BENITA Collings has made it a point all her life to take a job only if it’s fun, which is why she initially agreed to comedy revue Senior Moments.
“It was fun, the cast get along, we have a good time and the audiences laugh a lot, so what’s not to like?” Collings said.
“It’s about old people getting old disgracefully. And I definitely qualify as a senior.”
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READ NOWSenior Moments returns to Perth after a 2018 season, with a few small changes and a cast of young and older actors including John Wood, Max Gillies, Geoff Harvey, Russell Newman, Kim Lewis, Emily Taylor and Christian Barratt-Hill.
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Sydneysider Collings said the show was not just for older generation audiences and she had been interested to see how her 18-year-old granddaughter would react.
“After the show, I asked what she thought,” Collings said.
“Pardon the expression but she wouldn’t bulls*** me, and she said she loved it and kept looking at her mother saying, ‘that’s you, yeah that’s you’.
“The young ones get it on their level looking at the oldies going, ‘oh gosh, yes, that’s what they do’.”
Known for her role on Play School, Collings said the iconic children’s television show was another fun job but one she almost never got.
“I started in 1969 and shot my last episode in 1999 but because of the repeats, I was still on air in 2007,” she said.
“Back then, it wasn’t like it is today where everybody knows it. I got an audition for it and I’m ashamed to say that I didn’t learn my script properly so I bumbled it and didn’t get the job.
“Two years later, on the strength of my storytelling of that original audition, they asked me to audition again. This time I knew my script and I got the gig.”
Given only 45 new Play School episodes were made each year, Collings said it meant the actors had the flexibility to do film, television and theatre.
For the past 22 years, she has also been an ambassador for Youth Insearch – a program for at risk youth.
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THE ESSENTIALS
What: Senior Moments
Where: Heath Ledger Theatre
When: April 10 to 17
Tickets: www.ptt.wa.gov.au