back from Stratford Living Shakespeare Course. A splendid As you Like it at RST and intriguing Candide at the Swan.
poem inspired by my own hand at amateur theatrics over the years.
Theatre Magic
To bask in the limelight
just for one night.
Like David Jones would say :
' a hero just for one day '.
To prance about the stage
for one performance only.
A year in the making.
Summer through Winter.
To design the set, bright
colours, soft wood and sweet-
smelling leather. To paint the poster,
coarse brush on rough canvas.
Learn your lines on cue.
Melodious voice shoots
out over the arena and bounces
back from the far brick wall.
Take up space on the shiny,
creaky floor-board. To fondle
a vase and set it down at the exact
same spot, a white taped cross.
To choose your dress, satin press.
Change the colour of your hair.
Ruby blond, golden brown, velvet-blue.
Pick out a new self, try them on,
for size, one by one. Not too loose, not too tight.
On the big night, to relax under the make- up
brush. And then launch onto the stage.
A Chinese junk, wind in the square sail,
taut, for a nonpareil journey.
Just enough to polish your self-esteem,
vent your spleen until next spring
©Susan Baury Rouchard
