Would you like to get involved but do not want to be on stage?
We are always looking for people to help out both front of house and backstage.
If you are interested, then please contact us on our facebook page https://www.facebook.com/gageplayers/ or by email: friends@thegageplayers.co.uk
On Monday, 15th and Wednesday, 17th January, 2018 we shall be holding auditions for our Spring play, Vintage Hitchcock: a live radio play by Joe Landry, directed by Lars Sawyer. These will take place at 8pm in Christchurch Hall, in Walton on the Hill.
There are three one-act plays in this production, which takes place c. 1946 in the US metropolitan broadcasting studio of WBFR’s radio station, and which showcases the build-up of archetypal Hitchcock thrillers.
In The Lodger there are 2M and 2F main roles and 6 minor roles (plus the main role of the Announcer, who is heard in each play – this could be M or F).
In Sabotage there are 27 minor speaking parts, many of which could be doubled up.
In The 39 Steps there are 2M and 2F main roles and 22 minor speaking parts, many of which could also be doubled up – not to say tripled or quadrupled up, as in Sabotage.
One of the joys of this triple bill is that, since the action takes place in a live, authentic radio broadcasting studio, the players will have the scripts in their hands throughout! Not having to learn the lines absolutely by heart is an advantage, but players will still be expected to know the lines, the cues and the drama, in order to give an authentic performance as a radio actor or actress. All characters have British accents except the Announcer and the stage manager (American), and the few parts where foreign accents are specified.
Rehearsals will begin with a read-through on Monday 12th February, continuing every Wednesday and Monday thereafter until Wednesday, 18th April, all at 8pm in Christchurch Hall. The play will then transfer to The Lord Riddell Memorial Hall for set-up and performance week. Performances will be held on 26th, 27th and 28th April.
ALL PLAYERS PLEASE NOTE:
In addition, the Gage has been honoured with an invitation by the Banstead Art Festival Committee to present a play during the Festival week. The evening play date will be:
Wednesday, 2nd May, 2018, when two of the above plays will be staged in Banstead Community Hall either side of an interval. Therefore, those auditioning should be aware that they are committing to this further performance if they are offered a part or parts in Vintage Hitchcock.
On Wednesday the 9th August, we are once more venturing to The Duke’s Head in Tadworth to pit our wits against the regular teams. Please feel free to come and give us a helping hand (or brain).
Arrive by 7:30 if you would like to eat first (the food at The Duke’s Head is very good).
This new play, being given its premiere by The Gage, is set on a railway platform on the rural outskirts of London. The timeframe stretches from the 1930s to the 1970s, and during this we learn of the lives of some of the people who pass through the station, many of whom are left to fill in time there while waiting for the train . . .
Jeanette, a motherly soul, looks after the station café and also looks after George, who hangs around the station hoping that his wife Jane will return on the next train . . . Tom is a musician whom we first meet worrying about an audition. In time he becomes the conductor of a major orchestra and marries Mary, whom he met at the station when she arrived as a teacher accompanying evacuee children.
The play also has its serious moments, when the repercussions of a terrorist bombing in London reach some of our characters; and again when a newspaper reporter tries to put together a scandalous obituary for another of them, but is foiled . . .
Many lifetimes pass before your eyes in Waiting for the Train.
Performances will be at 8pm on Thursday, 30th November, Friday, 1st December and Saturday, 2nd December, at the Riddell Hall, Walton on the Hill.
Tickets £10, box office 01737 812 703.
Patrons intending to dine before the show at The Blue Ball pub near The Riddell Hall will be offered a 15% discount on food if, when they come to pay the bill, they show their pre-bought tickets to the staff.
Put the play dates in your diary now!
The Following Pictures Courtesy of Andy Carter LRPS CPAGB
The Following Pictures Courtesy of Melanie Rolls
Another well received production from The Gage Players – Francis Durbridge’s A Touch of Danger.
Click here to see the programme.
We will be putting on our Quiz hats again and seeing if we can equal or improve our last result at the Dukes Head on Wednesday the 17th May. As usual there is the opportunity to eat there before and that “reserves” our table which is for 19.00 with the quiz starting at approximately 20.15.
UPDATE
We Won!
That’s £20 in the Gage kitty.
OPEN AUDITIONS
FOR THE WINTER 2017 PLAY
On Monday, 3rd and Monday 10th July 2017 we shall be holding auditions for our Winter play, Waiting for the Train, written and directed by Pip Rolls. These will take place at 8pm in Christchurch Hall, in Walton on the Hill.
There are 7F main speaking roles for adults, 4M main speaking roles for adults, and also parts for 3 girls and 1 boy. The play opens in 1937 and finishes in 1993 – some characters will need to be able to act the age of late twenty-year-olds through to middle age.
