I Once Was a Person Too “Who are we when the world stops asking?” 2026 Screenplay by Galen R. Collins - WGA #2326622 

Logline At a small-town senior center, a director invites elders to write their life stories. When one participant—a visually impaired former teacher—cannot write her own, the director records her memories, forming a quiet bond that reveals a life shaped by loss, faith, and service. Synopsis Set in a small Midwestern town in 1980, I Once Was a Person Too follows Elizabeth Cummings, a senior center director who invites the elders in her care to write their life stories as a way of affirming their dignity and worth. While most participants write independently, Elizabeth records the memories of Ida Smith, a visually impaired former teacher whose long life has been shaped by early loss, faith, service, and quiet resilience. As Ida recounts her childhood displacement, her calling to teach, her marriage, and the family she raised, Elizabeth listens—carefully, without interruption—allowing Ida’s voice to guide the story. Around them, the senior center becomes a living community as other residents reflect on their own lives, discovering meaning in memories they once believed ordinary or forgotten. Over time, Elizabeth’s role shifts from organizer to witness, learning when to speak and when to remain silent. When Ida’s story is finally preserved and returned to her family, the act of listening becomes an act of love—affirming that a life, once lived, still deserves to be seen and remembered. Quiet, intimate, and performance-driven, I Once Was a Person Too is a humanist drama about revealing the extraordinary within ordinary lives and honoring people not for what they produce, but for who they have been. Themes Dignity Listening as Care Memory as Identity Visibility vs. InvisibilityLetting Go Format & Audience • Format: Film ( 60 minutes) • For fans of: the straight story and Poetry
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