British Drama League Plans For 1961

Press, Volume C, Issue 29502, 2 May 1961, Page 9

British Drama League Plans For 1961

Areat committees and representatives of affiliated clubs in South Canterbury, Christchurch, North Canterbury, North Otago, and Central Otago will take part in a regional conference organised by the New Zealand branch of the British Drama League at Timaru next Saturday. The conference will be held at the Playhouse, Church street west, with local arrangements undertaken by the South Canterbury area. The chairman will be Mr Laurence Hayston, of Christchurch, a South Island vice-president of the league. The Dominion president (Mr F. R. Burns. Wellington), will attend both this and a regional conference of southern areas to be held at Invercargill the following day. “Only by attending such conferences (last year’s was held at Oamaru) can committee members and affiliated groups get the full value of their participation in the league’s activities,” said Mr Hayston yesterday. Important topics for discussion next Saturday include plans for a proposed return tutorship visit next year by Nora Ratcliff, arrangements for 1961 national festivals, the newsletter, and extension and consolidation of areas.

The presentation of New Zealand plays will be studied, with a report on the league’s 1961 playwriting competition. Mr Hayston. has also been invited to attend a meeting of the national executive at Wellington on June 17. The one-act religious, open, and all-women sections of the league’s 1961 play-writing competition will close on July 31, with March 31, 1962, set as the closing date for entries of fulllength plays. It is hoped that, commercial organisations, alive to the value of encouraging New Zealand writers, will provide sponsorships for these sections. The National Council of Churches has already advised that it will be prepared to provide prizes in the religious section, if the judge feels that the standard is sufficiently high. A project in conjunction with the New Zealand Playwrights’ Association has been initiated by the league in Wellington, with the presentation this week by two affiliated groups of semipublic performances of recommended one-act plays in the presence of the playwrights. Should this “pilot” scheme be favourably received it is proposed to organise similar schemes in other areas.

This year’s Christchurch

and North Canterbury area festival will be held at the Repertory Theatre from July 17 to 22. "From reports already received of plays chosen and being cast this year’s festival looks very promising indeed,” said Mr Hayston.

"Our aim this year, as always, is that every group affiliated, both in town and country, should enter a play. The festival exists for their benefit and our only source of income is the audiences who support it. Only festival profits can strengthen our work in the area,” Mr Hayston said.

The adjudicator this year will be Mr Cedric Gardiner, of Wellington. Winners of all area festivals in the South Island will appear at divisional finals to be held at Timaru on August 14, 15, and 16. Mr Patrie Carey (Dunedin) will be the adjudicator and Mr John Thomson (Auckland) has been appointed to judge the New Zealand finals at Hastings on August 26 and 1 28.

The New Zealand branch of the British Guild of Adjudicators has advised the league’s national executive that Miss Frona King (Nelson), Mr John Batstone (Christchurch), Mr Eric Bradwell (Feilding), Mr Ronald Walker (Wellington), and Mr Gordon Hooper (Lower Hutt) have been granted membership of the branch, after an adjudicators' seminar held at Wellington late last year. The formation of the branch two years ago was largely due to the work of Mr Frank Newman as chairman. From 1954 to 1960, while professional producer for the Canterbury Repertory Theatre Society, Mr Newman was a major figure in New Zealand's amateur theatre, notably as a tutor and adjudicator.

He recently accepted an invitation to be the league's New Zealand representative at the conference of the International Amateur Theatre Association at Monaco next September.

“Saichmo’s” Singer Dead

Velma Middleton, singer and dancer with Louis Armstrong’s All-stars since 1942, has died in Freetown, 'in Sierra Leone. Africa. Miss Middleton had to be left behind in Freetown last December when she collapsed during a show on the trumpeter's world tour. She suffered a partial paralysis of her left side on January 16 and died a month later. Miss Middleton was born in Holdensville, Oklahoma, and grew up in St. Louis, where she began to write

lyrics and sing in school plays. Before joining Armstrong she was featured in night clubs and also worked with the famous dancer “Bojangles” (Bill Robinson).

Her vocal duets with Armstrong and her antics as a “heavy-weight” dancer contributed considerably to the popularity of the All-stars.