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Upcoming 2021 Season
Prose, Roses, and Woes; Tour of Love
Do you like a good poem? Are you a poet? Has love induced you to write down your feelings? Well this is the event for you!
Hallowell’s Gaslight Theater is planning an outdoor Valentine themed poetry event in downtown Hallowell for Valentine’s Day weekend.
This outdoor walking tour featuring live poetry readings, will take place on Saturday Feb 13 and Sunday Feb 14 at up to 6 locations in downtown Hallowell.
Small audience groups will be revolved among all the venues, while adhering to social distancing and masking protocols to keep everyone safe.
We have three ways you can participate, as a poet, as a reader or as part of the audience.
Poets
Submit a poem for us to consider, dealing with any aspect of the theme of “love”: true love, new love, old love, or even lost love . It should be your own original work. We are not looking for an epic work but an original poem you would agree to have read by an actor or you can audition to read it yourself. Our esteemed selection committee will choose favorites for the event. Poems can be submitted here or by email to Gaslighttheater@Gaslighttheater.org. Please put “My Poem” in the subject line.
Readers
You can audition to read poems at the event. Readers and audience at each outdoor venue will be socially distanced and we will not be using microphones so a good strong voice and the ability to project is required. You can either submit a video of yourself reading a poem, or audition via Zoom by appointment. Please send an email to Gaslighttheater@Gaslighttheater.org and put “Audition” in the subject line. Include your experience in public reading of poetry and prose, if any. Selected poems that can be used for auditions can be found here.
Audience
Save the date! Reserve a spot and come enjoy the readings. Reservations will be required to ensure safety of our audience and players alike. Tickets are free but donations will be accepted. Reservations will be for specific time slots and will be available mid to late January.
Stay tuned for More Info
Our home venue, Hallowell City Hall, is still not available at this time. It is not yet known when it may be. Social distancing for the safety of our cast, crew, and patrons is a priority and will reduce the size of audiences and will guide us as we look forward to presenting and acting again.
207-626-3698
Gaslighttheater@Gaslighttheater.org -
PROSE, ROSES, & WOES: A CALL FOR Readers
Selected poems to be used for your audition – video or otherwise.
William Shakespeare – 1564-1616
Sonnet 18
Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day? Thou art more lovely and more temperate. Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May, And summer’s lease hath all too short a date. Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines, And often is his gold complexion dimmed; And every fair from fair sometime declines, By chance, or nature’s changing course, untrimmed; But thy eternal summer shall not fade, Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow’st, Nor shall death brag thou wand'rest in his shade, When in eternal lines to Time thou grow'st. So long as men can breathe, or eyes can see, So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.
From 12th night
If music be the food of love, play on. Give me excess of it that, surfeiting, The appetite may sicken, and so die. That strain again, it had a dying fall. Oh, it came o'er my ear like the sweet sound, That breathes upon a bank of violets, Stealing and giving odor. Enough, no more. 'Tis not so sweet now as it was before. O spirit of love, how quick and fresh art thou, That, notwithstanding thy capacity Receiveth as the sea, nought enters there, Of what validity and pitch soe'er, But falls into abatement and low price Even in a minute. So full of shapes is fancy That it alone is high fantastical.
George Gordon Byron – 1788-1824
She Walks in Beauty
I. She walks in beauty, like the night Of cloudless climes and starry skies; And all that's best of dark and bright Meet in her aspect and her eyes: Thus mellowed to that tender light Which heaven to gaudy day denies. II. One shade the more, one ray the less, Had half impaired the nameless grace Which waves in every raven tress, Or softly lightens o'er her face; Where thoughts serenely sweet express How pure, how dear their dwelling place. III. And on that cheek, and o'er that brow, So soft, so calm, yet eloquent, The smiles that win, the tints that glow, But tell of days in goodness spent, A mind at peace with all below, A heart whose love is innocent!
Elizabeth Barrett Browning – 1806-1861
How Do I Love Thee? (Sonnet 43)
How do I love thee? Let me count the ways. I love thee to the depth and breadth and height My soul can reach, when feeling out of sight For the ends of being and ideal grace. I love thee to the level of every day's Most quiet need, by sun and candle-light. I love thee freely, as men strive for right. I love thee purely, as they turn from praise. I love thee with the passion put to use In my old griefs, and with my childhood's faith. I love thee with a love I seemed to lose With my lost saints. I love thee with the breath, Smiles, tears, of all my life; and, if God choose, I shall but love thee better after death.
