Salt Lake City's Senior Theatre Project travels light. A couple of chairs, a table and sound system: That's about all this company of professional actors needs to set up performances at unlikely venues, including senior care centers, libraries, churches, shelters and parks.

"Our main focus is to provide good, intelligent theater about the issues of growing older," says Jayne Luke, a local actor and the founder of the nonprofit Walk-Ons Inc., which launched the senior-aimed program in 2006.

Shows are taken directly to the people in guerrilla-style performances, where actors improvise entrances based on the layout at each location.

In surveying the national theater scene, organizers haven't found another group of professional actors who are focused on performing material aimed at seniors. So far, the company has about half a dozen original plays, as well as excerpts from classic works, in its repertoire.

Luke started collaborating in 2005 with playwright Elaine Jarvik, a longtime reporter for the Deseret News , who was working on a play about an elderly woman and her two daughters. The two discussed the limited roles for older actors, and later began working together.

Aside from Luke's enthusiasm for the project, Jarvik had her own motivation. She remembered her father's experience living in a retirement home, feeling dismayed by the activities offered, such as Bingo and sing-a-longs.

"I partly did this for him," said Jarvik, who has become the resident playwright for the group. "Maybe it was something he would have liked. I try to make it (the writing) funny but also something relatable to older people."

Jarvik, along with fellow playwright Robert F. Benjamin, of New Mexico, began writing short plays about aging. Jarvik's "Dead Right," which grew out of her personal fears about how her life might be depicted in her obituary, was produced at the 2008 Humana Festival of New American Plays in Louisville, Ky., one of the country's most prominent theater festivals.

In the 10-minute play, which is both funny and bold, the female character is appalled to read the misperceptions in an acquaintance's obituary, and even more upset by the unflattering picture printed next to it. The character goes on to discuss with her husband precisely how she wants her own obituary to read.

Justin Ivie, a local actor, joined Walks-On Inc. to direct Senior Theatre plays. As one of the members who is not of retirement age, Ivie, at 37, gets help from the audience and collaborators when doing a show.

"It's incredibly gratifying," he said. "We get to interact with the audience by making a point to stick around after the shows."

The company remains small, with about three or four actors in the cast, plus crew. Shows are scheduled based on availability, as the actors juggle other professional gigs. Walk-Ons Inc. operates on donations, and has received grants from the Utah Arts Council and Zion's Bank, which helped purchased the sound system.

Walk-Ons Inc. members are realistic about the future. They perform not to attract large amounts of money or audiences, but for the cameo moments shared by a section of the population who tend to be isolated.

"We want to keep it grass roots," Luke said. "We want to reach out and find these places with these little pockets of people who really need this."

roxellana@sltrib.com