A background of practical

Press, Volume CXII, Issue 33034, 29 September 1972, Page 33

A background of practical

All the arrangements for the Town Hall as a building available for a wide variety of functions are in the hands of an enthusiastic young man who has spent most of his life in New Plymouth.

Barrie Patrick Connell, the 30-year-old manager of the Town Hall, has a background of practical arts. After New Plymouth Boys’ High School he became an architectural draughtsman with the Taranaki Education Board before working towards an architectural degree at Auckland University — a study which he surrendered to return to New Plymouth.

Mr Connell now embarked on the kind of activity which provided him with the qualifications needed for a person who might be suited to manage the Town Hall in Christchurch. This does not mean that Mr Connell was working to any particular goal at that stage — indeed, Christchurch itself did not know then that it was going to have a Town Hall —but it does mean that he had found his direction. Mr Connell was working for the Bowl of Brooklands Trust which had formed an amphitheatre site from a disused gully in part of the extensive and beautiful Pukekura Park. Here, a succession of highly successful summer shows were put on, artists being brought in from overseas as well as being attracted from the New Zealand circuit.

While secretary of the Bowl of Brooklands Mr Connell was appointed public ' relations officer for New Plymouth city, and for five years he performed these jobs jointly.

“It was a 15-hour day in the summer,” he said. “The city in the day and down to the Bowl at night.” When he became the New Plymouth P.R.O. Mr Connell was 24 —at that time the youngest public P.R.O. in New Zealand. For the festivals in New Plymouth Mr Connell became experienced in negotiating with show promoters.

“We brought the Seekers to New Zealand,” he

said, “and we brought John Boulter and John Rowles. We put out an LP of Kiri Te Kanawa.”

There is a circuit for performers in the Pacific which might become of benefit to New Zealand, said Mr Connell.

“This might include Christchurch, possibly Auckland and. depending on the time of the year, the Bowl,” he said.

“We know up to five years ahead what is going to Australia. We are already advertising Christchurch by notices placed in overseas specialist journals.”

One performer which has heard of the Town Hall and has made its own approach is the New York Philharmonic Orchestra, which has a firm booking for August, 1974. “After the initial five months burst has gone, promotion of the Town Hall will then be necessary. As I say, the bookings are heavy to start with. And we have some conferences which won’t be held anywhere for another three years.”

Mr Connell said he was selected to manage the Town Hall because he was believed to be capable of learning and developing with the facilities.

“My aim is to get as many people as possible moving through the building and using it,” he said, referring to the main auditorium, the theatre, the banquet hall, the restaurant, the conference room, and the foyer.