DRAMA FESTIVAL.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVI, Issue 230, 28 September 1935, Page 25

DRAMA FESTIVAL.

"UNPRECEDENTED SUCCESS."

AUCKLANI? * TEAM CHANGED,

"The public support accorded the British. Drama League's annual festival of drama in the Auckland Town Hall was unprecedented in dramatic history in Auckland," said Miss M. Earl, Auckland area secretary, in an interview. "The support given augurs well for the future of the league in New Zealand," she said. The Concert Chamber was almost full every night and on the last night, when .the winning teams presented their plays, over 200 were unable to obtain admission. It is probable that His Majesty's Theatre will be necessary for next year's festival.

The Winchenden Players, who were selected to represent Auckland at the elimination finals at Stratford, with their play "Koom 83," written by Helen M. Parker, of Auckland, will not be able to leave Auckland on that date. The team which gained second place, a group drawn from the Auckland Universitv College department of English, playing Mr. J. A. S. Coppard's play "Sordid Story." produced by Professor W. A. Sewell, will therefore take their place.

The adjudicator at Stratford will be Mr. Victor Lloyd, of Wellington, and the Auckland team will meet teams from Wanganui, Hawera and Stratford.

Other areas in the North Island will send their winning teams to Dannevirke, where another elimination festival will be held on October 1. The teams selected from the elimination festivals will be sent to Hastings for the national finals on October 3 and the adjudicator there will be Mr. Arnold Goodwin, of Auckland, Mr. Paul Latham and Miss Elizabeth Blake, of Wellington, national secretary of the British Drama League.