Star Of “Can Can” Had Busy Day Before Show

Press, Volume XCIV, Issue 28130, 20 November 1956, Page 11

Star Of “Can Can” Had Busy Day Before Show

When she arrived in her dressing room in the Theatre Royal last evening, the star of the Cole Porter musical show, “Can Can.” Miss Sheila Arnaud, had already spent a long and busy day. But no-one would have guessed that she had left Wellington by air at 7 a.m.. been sightseeing. flat-hunting, and shopping. Later she explained how she could do all this on a hot day and still appear fresh for the opening night of her show in Christchurch. “Now I have two flats.” she said. “I must try to put some one else in a very large one which was booked ahead. I have found a really lovely one in North Avon road —at 15 gns a week.” , A French Canadian. Miss Arnaud looks after herself well. She avoids hotels and likes to cook for herself. “I get sick of eating the same menu all the time. I like to cook steaks, grills, and green vegetables, and prepare salads. In fact. I think I cook rather well. At hotels you tend to eat everything, and you don’t really need “No, I am not a diet expert. But I am an expert on vitamin pills. 1 could open an art gallery of vitamin Pills I have them of every colour for every occasion. If you don t get much sun and don’t like oranges—l don’t like liver —then you need vitamin pills.” she said. “Australian doctors told me that I needed building up and that I was anaemic. Then I began taking up to two pills a day. Later I gave a blood donation to a blood bank and they told me I had marvellous blood. “Other people do not burn up their nervous strength as theatre people do. When we dance or sing we need a sudden spurt of energy like an athlete. In an office you do not have to turn on emotion and animation. That animation is very debilitating to our strength” .... Speaking of her shopping expedition *he said: “Wherever I go I always do some shopping. And I buy records. Mv hobby is music—vocal and jazz, call it ‘modern sounds.’ There is almost an underground of the 3 azz cult and there are people in New Zealand with wonderful collections. I bear that there are devotees in Christchurch. I hope to find them. The 70 members of the company flew into Christchurch after their Wellington season on Sunday and yesterday morning. A Bristol freighter aircraft carried five tons and a half of scenery to Harewood on Sunday. The company travelled the North Island by bus and rail-car after opening m Auckland at the beginning of October. They visited Rotorua and the Waitomo Caves, and a party which included the leading dancer and choreographer. Miss Eleonore Treiber, climbed Mount Egm on t. . Fiften months in her strenuous role m “Can Can” have not lessened Miss Treiber’s energies. “I love swimming,” she said, and vowed she would

be off to a beach at the first opportunity. Yesterday after unpacking at her flat, she hired a bicycle, and “much to the consternation of motorists,” rode through the city and round the river-banks. Her unsteady course was understandable —“I live in New York, and it's no place for bicycles, she said. , „ , Miss Treiber was in the Broadway production of the show for two years before leaving for Australia. She began her dancing studies when she was five years old, and early in her professional career nine years later she appeared with two major ballet companies—the Ballet Theatre and the Ballet Russe de Monte parlo. She has toured the United States. Canada, and South America. . „ Like Miss Arnaud. Miss Treiber is a keen cook. “I have unusual hours for meals.” she said last evening. ‘T have a big meal at 4 p.m., so that I can dance in the evening without feeling starved.” Returning to her home town for the first time since her career in the theatre began in 1954. 20-year-old Kay Smith is a member of the company. Miss Smith, who is staying with her parents in Garden road. Fendalton, went to Australia to further her study of ballet under Peggy Sager, who toured New Zealand with the Borovansky Ballet Company. In this show Miss Smith has a small speaking and singing part, but continues her ballet studies. Earlier, in Australia, she toured in the musical show. "Paint Your Waggon."