PUPPET SHOW.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVIII, Issue 299, 17 December 1937, Page 12

PUPPET SHOW.

ART STUDENTS' ACHIEVEMENT BUILT AND OPERATED. Pupils of the Elam School of Art know how to "pull the strings"—at ! least, they showed quite a degree of | proficiency in the art at the school during rehearsals for a private demonstration of the "puppet show" built and operated by the class in theatre design. The show to be held next Monday night is not a public performance, but the -parents and others who attend will be given a fascinating entertainment with what is at once the oldest and most modern art in the world. Carried out merely in the course of instruction at the "school, the pupils of the class have quite an achievement to their credit. They have designed and built the puppets themselves, i developed the stage settings and lighting effects, planned the scenes and learned to operate the puppets all in the space of three months. The operation requires quite a degree of interpretive acting as well as manual dexterity and sensitivity. In addition to a number of individual and group efforts, including a dramatisation of Edgar Allan Poe's "Fall of the House of Ussher," a study of the Macabre, there is a communal effort in the presentation of the first act of "Lady Precious Stream," a traditional Chinese drama (which is now being performed in a London West End theatre). All are elaborately designed and well executed. It is the first time that such an artistic development lias been produced in a New Zealand school of art, and it forms in its way a prelude to the establishment next year of a course in diamatic art at the school. This course has received the approval and assistance of the Education Department, and it is hoped by the instructor. Mr. A. F. (Joodwin, that the class will give valuableservice to the drama in this countrv. It will be open to both boys and girlbetween the ages of !."» and 25 years. In addition to an ordinary art training the pupils of the class will be trained in every aspect of theatre work, with poise, diction and other aspects of acting given particular attention. What has already been accomplished by tintheatre design class is - an augury for the success of such a .ourse.