Lockdown by Gay Weeden
Lockdown is boring and long
’til everyone’s vaccine is done
For nearly a year
we’ve lived in great fear
Let’s hope Summer will bring us good cheer.
Each week I meet up with the Gage
reading poems and prose page by page
The variety’s fun
as we read one by one
’til we can perform on the stage.
At the Gage, we celebrated a day early at our weekly Poetry and Prose Zoom evening. At the previous evening we asked the participants to come up with a Limerick for this one. Here are some of them:
There once was an amdram theatre
That performed every play to the letter.
They became all the rage,
Their name was The Gage,
And they kept getting better and better.
by Gill Gibbins
There was an old fogey from Cheam
Who, of reading, really was keen,
He read Orson Scott Card
And the Marques de Sade
But the latter found rather obscene.
by Lars Sawyer
There was a young woman from Kent,
Who never could quite pay her rent.
Filled her landlord’s belly
With grub off the telly
He said, ” Nigella, my dear, you just ain’t!
by Franki Gray
There was a young lady from Surrey,
Who seemed,always, to be in a hurry.
When asked what the rush was,
She got in a tiswas
Which really became quite a worry.
by Franki Gray
Also read and/or performed during the evening included:
On Aging by Maya Angelou
Fern Hill by Dylan Thomas
Father William by Lewis Carroll
Bat by D.H. Lawrence
Death by Dollars by D. M. Larson
Ulysses by Alfred, Lord Tennyson
If you would like to join in on any Wednesday evening for an hour, starting at 8pm, please join our mailing list https://thegageplayers.co.uk/mailing-list-signup/ and then send us a message at friends@thegageplayers.co.uk and we will add you to the Zoom invitation list. If you have already signed up to the mailing list but do not yet get an invitation and would like to get one, please email as above.
The variety of contributions during the evening has been wonderful and extremely entertaining.
THE POP-UP POETRY EVENING
Saturday, 21st March, 2020
The Gage Players are launching a new community event in March – not a play this time, but an evening of fun open to all, with a meal included: a new chance for socialising.
People instinctively turn to poetry in times of trouble or happiness, or just to be comforted with well-remembered lines from childhood. And poetry fits the bill each time – there’s something that feels right for every event and every emotion. Stories, images and magical words in magical rhythms from the pens of people who have felt and ‘seen’ what they wrote.
At school, many of us learned poems by heart, and later in life even famous speeches or paragraphs from favourite books, or parts of favourite hymns or songs retained a place in our memories. At one of The Gage Players’ committee meetings not so long ago, one of us spoke some lines of poetry that capped the point under discussion, and suddenly, all round the table, people piped up with pieces they knew – funny, naughty, or just a lovely thing remembered. And we enjoyed it so much that the meeting agenda got forgotten for a while, and the idea for this evening event was born.
Learning by heart is so good for memory training, language skills and communication skills, and helps to develop a flexible mind – such a pity more schools don’t include it in their curricula. But here’s a chance to display your favourite piece, and perhaps for younger people to come along as well and have a go – and maybe see what their elders can do that they can’t! You don’t have to know a piece by heart, you can read a favourite if you’d prefer.
So, we are inviting people to book a place at Pop-up Poetry with The Gage.
The date is Saturday, 21st March, 2020, the place is The Riddell Hall, Dean’s Lane, Walton on the Hill, Surrey KT20 5AS, the time is 8pm with doors open at 7.15, and the cost per head for the meal and to cover hall hire charges, will be £12. If you prefer not to eat, there will still be a smaller charge of £6. After the meal, we’ll invite people to stand up and give their best, with the evening planned to end around 10-10.15pm.
Please book at friends@thegageplayers.co.uk or on our ticket office number, 01737 812 703 – booking is essential, please, because of having to pre-order catering. Money will be taken at the door, and the food will be delivered for 8pm. The meal choices are fish or chicken or vegetarian option with chips; please bring your own drinks, nibbles and glasses.
We look forward to seeing you.
‘Prose: words in their best order – poetry: the best words in the best order.’
Samuel Taylor Coleridge, 1772-1834
