The Gage Players newsletter, April, 2022
Dear Members and Friends,
What a lovely Easter we’ve had and I do hope you enjoyed the weekend in the sun.
Whilst we have been unable to perform a spring production this year, due to Covid and our dwindling funds, applications have been made for grants, but they unfortunately take time. It is a waiting game. However, there are many interesting events in the pipeline, one or two of them by fellow local community groups:
Gala Organ Recital at the Church of the Good Shepherd, Tadworth
Saturday, 14th May, 2022 at 6.30pm
By Simon Johnson, one of the world’s leading organists, including music by Bach, Liszt, Vaughan Williams and Franck.
Wine and soft drinks at 6.30, concert at 7.00pm, and at 8.15pm adjourn to the Church Hall for a finger buffet, wine and soft drinks.
Admission is by pre-purchased tickets at £15 per person, which includes refreshments, but there is no charge to accompanied children under 18.
On-line: www.ticketsource.co.uk/goodshepherdtadworth
By phone: 01737 556 219
The Walton May Pageant, 21st May, 2022
The procession from Walton Pond starts at 2pm. We are running the Gage Players/bottle tombola stall and would be grateful for help and donations, not only of alcohol but bottles or jars of anything from ketchup, jam, marmalade and lemonade to gin and fizz, so that there is something for all winners. This promises to be a very popular and busy stall, so if any of you members, friends and family can join in, please let us know, then we can set up a rota of helpers to set up the stall, run it throughout the day, and dismantle it at the end. Please help – thank you. If you can help, please email us at friends@thegageplayers.co.uk
Platinum Jubilee Tea Party, 3rd June 2022
Friday, 3rd June, 2022 at 2.30pm in Jubilee Wood, Tadworth (Tadworth Street next to the railway bridge)
All users of the woodland are welcome.
Bring along your own rugs or seating and any additional food you may require.
Sadly no dogs except guide dogs.
gbockmeulen@hotmail.com
Tadworth and Walton Residents’ Association
The Gage midsummer lunch out of doors
We would like to hold a midsummer lunch, probably in a pub garden, either a barbecue or from the pub’s main menu. We will let you know the venue, date and time as soon as possible. It would be good to meet up.
A 90th birthday celebration, 14th August, 2022, St Peter’s Church, Walton
Our active Gage member, Chris Slater, who directs for us, has also had a very successful career as a professional musician – he is an accomplished organist, pianist, choirmaster and conductor, as well as having taught at the Royal College of Music. His most recent distinctions include a master’s degree in conducting from Chichester University, achieving a 2021 sponsored play-through on the organ at home of hymn music in Hymns Ancient and Modern (completed by Whitsun 2021, raising over £1,200 for his local organ fund), and in October last year being made an honorary Associate of the Royal School of Church Music at a ceremony in Durham Cathedral.
Chris is planning to hold a concert to celebrate his 90th birthday on 14th August, 2022 (though the actual day is in December). This will be held at 3.15pm at St Peter’s Church, Walton on the Hill, followed by tea at 4.15pm at Breech Lane Community Hall in Walton. There will be no charge for concert or tea, though a retiring collection will be made after the concert to benefit St Peter’s. Although this is an event personally organised by Chris, the Gage Players will be supporting him wholeheartedly in the audience, and we hope you may join us.
Gage Players rehearsed reading with supper, 24th September 2022
This will be Playgoers by Sir Arthur Wing Pinero, directed by Chris Slater. This has been deferred since lockdown, so we are delighted to be staging it. We hope the original cast are still available, but if not everyone is, a call for auditions/read-throughs will go out a bit later on, dates to be during September at Chris’s home, with a couple of rehearsals there as well, before transferring to the Riddell Hall. Please put the date in your diary now.
Gage Players rehearsed reading with supper, 3rd or 10th December 2022
Christmas may seem a long way off, but we are looking forward to early December when we will present scenes from A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens, which should put everyone into the true Christmas spirit (some of you may remember The Gage’s full production of this, back in 2003!). A firm performance date, as well as audition and rehearsal dates, will be notified nearer the time, so please keep some space in your December diary
Joint event with Walton School, March 2023
It has been agreed with the school that our first planned joint event – a pop-up poetry matinee with interval tea – should be delayed from this March to March 2023. I sincerely hope that this dreaded Covid virus is over by then, or at least that life will be much more manageable. More information on this show later in the year.
Gage Players spring play, April 2023
Hoping that we receive some grant monies and that we ourselves have raised funds throughout this year, we are planning to perform Agatha Crusty and the Village Hall Murders by Derek Webb, directed by Chris Slater. This play was already partially cast before Covid problems hit us again, but a call for auditions will go out once we know we can safely fund the production and that we have put all the practicalities in hand.
We hope to have some interim activities during 2023, but then we look forward to:
Gage Players winter play, November 2023
We are determined to make a fourth attempt to perform Molly’s Calling written by Pip Rolls. This clever, funny play so deserves to be seen. Anyone who saw our performance of Pip’s What Really Happened in February will share our enthusiasm for his work, I’m sure.
Enjoy our lovely spring.
Best wishes,
Gay