Robert Burns – 1759-1796
A Red, Red Rose
O my luve's like a red, red rose, That's newly sprung in June; O my luve's like the melodie That's sweetly played in tune. As fair art thou, my bonnie lass, So deep in luve am I; And I will luve thee still, my dear, Till a' the seas gang dry. Till a' the seas gang dry, my dear, And the rocks melt wi' the sun: O I will love thee still, my dear, While the sands o' life shall run. And fare thee weel, my only luve, And fare thee weel awhile! And I will come again, my luve, Though it were ten thousand mile.
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PROSE, ROSES, & WOES: A CALL FOR POETRY
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Current Season 2020
This is our Mid-year Update
After we cut the run of “Last Gas’ short early on in the year, the path of the pandemic remained unknown and we had been waiting for some idea of what the future possibilities are. We still don’t know what the future looks like.
We have postponed our entire 2020 season and will be moving “The Whales of August” and “Almost Maine” to the second half of next year.
Between now and then, we are looking at some plays with a single actor and a small tech crew.
Stay tuned.
We are also looking at reader’s theater. Our home venue, Hallowell City Hall, is not available at this time. It is not yet known when it may be. Social distancing for the safety of our cast, crew, and patrons is a priority and will reduce the size of audiences and will guide us as we look forward to presenting and acting again.
Fear not, we will return because.
We Miss You.
We Miss working the Boards.
We Miss the Social fun that is Theater.
207-626-3698
gaslighttheater@yahoo.comWhales of August by David Berry – Postponed until 2021 season.
Almost Maine By John Cariani – Postponed until 2021 season. -
Last Gas
SYNOPSIS
“Last Gas” is the land of last chances. It takes place in very Northern Maine at “Paradis’ Last Convenience Store. Last Gas, Last Food, Last Phone for Forty One Miles”. GAS is a gently unpredictable love story, with a quiet tension under the surface.Cariani says “This play is not about the Red Sox. It’s about the quiet things that kill people, the internal what-ifs that we all experience, and the everyday choices that we make without thinking about the consequences that reach far beyond our imaginations or expectations.”
Nat Paradis is a Red Sox-loving part-time dad who manages Paradis’ Last Convenient Store, the last convenient place to get gas—or anything—before the Canadian border to the north and the North Maine Woods to the west.
When an old flame returns to town, Nat gets a chance to rekindle a romance he gave up on years ago. But sparks fly as he’s forced to choose between new love and old. LAST GAS takes a hilarious and heartbreakingly hard look at love lost and found, and at what it means to “get back to happy.”
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
John Cariani is an American playwright, best known for his first play, Almost, Maine, which premiered at the Portland Stage Company in 2004. It has become one of the most frequently produced plays in the world. -
Agatha Christie’s Spider’s Web
“Suspense, anyone? The old fashioned kind? Who’s for good, clean fun? One is Agatha Christle’s 1954 puzzler, The Spider’s Web.” – Howard Thompson, The New York Times
Agatha Christie’sSpider’s Web
At Hallowell City Hall
Show dates November 15, 16, 17, 22, 23, 24Synopsis from SamuelFrench.com
Clarissa, wife of a diplomat, is adept at spinning tales of adventure, but when a murder takes place in her drawing room she finds live drama much harder to cope with. Desperate to dispose of the body before her husband arrives with an important politician, she enlists the help of her guests. Hilarity ensues when they are interrupted by the arrival of wry detective Inspector Lord.
A conscious parody of the detective thriller, Christie delivers a unique blend of suspense and humour. There is tension and laughter in equal parts in an intricate plot of murder, police, drug addicts, invisible ink, hidden doorways and secret drawers.
3 women 8 men
Here is a description of characters:
“Spider’s Web” Characters
Clarissa Hailsham-Brown: Age 25-35. The second wife of Henry Hailsham-Brown, charming and inventive, her imagination tends to work overtime, with some unexpected consequences.Jeremy Warrender: Age 25-30. An elegant young man and guest at the Hailsham-Brown’s house, the private secretary for a man much wealthier than he.
Oliver Costello: Age 40s. He is suspected of shady dealings. None of the other characters like him and neither should the audience – even though he is killed in the first act, his body gets to hang around in the second act.
