What is Dottie, and how did it come to be?
Based on the theater production of the same name from writer and creator C. Robin Marcotte, Dottie is a 20-minute film, an accompanying educational workshop, and an accredited online curriculum designed as a professional development tool for healthcare professionals.
Dottie is a powerful narrative that facilitates a deeper and more intimate understanding of how dementia impacts patients and their caregivers. Through researched storytelling and visually compelling scenes, the film demonstrates the challenging nuances of dementia’s grasp on the aging mind and body while also honoring the beauty of personhood. Audiences and providers experience the layers of Dottie’s multiple realities, her resilience, her perseverance and her determination to make sense of it all. The lingering question audiences may have at the conclusion is: which reality is hers and which is ours?
What initially inspired Dottie?
Robin’s grandmother had a long battle with dementia. His grandfather couldn’t let her go and she was on life support for nearly 2 years. She passed when he was in college, and 10 years later Robin was running a professional theater company in Philadelphia. The company was creating solo shows that held a lot of meaning for them. His grandmother, Dottie, had a deep place in his heart and her story was beautiful. He turned it into what would become an award-winning theater performance that he would tour over the next 20 years.
This original stage production of Dottie utilized original music, mask performance, aerial performance and shadow dancing to usher the audience into a mind overwhelmed by dementia. Looking into the layers of her different realities, we are moved by Dottie’s resilience, touched by her perseverance and inspired by her determination to make sense of it all.
How has working on dementia-related art changed you?
As an artist, Robin’s work starts with a question. It’s through this question that he begins the process of exploration. His grandmother, Dottie, was a strong, funny, and beautiful woman who adored her family—he resisted the notion that she was losing all her memories. Robin wondered, “What if she could have kept just one?”
This question led him to see dementia through the patient’s eyes. He found some humor, definitely a lot of love, and the unavoidable sadness. At the end of the day, though, caregiving is a practice of being present and empathetic with loved ones and has the effect of fortifying one’s sense of mindfulness and patience.
How has the work been received?
In May of 2025, Articine conducted an analysis of audience reception of Dottie. The feedback consistently demonstrates the performance’s powerful emotional impact and educational value in portraying the dementia experience. They include:
“Think of a day in their shoes. Try to remember who they were and honor that, look beyond the hospital bed.”
“The fear patients experience when they experience what it feels like memories are being lost or stolen from them is an important perspective to keep in mind. Dottie’s desperate pleading with a little girl to keep just one was heartbreaking.”
“To people who experience dementia, feel the fear of what is happening to them? It looks so terrifying but they seem to just sit and get on with it a lot of the time. It must feel so scary and lonely.”
“Remember how frightening it is to lose trust in my own felt experience.”
Recently accredited, Dottie is offered with CME credits for nursing, physicians and social workers. For more information, visit Articine’s website.
This work is dedicated to: The film is inspired by founder C. Robin Marcotte’s grandmother, Dottie, and the stories and 8mm footage are from her married life and Robin’s childhood. Dottie is also dedicated to Jane Schiller, founder of Articine, Amanda Whitworth’s mother, who we lost in 2023. Articine’s Chief Medical Education Officer and third Founder, Bobby Kelly worked to ensure the film maintained the honorable inspiration stemming from Robin and Amanda’s loved ones while not sacrificing medical relevance or empathetic practice.
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