Producer prefers acting

Press, Volume CXI, Issue 32564, 25 March 1971, Page 6

Producer prefers acting

Although she enjoys producing the Christchurch Operatic Society’s “Camelot,” Mrs Julie Blumsky, would prefer to act. “I’ve done a lot of acting and really would prefer to do more, but the country is terribly short of producers at the moment,” she said yesterday. Production of “Camelot”— her first show for the Christchurch Operatic Society—has involved a lot of work and a few headaches. “Musicals are much harder to produce than repertory as the dialogue generally doesn’t have much depth of meaning. The purpose of a musical is to create entertainment and you have to be very careful that you’re doing this.”

Mrs Blumsky has had to work out a bigger lighting plot for “Camelot” to accentuate the “wonderful atmosphere” of the show.

The splendid and colourful costumes used were hired from societies in Helensville and Napier, but the Christchurch society’s wardrobe mistress has spent a lot of time making up accessories like boots, said Mrs Blumsky. It is an expensive show to run, she said, and houses since the opening on March 20 have been very good. It is actually Mrs Blumskey’s second production of “Camelot,” her first being for the Oamaru Operatic Society. She has no favourite musical.

“Every show you produce is your favourite because'you become so involved with the cast, the people, and the show itself.” Her interest in drama was “something I just grew up with.”

“I was the only girl in a family of boys and didn’t have anyone of my own age to play with, so I grew up in a world of make-believe.

My mother was very interested in theatre, too, so it was just accepted as a part of life.”

Mrs Blumsky’s grounding in theatre came in her home city of Nelson where she was involved with productions by the Tin Hat Club, writing, producing, and acting.

This was to stand her in good stead for later acting roles such as Jo, in the Dunedin Intimate Theatre’s “Taste Of Honey,” Annie Sullivan in a Wanganui production of the “Miracle Worker,” and Maria for the Southern Comedy’s “The Shifting Heart.”

However, said Mrs Blumsky, she would like to attend a producer school and learn a few different techniques.

“The trouble with being involved in something like this is that people say you’re not spending enough time with your children. This isn’t true.”

All of Mrs Blumsky’s four i children are interested in drama, and her son Mark 1(13) plays Tom, a page and [a herald in “Camelot.”