Third Age Project TADs Christmas 2009: Wizard of Oz
pictured: Jean (Cowardly Lion), Eileen(Scarecrow), Peter (Tin Man),
Kathy (Toto), Bridget (Dorothy), Anita (Munchkin), Bithi (Munchkin)
MISSING: Rita (Wicked Witch) Margo (Good Witch) and Martin (Wizard)
off-stage
Dick Collins Hall, banner for Third Age Project: Tony Bloor
The TADs are the talented drama group for the Third Age
Project, directed by Gary Kielty. Their ages range between 66 and 96
years. The TADs and the Purple Poets have shared interests
and shared projects (this is not surprising, as founding Purple Poets Kathy
Randle, Bithi Das, Islam Molla, Eppie Caredda and Jean Watt have all been
active members of the TADs). Their yearly Dick Collins Hall Christmas pantos,
including 2009's acclaimed The Wizard of Oz, have delighted West Euston
area children and adults alike, over many years.
The TADs took part in the 2009 National Poetry Day Celebrations hosted
by the Purple Poets, some reading their own poems, some reading poems from
other poets who could not attend. Joining Bithi, Islam, and the other
Purple Poets for the reading, Eileen
read her poem celebrating Elizabeth Garrett Anderson, Rita read her moving
poem to Sylvia Plath, Bridget read her son's poem to his mother, Kathy
read a poem to Michael Palin, Martin read a poem by Gary's father (Michael
Kielty) honouring Kenneth Williams, and Peter and Anita read their own
composition to their Phillipines national hero, once a resident of Camden.
(2009 National Poetry Day 'Camden Heroes'
celebration at the Camden Town Hall).
The TADs meet every Thursday at the Crypt from 10:30 to lunch-time.
More details of their productions, and photographs of the TADs, can be found
at the Third Age Project (TAP) website.
TROUBLESOME PEOPLE
QUAKER PEACE TESTIMONIES
Poems-in-progress to be workshopped over the coming months
by the TADs, for the on-going Purple Poets and Peace Found Poetry
Project
TADS NEWS STORIES:
[Camden
New Journal article by Josie Hinton]
click here for photograph and complete article
THEY say life begins at... 90? Or so it seems for 96-year-old Kathleen Falciola,
who bounded around the stage as Dorothy’s faithful dog Toto in The Wizard
of Oz on Friday.
The great-grandmother, who began acting six years ago, joined fellow pensioners
from Third Age Drama in their annual Christmas panto at Dick Collins Hall
in Redhill Street, Regent’s Park.
The role was just the latest in a string of appearances for Mrs Falciola
... [CONTINUES]
SOURCE:
http://www.camdennewjournal.com/news/2009/dec/kathleen-96-discovers-she%E2%80%99s-wiz-dramatics
CAMDEN
GAZETTE 09.12.2009 article by Rob Hastings, photo with caption:
Kathleen Falciola as Toto and Jean Watt as the Cowardly Lion
http://edition.pagesuite-professional.co.uk/digital_editions/
Page3_88366371-8f35-45af-8ca6-3c731555d4dc_d17ee098-61bc-4e4a-b1bd-a875ebc4c1f4.aspx
.... The pantomime at the Dick Collins Hall in Redhill
Street, Regent's Park, on Friday, drew a crowd of nearly 200 people.....
Bridget Walsh, a sexagenarian who played Dorothy, added: "We only had six
rehearsals but our director, Gary Kielty, was fantastic! Especially for putting
up with a load of old fogeys like us."
Bridget added that special praise was owed to Eileen Frances, who played
the scarecrow. "Everybody said that the scarecrow stood out more than anybody.
She looked so real, they thought it was a real scarecrow." [complete article
by Rob Hastings at Camden Gazette 09/12/2009]
[Camden
New Journal, article by Simon Wroe 13.12.2010]
click here for photograph and complete article
So what’s new for this 94-year-old pussy cat?
CATS are reputed to have nine lives, but that is small fry for Euston great
grandmother Kathleen Falciola, who lent her 94 years of experience to the
role of Dick Whittington’s famous puss last week.
Mrs Falciola – “Kat” to her friends – wore her near-century
effortlessly on Friday when she miaowed and clawed to rapturous applause
as the panto hero’s talking pet at Dick Collins Hall, in Redhill Street.
The feisty feline role, which even featured a belly dance routine, was the
latest in a string of high-energy acting parts for the nimble nonagenarian
from Munster Square in the Regent’s Park Estate .... [CONTINUES]
SOURCE: .http://www.thecnj.com/camden/2007/121307/news121307_18.html
READING: TAVISTOCK SQUARE HIROSHIMA DAY COMMEMORATION
AUGUST 6th 2011 address by Hetty Bower
Followed by the Purple Poets and Bernard Miller
"The Purple Poets and Peace Project"
FOUR FOUND POEMS FROM THE QUAKER LIBRARY
"TROUBLESOME PEOPLE"
The names in the titles
are the names of the people
who wrote the original prose accounts.
