COMMUNITY PLAYS.

Auckland Star, Volume LXI, Issue 289, 6 December 1930, Page 1 (Supplement)

COMMUNITY PLAYS.

A SYDNEY VENTURE. ENCOURAGING LOCAL TALENT

(By DOR-4 WILCOX.)

. In a narrow lane off a busy Sydney thoroughfare, three times a week, a lamp is lighted above a brightly-coloured door. It is- the entrance to the Community Playhouse, the smallest theatre in Sydney. The Little Theatre •movement has grown in Australia, and although the excellent Sydney Repertory Socicty exists no more, many other bodies have sprung up, eacli with slightly diffeiing aims. The Commynity Playhouse, founded by Miss Carrie Tennant a year ago, stands by itself. There, in a room below the level of the street (it is the basement of a parish' hall) admirable productions of plays by Ibsen and Teheka have been given, to say nothing of a Russian sketch played by Russians in their own dialect. But in reality the object of Miss Tennant is to help toward the establishment of an Australian national drama. In older countries national drama is undoubtedly the most , far-reaching expression of national life and ideals. ■ In Australia, and still more in New Zealand, it is imported drama that holds the stage. No one would suggest that the world's masterpieces should be displaced —the pity, is that they are not performed enough—but since German . plays 1 are acceptable in Germany, French in,l'ranee, English in England, there' seems to be no reason why local playwrights should not- meet with more encouragement in Australasia. It is noteworthy that Mr. Alan Wilkie should have put on an Australian play, and that it should have had a'successful run in Sydney. Moreover, the number of published volumes of Australian drama is increasing. But the difficulty has been that the local writer has had no opportunity to learn the technique of the stage. At the Community Playhouse he can experiment at will. Up to the present some thirty "oneacters" have been presented there, and four three-act plays. And since in all parts of the world New Zealanders are found to the fore,. New Zealanders are helping forward this experiment. One of the best producers working at tlie Community Theatre—herself an excellent actress—is Mrs. C. C. Forsyth, wellknown in Auckland. Another Aucklander, Dr. Raymond Firth,'-will be amongst the judges at a forthcoming play-competition; and plays of.New Zealand writers have been produced.