{"id":300868,"date":"2026-10-06T14:52:10","date_gmt":"2026-10-06T14:52:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/300868\/"},"modified":"2026-10-06T14:52:10","modified_gmt":"2026-10-06T14:52:10","slug":"unravelled-at-penn-explores-dementia-art-and-music","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/300868\/","title":{"rendered":"‘UnRavelled’ at Penn explores dementia, art and music"},"content":{"rendered":"

\ud83d\udc8c Love Philly? So do we. Let\u2019s be friends.\u00a0Sign up for the Billy Penn newsletter today<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Like composer Maurice Ravel\u2019s<\/a> \u201cBolero,\u201d frontotemporal dementia<\/a> starts out small \u2013 the soft, yet persistent drumming of lost words, phrases, and misplaced social cues.<\/p>\n

Gradually, as in \u201cBolero,\u201d<\/a> the behaviors build to a crescendo. Some scholars wonder whether Ravel was in the early stages of a variation of frontotemporal dementia (FTD) in 1928 when the French composer wrote what became one of his most well-known works.<\/p>\n

Certainly, Canadian biologist Anne Adams<\/a> was on that path.<\/p>\n

As FTD took away more and more of the abilities that made her a renowned scientist, new talents took their place. Adams began to experience music as color, painting eight hours a day. In 1994, at age 53, Ravel\u2019s age when he composed \u201cBolero,\u201d Adams painted \u201cUnravelling Bolero,\u201d Ravel\u2019s composition \u2013 color by color, bar by bar.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis symphony and this painting were calling to each other across the century,\u201d said playwright Jake Broder,<\/a> whose multimedia play, \u201cUnRavelled,\u201d<\/a> will be presented at the University of Pennsylvania in conjunction with the 15th International Conference on Frontotemporal Dementias<\/a> Oct. 8 through Oct. 11 at the Philadelphia Marriott Downtown.<\/p>\n

\"\"From left, Randy Gloss is on percussion; Andrew Borba stars as Robert Adams while Rachel Iba plays violin during the production of \u201cUnRavelled.\u201d\u00a0(Photo by Stan Evans)<\/p>\n

The music and the painting \u201cwere both created because of, not in spite of, frontotemporal degeneration,\u201d Broder said.<\/p>\n

Like \u201cBolero,\u201d Broder\u2019s play starts small, portraying the ordinary intimacies of a married couple, Anne and Robert Adams. There\u2019s also a small orchestra \u2013 five musicians who move about the stage.<\/p>\n

Over the course of the play, everything becomes more complex. Adams\u2019 paintings, shown by video, get larger and take up more room. The music, created by the musicians, all of whom play multiple instruments, is layered until five musicians sound like an orchestra of 60.<\/p>\n

\u201cBolero starts out small and until it is gigantic,\u201d he said. Same with \u201cUnRavelled.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe finale is big,\u201d Broder said.<\/p>\n

\"\"From left, Andrew Borba stars as Robert Adams and Lucy Davenport as Anne Adams in \u201cUnRavelled.\u201d (Photo by Stan Evans)<\/p>\n

Back in 2018, \u201cUnRavelled\u201d hadn\u2019t even started small, but the dementia that was overtaking Broder\u2019s father had. That\u2019s when Broder heard a RadioLab podcast<\/a> describing Adams\u2019 shift from scientist to artist and how she came to visualize Ravel\u2019s \u201cBolero.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAt that point, my Dad had something and we didn\u2019t know what it was. We were really scared,\u201d Broder said.<\/p>\n

Through the podcast, he learned about this variation of FTD, primary progressive aphasia.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a disease that not only takes something away, but unlocks new possibilities,\u201d he said. \u201cThat, to me, was a revelation and it gave me hope.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt that point, if I could feel this sense of hope in the setting of thinking about my Dad\u2019s dementia, then other people could too, and I almost have a duty to share that with other people. So thus began the journey.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"Leo Marks stars as Ravel in \u201cUnRavelled.\u201d (Photo by Stan Evans)<\/p>\n

Fans of the HBO sitcom \u201cSilicon Valley,\u201d parody might recognize Broder as Dan Melcher, one of the tech execs. Dr. Bruce Miller,<\/a> the founding director of the Global Brain Health Institute at the University of California, San Francisco did.<\/p>\n

After Broder learned about Ravel and Adams, he began researching, discovered Miller, and wrote him a fan letter. To Broder\u2019s surprise, Miller recognized from \u201cSilicon Valley\u201d and wrote back.<\/p>\n

The two met and their connections led to a new career path for Broder. He became an Atlantic Fellow at the Global Brain Health Institute also housed in Trinity College in Dublin and received a commission to write the play.<\/p>\n

The fellowship, Broder said, is \u201cat the intersection of neurology, neuroscience, and society, and equity, and art and leadership. It\u2019s a how-to- change the world program.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cDementia is ready for its pink-ribbon moment,\u201d Broder said, referring to the well-known breast cancer campaign. Just as cancer and heart disease have moved into public awareness with increasing ability to slow and stop disease, dementia, he said, is on the threshold of new progress.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re outliving our brains for the first time in history. Of course, there are going to be more brain injuries. It\u2019s a sign of our success as species, not a horrible gray wave waiting to take us away,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\"\"From left, \u201cUnRavelled\u201d features Leo Marks as Ravel and Lucy Davenport portrays Anne Adams (Photo by Stan Evans)<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the next 10 years, it\u2019s going to be amazing. We\u2019re going to be able to stop it earlier. We\u2019re going to be able to prevent these conditions,\u201d he said. \u201cBut in order to do this we need to stop looking at this through the lens of fear.\u201d<\/p>\n

That\u2019s the point of \u201cUnRavelled.\u201d Wherever it\u2019s performed, Broder said, so many in the audience stop by afterwards to talk about how they related to play.<\/p>\n

Presented in partnership with Penn Medicine, the Association for Frontotemporal Degeneration, the Global Brain Health Institute and other groups, each performance of \u201cUnRavelled\u201d will be accompanied by post-show discussions and workshops.<\/p>\n

Marion Karasiuk, Anne Adams\u2019 daughter, will be among the speakers after the Oct. 8 performance. The matinee on Oct. 10 will be followed by a free music and poetry workshop specifically designed for people with dementia and their caregivers, although all are welcome. A free music, poetry and dance workshop will be held after the Sunday matinee on Oct. 11.<\/p>\n

FYI<\/p>\n

\u201cUnRavelled,\u201d<\/a> Penn Live Arts, Oct. 8-11, Harold Prince Theatre, 3680 Walnut St., University of Pennsylvania. Links to register for the workshops are here<\/a>. 215-898-3900.<\/p>\n

janevonbtheater@gmail.com<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\ud83d\udc8c Love Philly? So do we. Let\u2019s be friends.\u00a0Sign up for the Billy Penn newsletter today. Like composer…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":300869,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[4877,23509,227,47,69,71,70,1483],"class_list":["post-300868","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-philadelphia","tag-arts","tag-dementia","tag-education","tag-mental-health","tag-philadelphia","tag-philadelphia-headlines","tag-philadelphia-news","tag-theater"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/300868","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=300868"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/300868\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/300869"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=300868"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=300868"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=300868"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}