Lights! Camera! Action! Outfitted with props, green screens, dazzling (homemade) costumes and what Matthew Hoffman calls “A lot of DIY ridiculousness,” elder thespians eagerly mug in front of the camera, inhabiting famous characters and recreating legendary movie scenes. It’s all part of Matthew Hoffman’s “Tuesdays with Matthew,” a wildly popular program that’s been praised for its chutzpah and brought a newfound sense of purpose to everyone involved. “The goal is to make their Tuesday afternoons feel like the best Friday night of their lives,” says Matthew in the group’s Titanic video. From Script to Screen It all started when Matthew, a television host and celebrity correspondent by day, stopped by a Los Angeles senior center looking for video material for his portfolio. He asked to work with some of the center’s residents, and soon discovered he could tap into his group’s creativity and spirit by directing short sketches based on scenes from famous films. “When I first started my own group, we just read scenes from movies,” he tells People magazine. “But after a couple of months, I thought, ‘If they’re so excited about just reading these scenes, what would happen if we literally made our own movies and gave them something to really look forward to?’” “That is when my life changed, and I got really, really into this.” Back to Life For almost a decade Matthew, with the help of donations and spurred by the energy and enthusiasm of his performers, has been able to transform his weekly meetings into something dazzlingly different. “Tuesdays come to life,” Matthew says in an introductory video about the program, “and once we yell ‘action,’ the magic begins.” “I was sitting home watching TV,” explains another scene-ior, “I had nothing else to do. It’s given me...