BEHIND THE SCENES

Auckland Star, Volume LIX, Issue 141, 16 June 1928, Page 4 (Supplement)

BEHIND THE SCENES

IN LINGI-AinU £> bUCiLi Y. THE CHARITY 'STUNT." otARCH FOR SOMETHING NEW. This is an age oi cnaritable organisations. ±.very woman likes to taite an active part. "We don't want to do ..jiytuing mat has been done a nunureu „tuies beiore," is her slogan; xi sue io hersell it 13 iairiy &axe to assume viiat tne general puouc will be uuitu .ok, anu iier urst ami is to interest tut ..una in general, ao tnat tne ooject o* aii ner euorts wux beneut by puoiic oupport. 00 sue thinks out a plan ior "some tiling new." i>ut sue nas to tnink, too, ji tne people wno are going to help hei and take part, writes aaugnter oi bir Frederick Ponsouoj, 1 treasurer to tne Jving, 111 m. |iiiUgixsh paper. .Everybody is busy with !a tnousaud interests; it must be something that will not take up too mucn time. Everybody is continually beuiy asked ior money and ior practical assistance; it must be something that will not tax too heavily the pursea oi the performers, nor interiere with their other "good works." The obvious thing is to find a stage and think oi something which will not only amuse the world i to see, but which it will amuse society j to take part in. So an idea is worked out for a concert or a play or tableaux interesting enough to attract not only an audience out a good cast. Then the cast has to be found. Amateur Theatricals. "Do take it on," you say to the people who want to take part; "there won't be many rehearsals, and all you have to do is to walk on and look charming.' For it is not an invitation that one would just naturally accept, like a bridge party or a dance; it needs a I,Teat deal of courage to dress up and •valk on a stage upon which professional actors and actresses play their parts every day with a skill which has made audiences most embarrassingly critical.

So the cast is gradually got together, and the entertainment is set in motion. Everybody is given her costume design to get made up if it is for a play, or starts working out her own if it is to be a series of independent tableaux. And then come the rehearsals. But people who rehearse mere professionals can [have no idea of the diflicult task it is to rehearse amateurs! They are all <50 busy, they have so many appointments l hey can not help being lat^—and on 'Tie great stage which has been lent for the occasion the actors only arrive by degrees, until —perhaps an hour and a *>alf later -the rehearsal is ready to ''pgin. And even then it is diflicult, for when the people in the play are friended acquaintances before thev are actor? ; t is diffi'-ult to get that atmosnhere of Sard "work which we are all told, from iur schooldays onwards, is the onlv wav to achieve success! So many faults ■vhich would, I am sure, be considers 1 "ulpable, not to sav criminal, in a seriou= dramatic production, seem just funnv when they hapnen amonsr friends surprisingly gathered together in unfamiliar -lothes behind the glare of unfamiliar footlights.

THE SLIM SILHOUETTE. The . slim line fer evening still appeals to many women* and the side draped effects of the season introduced in this type of brock are very youthful looking. The Doeuillet gown sketched is in white crepe satin made up one side with the dull surface uppermost. On to this the shiny surface, which also forms the draped points, is encrusted. White is much worn for eVening.

But if the central idea is good enough people will manage somehow to rush from committee meeting to empty j theatre, and from theatre to committee meeting to make the Bhow a success; and' just lately we seem to have had some remarkably good ideas. The. Signs of the Zodiac was a most amusing 'plan to have thought of, and so were the "Dresden china figures of Miss Olga Lynn; the ingenuity of the astrological costumes and the accurate planning of the tableau interested everybody.

But I think that really nowadays people would far rather do things themselves than watch others do them; and the ice hockey match at the Ice Club has found a tremendous number of supporters.

And I think it is perhaps in this 'irection of general participation tha' "harit.able entertaining is going to develop, so that the audience comes across 'he footlights, as it were, and takes it? ilace among the performers. So far this only been possible at a ball or dance Vow we are all going to skate; perhaps

j r>on we will all be joining togetheT t<~ nrovide a circus, or a village fair, ir which the "audience" will insist upon -•oming in costume too, to have its share of the fun. Perhaps we shal l arrive at the stasre at which the or Taniser will be able to come out between the curtains and say, "What would you all like to do now?" Am l *he whole assembly will turn into n Treat Morris dartce. or sin gin or com munitv, or spontaneously formed Societv W the Tell in? of Fairv Tales. WT>** i happy day that would be for thf society organiser!