Pipa Hailsham-Brown: Clarissa’s young stepdaughter: Age about 12 years old, she exhibits the strong emotional swings of a pre-teen, made worse by a previous family problems, will need to look much younger than Clarissa but strong enough for Clarissa (and the audience) to believe that she could have clobbered Oliver.
Mildred Peake: She is a big, jolly-looking woman of forty odd, in tweeds and gum boots. The gardener with a hale and hearty attitude, some suspect that she isn’t all there.
Mr. Elgin: The butler – middle aged. Nothing escapes his attention.
Henry Hailsham-Brown: Age 40-50s. Clarissa’s husband. A good-looking man of about forty with a rather expressionless face who works in the foreign office, a strong, solid type.
Constable Jones: Age 20-40s. He and the Inspector have been working together long enough that they understand each other well.
Sir Rowland Delahaye: Age 50-60. A distinguished gentleman with very definite charm. Clarissa’s guardian, friend, and adviser, he likes to think that he can guide her, but would never admit that she has him wrapped around her little finger.
Hugo Birch: Age 50-60. The local Justice of the Peace. A rather irascible type who shouldn’t be involved in business like a murder.
Inspector Lord: Age 40-50s. The wheels are always turning in his brain. Although he doesn’t let on, he doesn’t miss a thing.
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A Midsummer Night’s Dream
Shakespeare in the Park with the Augusta Downtown Alliance
A Midsummer Night’s Dream
Augusta 16, 17 in Waterfront Park in AugustaA Midsummer Night’s Dream Summary
Four Athenians run away to the forest only to have Puck the fairy make both of the boys fall in love with the same girl. The four run through the forest pursuing each other while Puck helps his master play a trick on the fairy queen. In the end, Puck reverses the magic, and the two couples reconcile and marry.
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A Little Murder Never Hurt Anyone
by Ron Bernas
At Hallowell City Hall
Show dates June 14, 15, 16, 21, 22, 23“A delightful surprise…an evening of fun just on the proper side of slapstick.” – Lansing State Journal
Synopsis from stageplays.com
It’s New Year’s Eve at the Perry mansion, and Julia and Matthew Perry seem to have it all.
But Matthew wants something more – to be rid of his wife Julia so he can have some real fun!
He resolves to murder Julia by the new year’s end, and tells her so
She vows to stay alive, and tells him so
And so the game begins – an hilarious year-long match of wits and the witless
But while Julia cleverly dodges Matthew’s devious murder attempts, the Perry friends and staff are dying off mysteriously – it seems Matthew is successful in murdering everyone but Julia!
As the bodies are falling, dim-witted daughter Bunny contemplates calling off her wedding to unwitting Donald since all the intended gift-bearing guests are dying
Enter Detective Plotnik – a Sam Spade reincarnation who suspects everyone, but hasn’t a clue
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All I Really Need to Know I Learned by Being in a Bad Play
By Werner Trieschmann.Synopsis from dramaticpublishing.com
Based on several disastrous theatrical experiences, Bad Play peels back a tattered curtain to examine the process of putting on a show that is less than good. A stuffy narrator (what bad play is complete without a stuffy narrator?) guides the audience through the whole sorry process. We go from the audition—where the director is more worried about roast beef than paying attention to the warm-up exercise, and the neurotic cast pretends to be bacon—to rehearsals—where a passive-aggressive stage manager gives everyone grief. There’s also a special meeting of the Small Part Support Group and a production of Romeo and Juliet set in a Starbucks with costumes of potato sacks and bowler hats. This bad play within a play won’t win any awards, but All I Really Need to Know I Learned by Being in a Bad Play will keep audiences in stitches.
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Marriage is Murder, by Nick Hall
Gaslight Theater, Hallowell, Maine
2018 Season, August 24, 25, 26 & 31, Sept 1 and 2Full Length Play, Comedy
cast: one woman, one manEx-spouses Paul and Polly Butler write murder mysteries together. They act out the crimes in Paul’s apartment: poisoned chocolates and lethal martinis, alibis and fingerprints, bodies in a trunk and bodies all tied up, daggers, guns and even an axe all contribute to the hilarity. Nobody gets hurt, but their egos take some hits as they find that their marriage was mixed up with their work. There are many fast paced comic twists as they attempt to outdo and surprise each other and they learn that marriage, like murder, is in the details. The final witty complication is a real murder which they and the audience should have seen coming. This murderously funny two character comedy is by the author of Accommodations.