POEM ONE:
The ADJOURNED YEARLY MEETING, 1916
by Corder Catchpool
KIM READS:
We
reaffirm
our entire opposition
to compulsory military service.
War involves the denial
of human brotherhood.
Freedom from war
will only be brought about
by the faithfulness of individuals
to their utmost convictions.
EPPIE READS:
It is not a question
of the methods of England or of Germany,
but of the methods of God
against the methods of the world.
POEM TWO: A. RUTH FRY
STATE HOUSEKEEPING
KIM READS:
Professor Malinowski tells of a cannibal
who could not understand one thing
about the World War:
however we managed
to eat all the slain.
The Professor explained.
EPPIE READS:
It was the old cannibal's turn
to be shocked:
'How dreadful!
to kill all those people
without any real object!'
PATSY READS:
Since the 'war to end all war'
16 wars, have been fought.
The World War cost 400 thousand
million dollars. Great Britain's share
was 50 thousand million dollars
-- a thousand million pounds.
BERNARD READS:
10 million known dead soldiers
3 million presumed dead soldiers
13 million dead civilians.
20 million wounded.
BITHI READS:
Without any object,
without any good result, without any sense,
without any morality, without any justice,
without any mercy.
KIM READS:
Surely that must be the verdict on war
by any wise Housekeeper.
POEM THREE: ADIN BALLOW
THE UPAS TREE
PATSY READS:
The bloody theme of war loomed up:
War.
Resisting evil with evil
Deadly force with deadly force
Which Christ forbade.
I committed myself to total Abstinence
from all war, preparations for war,
glorifications of war, and any deadly force
I did not allow myself to be sophisticated
into any excuses. I would neither fight,
vote, pray, nor give any approval.
War. This poisonous Upas tree
must be destroyed.
POEM FOUR: CLIFFORD ALLEN.
THE PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS
TO THE CONCLUDING CONVENTION. 1919.
KIM READS:
I now submit to you the following resolution,
and I suggest that you should adopt it standing:
"Throughout the war
we have stood
for the brotherhood of man,
and in the name
of that ideal have resisted
conscription.
BITHI READS:
It is not by bloodshed
that freedom can be won
or militarism destroyed.
We were in prison
today we are free,
but the world is still in prison.
ALL TOGETHER:
It can be released
by the spirit
of unconquorable love.
Purple Poets taking part in the reading August 6th 2011:
Kim Morrissey, Eppie Caredda,
Patsy Futatsugi, Bithi Das, and special guest reader Bernard Miller
DRAFT ONE: FIRST READING
FOUND POETRY CYCLE 'TROUBLESOME PEOPLE'
draft workshopped with Gary Kielty: 15.04.2010
POET ONE :
TROUBLESOME PEOPLE:
The Presidential Address
to the Concluding Convention, 1919.
Clifford Allen.
Let me recall for a moment
the mood of the world
in 1916: on the one hand
bitterness, hatred, and terror.
On the other hand
the most wonderful exhibition
of self-sacrifice and heroism.
Pacifism means human respect.
Three years ago
we stood here
in silence
and took a pledge
to resist
conscription
and military power.
The system makes men hate each other.
Bully each other, despise each other
till they become so dehumanised
that they can be made to kill their fellow men.
Hate destroys and love is creative.
It is our view that war is evil
it places men in an immoral relationship
to each other.
The state has no right
to deny men freedom
in deciding for themselves
this issue of life and death.
Today we reassemble.
We have survived the test.
We believed it to be our duty
to preach the gospel of peace
in season and out of season
every section
of conscientious objectors
broke the spell of the military machine.
We have defeated it.
We will defeat it again
if conscription
should be continued.
We were in prison - today we are free
The world is still in prison.
It can be released by the spirit
of unconquerable love.
"Ye who have escaped the sword
Stand not still."
[SOURCE: from the anthology TROUBLESOME PEOPLE - 'N.C.F.The Presidential
Address to the Concluding Convention' by Clifford Allen.pages 56- 63. poem
draft 11.04.2010]
POET TWO:
In 1916 an adjourned Yearly Meeting of the Society of Friends was held
to consider the position of the Society in view of the passing of the Compulsory
Military Service Act. Corder Catchpool was on leave from the front at the
time, and this comes from his account of the meeting, when he returned to
France.
THE ADJOURNED YEARLY MEETING, 1916. Corder Catchpool.
In trying to give you some small idea
of the Yearly Meeting,
I cannot do better
than to ask you to read
slowly
and thoughtfully
the 'Statement'
adopted by that gathering.
