Ask many actors and they will tell you it is hard to get work when you are just starting out and as you get older. However, it has not been the case for American musical (音乐剧) actress Susan Watson.

In 1958, at the age of 20, Watson was offered a part in the musical, West Side Story, in London. At that time, she was still a student at New York City’s Juilliard School for musicians, dancers and actors. More than 50 years later, she was offered another part. Watson took an important role in a remake of the musical, Follies, at the Kennedy Center in Washington and the Marquis Theatre in New York City. In both cases, the offers came from musical theater legend Stephen Sondheim. He wrote the lyrics for West Side Story and the music and lyrics for Follies.

As a teenager, Watson developed her dancing, singing and acting skills in her hometown of Tulsa, Oklahoma. She traveled to study at New York City’s Juilliard School before Sondheim interrupted her studies with the offer of a part in West Side Story. The award­winning musical, based on William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, tells a story of the struggles of immigrants (移民) in New York City. In the following two decades, Watson had starring roles in such well­known musicals as The Fantasticks, Bye Bye Birdie, Carnival, Celebration and No, No, Nanette.

Musicals are an American invention. They tell stories through many art forms: spoken words, songs, acting and dances. “Music adds an important emotional element, making an interesting story even more powerful,” Watson said.

At age 78, Watson now lives in California, but she has not stopped performing. She just released a new album called The Music Never Ends. She is excited that six of the 14 songs on her new album were written by “empowered (获得授权的) women”, including Nancy Ford and Gretchen Cryer. She says her new musical record is selling “very well” partly because people do not have to go to a store to buy it. They can buy it online, like almost any other product.

Christmas Eve was tomorrow. I hoped one of the packages that held a camera had already been placed under the Christmas tree. It was the only thing I wanted. I had been dropping hints to my parents. I love taking photos. My bedroom walls are covered with photos I had taken with my mom’s old camera. I’m always trying to capture those perfect moments in which you can hear the laughter or touch the beautiful scene, but my camera has always seemed to fall short.

I knew Mom had put a few presents under the tree this morning, so I went on a hunt in my mom’s room. I opened the door and found my Christmas present was lying unwrapped on the floor — a big pink cat. I felt so disappointed.

Mom seemed to notice that, and she tried to cheer me up. “Stacy, I got your present today. I am so excited to surprise you!” “I can’t wait,” I said.

The next day I couldn’t wait any longer. I needed to tell her.

“Mom, may I talk to you for a second?”

“Sure, dear. What do you need to talk about?” she asked.

And so it came — how upset I was that I was getting a cat.

“Stacy, that cat is for your sister Julia!” she said with a smile.

“Then what am I getting?” I asked.

She just smiled. “You’ll have to wait and see.”

Next morning, I happily got into the living room and sat next to the tree. I pulled out the box with my name on it and opened the wrapping paper to find ...

My camera! “Thank you!” I said to both Dad and Mom.

Dad picked up the camera and took a picture of Julia, Mom and me. It has become one of my favorite pictures. Just on that Christmas morning, I took lots of photos with my camera — my little sister making a face, my parents giving me a soft smile — and all of these photos have come to mean one thing to me: love.

David Durow, 80, a retired former head teacher, needed to adapt to a new way of life after his wife’s death. Durow was hit not only by sadness, but also a sense of the part he had played in his marriage and in society. “Suddenly, I had to think about cooking, cleaning and washing,” he says.

Facing the single life made him realise that he had been “locked” in “a male-dominated society”. “So I started to turn my life upside down and inside out with basically life-changing values. I’d mostly been a common male, leaving for work at 7am and getting home at 7pm, expecting a prepared meal.” It was a shock to realise that, from Monday to Friday, he had “spent more time with co-workers than with my wife and children”.

“What’s frightening is that it’s only happening in the latter part of my life. Where have I been for the last 75 years?” Durow has been devoted to extracurricular activities, from setting up youth groups for children with disabilities to opening a residential home for the cross-generational. He was buried in works by Elizabeth Strout, Sarah Waters and Rebecca Solnit’s article Men Explain Things to Me. Sometimes, he would wake at 3am,get up and write poems with the words he had read in head, which threw light on him, “How I was sorry for thinking that women didn’t know.”

Durow met Jean by online dating. He shared his new thinking with her. “I don’t think she would have ever considered becoming my partner without it. They both cook; Durow does the cleaning. They have joined a book group, where Durow is the only man. He tries to avoid “taking over”, a habit in him after years of lecturing. Sometimes, when a rider disparages(轻视)a female driver, Durow will hear himself say, “Don’t you make the same kind of errors?”

The journey of re-considering his role in relationships has helped him have a fresh understanding of what it is to be a man.