Going Ahead Regardless

Press, Volume CIV, Issue 30855, 14 September 1965, Page 13

Going Ahead Regardless

(Specially written for ‘‘The

Press” by

N. A. GRIFFITH)

Even if some of the ideas publicised are muddled, it is encouraging to see that things have begun to move again in professional theatre.

Mrs Constance Scott, after seven years with the New Zealand Opera Company, has been appointed secretary-manager of the New Zealand Theatre Centre, which will co-ordinate professional theatre developments, and Mr Richard Campion has left for England to arrange the first touring play

under the hew Arts Council arrangements. After the national tour “pipe-opener” which Mr Campion is to produce, Christchurch is likely to be the first centre to have a regional professional theatre, for a professional wing of the Repertory Society has already been set up on local initiative and in any case there is the important advantage that no other theatrical group of this sort owns its own theatre.

We might expect then that the things said about these developments by responsible people will be well thought

out, hard to fault, and indicative of the careful planning necessary in order to give Christchurch audiences regular professional productions. But this is not the case.

In his replies to my letter of August 3 Mr T. Kincaid, president of the Canterbury Repertory Society gave no cause for confidence. He was asked what was meant by “positive support from the city council” and sidestepped this awkward question completely by saying all that was asked was “recognition . . . that here is a plan.” This is nonsense.

He was asked what audience support he expected, and was offered some figures. He gave no facts in return, only the vague “I believe there will be support” He produced no new ideas or facts to demolish scepticism and then concluded most illogically with enthusiastic references to national orchestra, national ballet and national opera as though these are among the reasons why regional theatre on a professional basis will succeed. Such answers suggest that far too little thought has been put into the subject and confirms my belief that a subscription organisation of people interested in national touring professional dramasimilar to the Chamber Music Federation —is a far better point at which to begin. Change In Approach The failure of the New Zealand Players in 1960 is apparently taken to mean that only an opposite approach will work. Mr Bruce Mason has stated in “Landfall” that they failed “ignominiously” (while the “Listener” reports that 90 per cent of their costs were paid by box office) and that “among their reasons for failure was “having no local roots,” even though serious music, ballet, and opera succeed without the local roots he is thinking of with performers located in one centre. Mr Mason has been more in print than anyone else on the subject of professional theatre yet he too is not sure of his In “The Press” of July 27 Mr G. H. A. Swan of the Arts Council said that regions would make theatre “a continuing rather than a sporadic part of daily life,” as if this settles a point. Are we to believe that the other arts are sporadic and therefore ineffective, even though they have continuing success with tours? Similarly he states “a national company must spend a lot of money travelling” as if saying so has proved something. He does not mention the capital costs, general expenses, and wages bills which will quadruple with fear theatres in main centres. Can Mr Kincaid explain how his stresses on the “highest possible standards” in Christchurch can be reconciled with plans to set up four professional theatres? Does he seriously believe that four Richard Campions, and

four groups of the very best actors will appear?

Surely we can also expect that models in other countries will have been studied. Mr Kim was asked what he thought of the theatre audience societies in West Germany. He did not reply and we can only assume he knew little or nothing. The “Life” publication “Germany” says that the Freie Volksbuhne of West Berlin had 110,000 members in 1962, and a letter from the West German Embassy in Wellington says that so far as the Attache knew “most—if not all—of the German theatres rely on theatre organisations such as that in Berlin.”

Perhaps the basic question : that Messrs Kincaid, Kim and the Arts Council ought to be i looking at is, just how seri- ■ ously they take the theatre I audience. Must that audience - keep right out of all matters I to do with organising drama? I Surely the successful Chami ber Music audience subscrip- > tion societies are not an i artistic heresy but a most ■ important example of a way in which professional theatre : could be re-established in i this country. I contend it is ■ the only satisfactory way.