STAGE JOTTINGS.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIII, Issue 125, 28 May 1932, Page 2 (Supplement)

STAGE JOTTINGS.

To-night will mark the occasion for the first of three concerts to be given by the famous pianist, Benno Moiseiwiteeh, in the Auckland Town Hall. A varied programme will be offered, whk'ii i 6 to include several liglit pieces of novel type by the young composer, Chasins. This visit by the master pianist has been awaited for many months by music lovers, and if his receptions in Australia and in Wellington are any criterion of his ability, the admission fee will certainly not be wasted. Mies Minnie Everett, one of the outstanding personalities of the stage in Australia, recently consented to the publication of her theatrical memoirs under the title of "My Dahcing Days." Miss Everett has wielded a grent influence in the theatre. In her memoirs she writes entertainingly of her stage exjieriences, covering about 45 years.

In the latest batch of English papers, there is a report that a young New Zealand actress, Miss Nora McManus, had received the long-awaited and despairedof opportunity that only comes once in a while to understudies. Half an hour before the start of the second performance of "The Chocolate Soldier" at the Shafteebury Theatre on April 1, she was told that she would have to go on, since the leading lady, Anne Croft, with whom she hod travelled throughout the provinces and Ireland in the play, had suddenly lost her voice as a result of excitement over the tremendous firstnight reception. Miss McManua, epeaking of how it felt to be pitchforked for the first time into the lead of a West End show, while still only a chorue girl, said: "I haven't got my breath, yet. Luckily, by mistake, I was 30 minutes early at the theatre, and when I heard the news I telephoned to my mother to bring my gold shoes in a taxi, and .then, what with, making up and dressing, I was in a pretty flutter when I got on

the stage. Miss Croft was there and did her best for mo. My mother wits there —almost as out of breath nnd excited as I was. Oh, it was a very big thing for Uβ both. When Miss Croft came from Australia, I followed her. Nobody in London seemed to care about me; I couldn't get a chance with anything. Well, now I've played the lead in the West End." Nora McManus is an Auckland girl, where she engaged in amateur musical comedy work over ten years ago. She lias a large circle of friends throughout the Dominion, which she toured with J. C. Williamson. She is aleo well-known in Australia, where she stayed for seven or eight years, prior to leaving for England with Miss Croft and her company of players, less than two years ago.

Chatting to a Sydney interviewer regarding her tour of Australia and New Zealnnd, Dame Sybil Thorndike, the famous English actress, said that she considered Bernard Shaw the greatest living British dramatist, "because you get such an amazing variety of moods in his plays." "In one play," said Dame Sybil Thorndike, "lie can give you enough of tragedy, comedy, terror, satire and philosophy to meditate over for years. 'Saint Joan' is, in my opinion, one of his greatest plays. Out of all the parts I have played, Joan has helped me more in my private life of the mind and spirit than anything elrio I have ever read, studied, or acted. And as for that much-criticised epiloguo to 'Saint Joan,'" added Dame Sybil Thorndike, "my husband and I think it contains some of the most magnificent writing in English. Audacious, yes, in the typical Shavian way. I suppose it shocks most people when they see it for the first time. But every line in it will bear the nioet intensive study, will win over in the end those who have been antagonised, and will open up to them new vistas of thought."