Take it sentence
by sentence
and each smallest phrase
will be found to hold a truth:
We … reaffirm our entire opposition
to compulsory military service.
War involves a surrender
of the Christian ideal.
War involves the denial
of human brotherhood.
We regard the Act as imperilling
the liberty of the individual conscience….
From the first
a high spiritual note was struck.
Freedom from the scourge of war
will only be brought about by
the faithfulness of individuals
to their utmost convictions.
It is not a question
of the methods of England or of Germany,
but of the methods of God
as against the methods of the world.
[SOURCE: ON TWO FRONTS: Letters of a Conscientious Objector . by Corder
Catchpool (introduction by George Lansbury) . Headley Brothers 1918 third
edition 1940 . 051.57 - poem draft 01.04.2010]
POET THREE:
THE UPAS TREE (Adin Ballou)
The bloody theme of war loomed up:
infraternal, savage and barbarous
anti-Christian
War. Resisting evil with evil
Deadly force with deadly force
Which Christ forbade.
I committed myself to total Abstinence
from all war, preparations for war,
glorifications of war, And any deadly force
I did not allow myself to be sophisticated
into any excuses. I would neither fight,
vote, pray, nor give any approval.
War. This Upas tree
must be destroyed.
[SOURCE: AN EXAMPLE TO BE FOLLOWED -- Adin Ballou (cited in Barbour's
The Boy, The Bible, and the Bayonet, page 30) PAMPHLET BOX 242/2. Poem first
draft 01.04.20110]
POET FOUR:
THE COURT MARTIAL FRIEND AND PRISON GUIDE:
A MODERN SONNET 1917.
1. Order convening. Court read. 2.Court sworn in.
3. Accused asked if he challenges …. 4. Charge
read out. 5. Accused asked if he pleads guilty or
not guilty. Some plead not guilty as denying the
right of the military to give orders to them, others
plead guilty in a technical sense
6. in any case, accused is almost certain to be
found guilty. Then the President asks accused:
if he wishes to call witnesses or has anything to say
in mitigation. This is the chance to say
exactly how they look at war, at duty, at ethics, at morality, at Christianity.
Whatever is said
is taken down and read afterwards.
On the whole, it is best to be short.
Say from forty
to sixty words.
[SOURCE: THE COURTMARTIAL FRIEND AND PRISON GUIDE 1917. PAMPHLET BOX
223/3 . Poem draft 04.04.2010]
POET FIVE:
FROM THE CROYDON ADVERTISER: WELL KNOWN PURLY OBJECTOR, COURT MARTIAL.
FIRST STATEMENT OF RODERIC CLARK:
13th of January,1917
I have many friends in the army
but I have yet to find one
who would wish me to act
contrary to my convictions.
With all respect to the Bench,
your decision can make no difference.
I should welcome whatever punishment
is given, if it enables me to bear witness
to the way of life
in Jesus Christ.
The Chairman said
the Bench had no alternative
but to fine the prisoner 40 shillings
and hand him over to the military.
SECOND COURTMARTIAL STATEMENT
OF RODERIC CLARK: 22 of January, 1917.
1. I have pleaded not guilty
because it is not in the power
of any earthly authority
so to control my mind and soul
as to make me a soldier.
2. I believe that God is Love.
This law of love
is the fundamental
principle of the universe.
I cannot reconcile
participation in war
with the teaching
of Jesus Christ.
3. I desire the destruction
of Prussian militarism.
I believe that war
can never destroy
but will rather strengthen
militarism in all countries
4.I have satisfied both Local and Appeal Tribunals (the former on two separate
occasions)
as to the sincerity of my objection
to both combatant
and non-combatant service ….
5.
6.7.8.
9 .
10.
I sincerely believe that I am working
for the highest interests of every soldier
as well as for the whole of humanity
by welcoming any punishment,
if I may more effectively
point them to a new way of life
in Jesus Christ
which takes away
the occasion for all war.
Accused was found guilty.
[SOURCE: FROM KINGSTON BARRACKS PRISON printed in the Croydon Advertiser
- Court Martial, Roderic Kendall Clark aged 32 ,1917 PAMPHLET BOX 223/6 (38969)
pages 2-8. Poem draft 05.04.2010]
POET SIX:
STATE HOUSEKEEPING (A. Ruth Fry)
Professor Malinowski tells of a cannibal,
who could not understand one thing
about the World War:
however we managed
to eat all the slain.
The Professor explained.
It was the old cannibal's turn
to be shocked: 'How dreadful!
to kill all those people
without any real object!'
Since the 'war to end all war'
16 wars, have been fought.
The World War cost 400 thousand
million dollars. Great Britain's share
was 50 thousand million dollars
-- a thousand million pounds.
10 million known dead soldiers
3 million presumed dead soldiers
13 million dead civilians.
