By LINDA CHION KENNEY
As an actor, dancer, choreographer and director, Lois Green of Riverview is used to bringing stories to life on stage, as she plans to do with her next production, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, set now for auditions and for staging in July.
It’s another venture back into the world of theater, which Green for several years had to leave behind, when the circumstances of her life took an unprecedented toll. Her only child, Timothy Dunson, died unexpectedly at age 23 in January 2018. Soon after, her ailing parents moved in, and Green became their sole caretaker.
“Getting through my grief and all the added responsibilities, I didn’t have time for theater,” said Green, who as a registered nurse once specialized in psychiatric issues. “Eventually, I got to thinking there has to be more to life than working and being a caretaker.”
Looking for “something that fulfilled me, that made me smile,” Green said she had no farther to look than the stage and its promise to give back to the community through art.
Her first role back, three years ago, was for the Plant City Entertainment’s (PCE) staging of First Baptist of Ivy Gap, which earned Green a community theater MONTI Award, for featured role.
Auditions are set for the July staging of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat.
Working at St. Joseph’s Hospital-South in Riverview, part of the BayCare Health System, Green was picked to direct Holding On, Letting Go, a two-hour play about end-of-life issues, including hospice care. The no-charge, community outreach show was staged at PCE’s home base, the Plant City Playhouse. Other gigs ensued, including choreography for PCE’s Best Little Whorehouse in Texas and additional work with BayCare Health, staging short vignettes, based on the two-hour play, at assisted living facilities.
No longer able to work for BayCare, due to the needs of her parents, Green said she works with BrightStar Care, working 12-hour shifts providing homecare for pediatric patients with lifelong illnesses. She ekes out even more time for the theater, a calling she first had as a 15-year-old high school freshman in Staten Island, N.Y.
“The nurse part that I have in my heart, wanting to give back, is satisfied by doing community theater,” Green said. “Theater is an escape, where you can forget about what’s going on in your life for a little while. I watch people leaving the show: they’re happy, they’re hugging, they’re saying good things, they’re thinking about what they’ve seen. It’s a good feeling to affect somebody in that way.”
Timothy Dunson died in January 2018 at age 23.
Green said it has taken time to form a new normal after losing her son.
“When it comes to grief, the thing I found the hardest was inaction, the not doing anything,” Green said. “You’re thinking about it, dwelling about it, not getting past it. But the loved one who passed does not want you sitting home being depressed. They would want you to be happy and to continue on with your life.”
The last time Green saw her son, it was after a night out at Busch Gardens in Tampa, at a company event with her hospital coworkers, celebrating BayCare’s 50th anniversary. Back at home, Tim’s girlfriend and friends gathered with them for a fun night at home.
Her son, not feeling well, went to the bathroom and never walked out. No definitive cause for his death was determined, other than to say that his heart went into ventricular rhythm and never snapped back.
“The autopsy said there was nothing wrong with his heart,” Green added. “He had nothing in his system. Someone his age, with a healthy heart, doctors should have been able to shock it back into a good rhythm, but they couldn’t.”
Lois Green, with her only son and biggest fan, Timothy Dunson
Now, the son who went to the theater with his mother for years, helping backstage and cheering her on, lives on in the memories Green takes with her to rehearsals and productions. It’s a testament to grievers and caretakers that it’s okay to step out and live a bit of your life for yourself.
“When my son passed, I never thought I would have a life again,” Green said. “I thought my life ended. I was a single mom with one child, and so much of my future was about his, thinking about him going to college, walking down the aisle, raising a family. All those things you think you’re going to experience, and suddenly it’s gone. Trying to find yourself and get a new purpose is difficult. I was Tim’s mom, so who am I now?”
Green said to those facing life-altering grief, there is solace in the promise of more.
“It’s about wrapping your head around the fact that your entire life is going to be different,” Green said. “You never get over grief; you just learn how to live with it.”
Courtesy photos Lois Green of Riverview, in her award-winning role as a featured character in the Plant City Entertainment production of First Baptist of Ivy Gap
Part of that for Green is serving as a PCE board member. She aims one day to bring community theater closer to home in a more meaningful way to the greater Riverview community, but for now she takes the trip to the Plant City Playhouse, at 101 North Thomas St.
There, auditions for Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat are set for 7:30 p.m. April 30 and May 1, with callbacks May 2. Arrangements are possible should a conflict exist. The show is set to run July 12 through July 28, with Friday and Saturday night staging and Sunday matinees. Green said she aims for a cast of 30 or 40 players, including adult roles and roles for kids ages 5 through 18, as well as for a children’s chorus. For more, call 813-752-0728 or visit: www.plantcityentertainment.com/.