MISS IRIS MASON

Press, Volume LXX, Issue 21236, 7 August 1934, Page 7

MISS IRIS MASON

Theatre in Dunedin, and before that spent three months in Australia, playing at the State Theatre in Sydney, and the Capitol in Melbourne. Miss Mason, who arrived in Christchurch on Sunday, was born here, but has not visited the city for 10 years. She received her training as an organist in Wellington, completing her experience in Australia. After playing on the Civic organ yesterday she told a representative of "The Press" that she thought it a fine instrument with a most beautiful tone, comparing very favourably with anything she had heard or played elsewhere in New Zealand or in Australia. The problem of choosing music which theatre audiences will enjoy is a difficult one, according to Miss Mason. Chiefly she plays popular music and the lighter classics, and she is continually on the look-out for some novel way of interesting her audience. Generally she works with the aid of slides flashed on the screen, giving the words of the songs she is playing, and she also employs many other methods to enlist the sympathy and arouse the interest of the audience.

"The secret of organ entertainments in the picture theatre is originality and novelty," she explained. "It is essentially a job that depends on oneself, being a test of showmanship and good taste.*' Miss Mason will probably spend some weeks in Christchurch. playing at the Civic everv evening. Later she will leave for the North Island to fulfil another contract there.