ABTS AND ENTERTAINMENT Actor Views Theatre Plans

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31177, 29 September 1966, Page 10

ABTS AND ENTERTAINMENT Actor Views Theatre Plans

Only a few months ago a band of New Zealand actors who had been working in Britain was touring the country with “The Comedy of Errors,” carrying the banner of professional theatre for the New Zealand Theatre Centre.

Some stayed a little longer when the Theatre Centre dangled the carrot of a tour with "Oh What a Lovely War,” but after that, when the Theatre Centre had hardly any more money to lose, most of the actors returned to Britain.

Today the only one of that band in sight is Jonathan Hardy, who has been acting and teaching with the Canterbury Repertory Theatre in the last few weeks, helping lay the foundations of professional theatre.

Hardy came to Christchurch to work with John Kim, Repertory’s resident director, with whom he had studied and trained, and because he thought that if there was any possibility of regional theatre working in New Zealand, the one in Christchurch was likely to succeed. Christchurch had an audience for theatre “The Comedy of Errors” had better

houses in a week here than in two weeks in Auckland—and it had some standard of vision for its professional theatre, he said.

“The problem is not establishing Hie theatre, but determining its scope so that the theatre becomes part of the community, not just an ornament, a decoration on a bourgeois wall,” he said. “And to get professional theatre going, you can’t just sling in people from all over the place, you have to draw them from the community. “Here they have started training actors and producing people who can teach back. “If you are going to have theatre here, ydu have to make sure you are not imposing it on the community. The theatre must reflect society. If you take specimens from other parts of the world, then the theatre is only working from the idea instead of working from reality. It should work from actors to performance.

“Most New Zealand acting is second hand, an imitation of others when on stage. Teaching should be aimed at developing individuals instead of taking from others.” He regarded it strange that a national drama school was being considered at a time of

regional development. "Surely the best place for the actor to train is with the people he is working with in his own community. Each company should do its own training as each company will have its own requirements,” he said. NOT STAYING ’

He would like to stay in New Zealand, but feels that if he did he would not continue to develop as an actor, for he regards the direction of professional theatre as still slightly hazy and committeebound, and procrastination in its development inevitable. “New Zealand has more professional actors out of New Zealand than in it, and for a very good reason,” he said. “If you want ornamental theatre, there is no point in New Zealand professionals doing it here when they can get better money for it in the West End. “To get them back here you must pay big money or attract them because there is good work being done. And that’s not just an actor’s conceit: they want to be good and useful to the theatre. “If New Zealand is going to have professional theatre, it must have total theatre, with productions of plays that can really engage the audience. The idea of touring ‘The

Comedy of Errors’ was to give people an experience of total theatre."

New Zealand professional theatre should not ask for any degree of indulgence. There was no point in having overtolerant audiences as they just roused the actor’s contempt. KNOWING RULES

“Most people can understand a Rugby match. If they go along and see a bad game, they can understand why it is bad. They know the rules. Because they see a bad game they are not discouraged from going to another. “But there is the risk that if i people go to the theatre and; don’t enjoy it, they won’t go again because they don’t understand L. That is why it’s important that the word ‘professional’ means a high standard of competence. We must apply basic craft and receive recognition of that craft—we want people to understand theatre as they understand Rugby.” Jonathan Hardy excused himself from the interview to rehearse Gogol’s “Diary of a Madman” (which opens this evening). “Two hours on stage going crackers it’s quite a play,” he said.