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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