ages and celebrate their getting older."

If you go:
"6 Women @ 60 in 2006"
The Valley Players, Route 100, Waitsfield, Vermont

Tickets for general admission are $10, $6 for people over 60. Tickets for Thursday's benefit and performance are $20. Ticket and reservation information: 802-583-1624. Directions and details: www.valleyplayers.com

• Thursday, October 19
  6:30 pm: Reception and fund-raiser for Central Vermont Battered Women's Services
  7:30 pm: 6 Women @ 60
• Friday, October 20
  7:30 pm: 6 Women @ 60
• Saturday, October 21
  11 am - 1 pm: Playwrights' Brown Bag Lunch Conversation. Discuss the art and business of playwriting with the six authors. Free of charge.
  7:30 pm: 6 Women @ 60
• Sunday, October 22
  11 am - 1 pm: "Women and Aging," a potluck lunch forum featuring prominent Vermont Women in the fields of health, business, social services, and government. Free of charge.
  2 pm: Matinee performance of 6 Woman @ 60

Barbara Leitenberg writes on senior issues for the Champlain Valley Agency on Aging. This article originally appeared in the Burlington Free Press.