Support For Theatre

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31343, 13 April 1967, Page 2

Support For Theatre

The Canterbury Theatre Trust has enlisted the co-operation of town and country women’s organisations for the promotion of its regional professional theatre, which will present its first production in Christchurch on July 1.

About 105 women representing more than 50 groups, were told at a morning coffee party yesterday how they could support the new venture and help it become a part of community living.

“We need tiie .name ‘Canterbury Theatre Company* to become a household word before it reaches a town,” said Mr Patrick Smyth, public relations officer for the trust

Women, as individuals and as members of organisations, could help primarily by attending productions, by taking block bookings for their families and friends.

Christchurch women could help by manning publicity stalls to sell supporters’ subscriptions. Country women could help by organising functions, finding front-of-house staff and by providing billets for the players, be said.

Basic Art Form Every community needed something more than functional living. As it developed commercially and industrially it sought for relaxation musical societies, orchestras and art societies of its own. It needed theatre.

“The theatre is the most basic of all forms of art be cause it deals with people, their tragedies, problems and their happiness,” Mr Smyth said. “It gives people a better understanding of people, enabling them to see into the lives of others. The theatre helps us find out why people act and react as they do. And as our knowledge of people grows, so our understanding of them, our tolerance and love increase.”

The theatre was an art form everyone inherited. Babies “played” before they did almost anything else consciously. Children assumed "characters” in their games. Professional theatre in New Zealand could only succeed on a regional basis, mainly because of the topography of the country, he said. Big Response The Canterbury Theatre Trust, which would administer the Canterbury Theatre Company, had an overwhelming response when it advertised for actors, designers and other staff in Britain, the United States and Australia last year. “We had enough applicants for about 30 companies," he said. The director of the trust

(Mr John Kim) was now overseas interviewing applicants for the company and it was his intention to get the best from overseas countries and from New Zealand, Mr Smyth added.

The company would present about 13 productions a year. There would be lunch-hour shows on the Avon river bank, shows for hospitals, schools and prisons, as well as productions at the Repertory Theatre. The company would be for the benefit of the people of Canterbury and Westland and it would help put this region on the map for tourists, he said.

A full-time training school, to be known as the Christchurch Academy of Dramatic Art, will be run by the theatre trust in association with its regional professional theatre scheme.

Guests at the function were welcomed by the chairman of the Canterbury Theatre Trust (Mr A. R. Mackay).