This new play, being given its premiere by The Gage, is set on a railway platform on the rural outskirts of London. It tells of the lives of some of the people who pass through the station, many of whom are left to fill in time there while waiting for the train. Jeanette, a motherly soul, looks after the station café and also looks after George, who hangs around the station hoping that his wife Jane will return on the next train . . .
Tom is a musician whom we first meet worrying about an audition. In time he becomes the conductor of a major orchestra and marries Mary, whom he met at the station when she arrived as a teacher accompanying evacuee children. Two of the evacuees, Miranda and Peter, we watch grow into adults; after an unlikely kind of courtship, Peter proposes to Miranda during a disastrous meal at the re-vamped station café.
The play also has its serious moments, when the repercussions of a terrorist bombing in London reach some of our characters; and again when a newspaper reporter tries to put together a scandalous obituary for another of them, but is foiled . . .
Many lifetimes pass before your eyes in Waiting for the Train.
Rehearsals will begin with a read-through on Monday 18th September, followed by a rehearsal on Wednesday, 20th September, and thereafter on every Monday and Wednesday, all at 8pm at Christchurch Hall, so there will be plenty of time between audition and rehearsals to start getting your lines down!
Performances will be at 8pm on Thursday, 30th November, Friday, 1st December and Saturday, 2nd December, at the Riddell Hall, Walton on the Hill.
So, please come along to the audition and try out for The Gage. The Winter production begins our 67th anniversary year, so you’d be joining a company with a strong tradition of putting on great entertainment. Remember: auditions on Monday, 3rd July and 10th at 8pm, Christchurch Hall, Walton on the Hill. For further information contact the director, Pip Rolls, on 01372 452 105 or pip.rolls@yahoo.co.uk .
Our November 2016 production was well received.
Our April 2017 production will be “Touch of Danger” by “Francis Durbridge”.
Showing at the Riddell Memorial Hall, Walton-on-the-Hill on 27th, 28th and 29th April 2017.
Rehearsals are now underway.
Hi, I am Jon Laws and am delighted to have been elected as chairman of the Gage at the March AGM. I have been a member of The Gage Players since 2003, when I was a “portly gentleman” in Dickens’ A Christmas Carol, directed by the late Margaret Hunter.
For your records, here are my contact details should you need to be in touch with me: 20 Lyndhurst Avenue, Surbiton, Surrey KT5 9LL. Mobile 07565 962 453, Skype jontlaws and email jon@cctvwithtlc.co.uk
My first task as chairman is to say a great big thank you to Franki Gray for all her work and for leaving The Gage Players in a great situation.
The highlights of Franki’s year in charge were Murder in Play by Simon Brett and Teahouse of the August Moon by John Patrick, based on the novel by Vern Sneider. We also made three appearances at The Duke’s Head as a pub quiz team. These have been enjoyable and have even netted £10 in prize money, which went to the Gage fund. We have another date planned for Wednesday 11th May. Please do see if you can come along to join the fun (especially if you are an expert at pop music) and have a meal there before we start. I have booked a table for us for 19.15 (the quiz starts at 20.00), so if you are interested, please let me know and I shall book you in.
Bedroom Farce by Alan Ayckbourn was a success and we had good audiences, but the Saturday audience was exceptionally warm with their response. We managed to start to take down the set on the Saturday evening and with all the people that turned up on the Sunday, we were completely finished by 11.00, an almost record time. Many thanks to all of you who were involved in any way and especially those who helped with the “get-out”. We were also happy to welcome some new faces with our front of house and backstage crew as well as one of the cast, we hope to see you all again for the next production (details below)
For the summer, the committee has been thinking of not proposing a barbeque this year, but to try a “get together” for a Sunday lunch at The Blue Anchor, Dorking Road, Tadworth, KT20 5SL on Sunday 26th June. If you would like to join in for this and get to know people in the Gage, please contact me as soon as possible (jon@cctvwithtlc.co.uk ) so that we can gauge numbers for a group booking.
We shall also be staging a rehearsed reading with supper in September at The Riddell Hall – the arrangement is not to have a ticket price, but just charge the cost of food (and bring your own drinks). Please let me know if you would like to come along to think – either as a possible actor (no learning of lines for this!) or as a member of our audience.
The play chosen for the autumn (24th, 25th and 26th November) is Over My Dead Body by Derek Benfield, and it will be directed by Debbie Nichols with auditions in July – more details in the next newsletter and on our web site.
Don’t forget that we now have an agreement with the Manager of the Blue Ball, for anyone who books a meal on a show night who is coming to see the show can get a 15% discount on food, that night
In the meantime, we look forward to seeing you at the Dukes Head for the Quiz Night.
