THE NEW ZEALAND PLAYERS

Press, Volume LXXXIX, Issue 27045, 21 May 1953, Page 11

THE NEW ZEALAND PLAYERS

Christchurch Season Next Month » FARCE AND HISTORICAL PLAY New Zealand’s own professional theatre company, the New Zealand £J a y? rs > ■which began its first tour in Wellington early this month, will open a season of eight nights in Christchurch On June 5 with Pinero’s farce, “Dandy Dick.’,’ An appropriate choice for Coronation year is the second production, “The Young Elizabethan.” by two American playwrights, Jennette Dowling and Francis Letton. It tells the story -M the first Queen Elizabeth from the age of 16 up to the time of her accession.

There are 14 players in the New Zealand Players’ organisation, which was formed by Richard and Edith Campion, who trained at the Old Vic Theatre School. Its aims are to provide varied and first-ciass theatre; to encourage the development of play writing, acting, and theatre-going m New Zealand; and to play from Whangarei to Invercargill. Mr and Mrs Campion are the sole owners, and are directors with Mr G. H. A. Swan, a former president of the New Zealand Drama Council. The company is a non-profit-making organisation, and is exempt from amusement tax. All profits go back into the company. Three Christchurch players are mem-, bers of the company. Bernard Kearns and Michael Cotterill were well known as actors in productions staged by the Canterbury Repertory Theatre Society and the Canterbury University College Drama Society; and John Carson-Par-ker played Bottom in “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” for the Theatre Arts Guild before he went to Wellington. In addition to Mr and Mrs Campion, another member of the company, Miss Rilla Stephens, trained at the Old Vic Theatre School, and the professional designer, Raymond Boyce, was also a graduate of the school.

Foundation Members Already the company has an assured audience of 3000. These are the members of the New Zealand Players’ Foundation, which has been established to bring together all wellwishera of the company. A branch of the foundation will be formed in Christchurch this evening. Members each pay a subscription of 10s and receive a concession of one-third on tickets.

Miss Nola Millar, advance manager of the company, who is visiting Christchurch, said yesterday that the company had played to large and enthusiastic audiences on the eight nights of its season in Wellington. The tour began with “The Young Elizabethan.” and good wishes for the company’s venture were received from the Queen. In Auckland this week, the company would open a fortnight’s season with “Dandy Dick,” for which the New Zealand composer, Douglas Lilburn, had written a light and airy theme tune. "We feel that the story of the first Queen Elizabeth will be most appropriate just after the Coronation.” said Miss Millar. “The play is now in its second year in London. For our production, really magnificent sets and costumes have been designed by Raymond Boyce. He has had plenty of scope with the Tudor play, and the Victorian setting of our first production in Christchurch.”

Visits to 32 Towns After the season in Auckland, the company will travel by air to Christchurch. It will also visit Invercargill, Gore, and Dunedin, and then both plays will be taken to the people in Urts of the South Island and the Island wherever there is reasonable accommodation. The tour will last for three months and a half and 32 towns will be visited.

Miss Millar said that plans for a second tour, beginning about the end of next August, were under way. Christopher Fry’s translation of Jean Anouilh’s “Ring Around the Moon,” and “Ned Kelly,” by a New Zealand poet, Douglas Stewart, who now lives In Australia, had been chosen for the second visit. Douglas Stewart’s play, based on the infamous Australian bushranger, was being produced apparently for the first time in New Zealand. Later the company hopes to produce other plays by New Zealanders. This year, there will be a Christmas season for children, restricted to the main centres and a few other towns. A play, not yet chosen, will be produced by Ngaio Marsh. In 1954 the company plans special seasons with overseas stars as guest artists. Miss Millar is one of many people who have come forward to help Richard and Edith Campion to make a success of a New Zealand professional theatre. She gave up a bursary awarded to her last year to study play production in Britain, and has since helped the Campions to choose both actors and plays. Until last year, she was president of Unity Theatre in Wellington, and produced for it “Our Town” and “The Lower Depths,” among other plays.