20 million wounded.
Without any object,
without any good result, without any sense,
without any morality, without any justice,
and without any mercy.
Surely that must be the verdict on war
by any wise Housekeeper.
[SOURCE: PEACE PAMPHLETS
A.R. Fry (A. Ruth Fry) various dates to 1944. pamphlet 15, BOOK 051.54 /15
(136708)
. Poem draft 10.04.2010]
POET SEVEN:
SOME THOUGHTS FROM A PRISON CELL
(Robert O. MENNELL) Maidstone Prison July 31st 1917
Since I have been in prison
I have come to see more clearly
The Way of Salvation.God is Love.
Love shames what is evil and mean
and calls out what is best
Love dispels fear and turns foes to friends.
God is a Spirit . God is Love.
I and My Father are one.
To God all things
Are possible
Not by victory in War
Not by material defences
Not by threats
Not by violent revolutions
God is a Spirit of Perfect Love.
The Way, and the only Way.
[SOURCE: SOME THOUGHTS FROM A PRISON CELL by Robert O. Mennell 1917
PAMPHLET, Box 425/5 . pages 1-4 (all)]
POET EIGHT:
112 DAYS HARD LABOUR
PART ONE: November 14, 1916
Hubert William Peet, thirty,
describing himself as a Quaker,
Socialist, and Journalist, was today
handed over to military custody
by the Croydon magistrates.
Addressing the Court,
Mr. Peet said: I am a Quaker
and a Socialist and I believe
the teaching of Jesus
Confront violence
with gentleness
Anger with reason
Hatred with goodwill.
Though I may technically be a soldier
I cannot be one actually
and morally. I cannot recognise
any military order.
Sentenced by Court-Martial
at Hounslow Barracks
to two years hard labour.
PART TWO
To prison and to isolate
are practically identical terms.
my sole remaining links
with ordinary life
were my specacles
every shred of clothing
having been replaced
by prison garb
PART THREE: A PRISON DAY
Prisoners must preserve silence
the slightest communication
renders one liable to punishment.
5 a.m. Get up, wash, make bed,
put plank bedstead and mattress against wall,
sweep out cell. 6 a.m. Warder opens door.
Put slops out.
Door closed while cleaners empty tins,
leave clean water outside. Begin work in cell.
7. a.m. Breakfast served. 8 a.m. half an hour's
exercise. 12 noon. Dinner served .
1:30 Dinner tins, slops, etc. collected
4 p.m. Supper served
8 p.m. Lights out.
During the first month, the only time
one sees another human being
is for the few moments
when the door is opened.
5:30 a.m. - Get up, wash, make bed
put plank bedstead against wall, sweep out cell.
6 a.m. Warder opens door.
8 a.m. noon. 4 p.m. 8 p.m.
Lights out. 14 hours
Lights out.14 hours.
Lights out.
PART FOUR: TOO TIRED TO CATCH UP
Like a tired child
trying to hurry up the street
to catch up the head of the procession
and unable to gain upon the passing show
I felt tempted to sink down
in utter disappointment
and let all the rest go by:
prison crushed out all the joy
But this is only one side of the lantern
the dark one, the half-truth that deceives
instead of depression
there came into my mind
the experience that isolation
had brought one
into the presence
of the Beyond Oneself
The sense that
God and Good and Beauty were one.
[SOURCE:112 DAYS HARD LABOUR
by Hubert W.Peet 1917. PAMPHLET 223/4 (38855) pages 2-16 ]
POET ONE
THE PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS TO THE CONCLUDING CONVENTION. 1919.
CLIFFORD ALLEN
We were in prison - today we are free, but the world is still in prison.
It can be released by the spirit of unconquorable love.
"Ye that have escaped the sword, stand not still."
I now submit to you the following resolution, and I suggest
that you should adopt it standing:
"Throughout the war we have stood for the brotherhood
of man, and in the name of that ideal have resisted conscription. We now
re-affirm our unity of aim with those in all countries who have given their
lives that they might serve the cause of freedom, but declare our beliegf
that it is not by bloodshed that freedom can be won or militarism destroyed.
"We acclaim the new hope of human liberty now challenging
ancient tyrannies in industry, within the State and between the nations,
and dedicate the liberty we have regained to such service as shall contribute
to the healing of the wounds inflicted by war, and to the building of a world
rooted in freedom and enriched by labour that is shared by all.
"It is in this spirit that we go forth to meet new tasks,
confident that through its long and bitter suffering mankind must yet come
into the way of love."
The Convention adopted this Dedicatory Resolution by standing in silence.
[SOURCE: from the anthology TROUBLESOME PEOPLE - 'N.C.F.The Presidential
Address to the Concluding Convention' by Clifford Allen.page 63. poem draft
11.04.2010]
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