Theatres ‘neglecting’ Maori plays

Press, Volume CXIV, Issue 33564, 19 June 1974, Page 14

Theatres ‘neglecting’ Maori plays

New Zealand theatres were at present alternating between an English play one week and an American play the next, whereas the only home-grown type of play written for and about Maoris, was neglected, Dick Johnstone, guest producer for the Court Theatre’s forthcoming production, said in Christchurch yesterday.

Mr Johnstone, a recent guest director for the Downstage, Mercury, and Central Theatres, the New Zealand Opera Company, the Australian Opera Company, and the New Zealand Ballet Company, is setting up a Maori Theatre Company in Rotorua.

The company will open in November with a series of Bruce Mason plays. Negotiations had begun for siting the new theatre in the Old Rotorua Bath House, part of the Tudor Towers, which had all the necessary facilities, he said. Plans had been completed for the auditorium, which would be built like a big marae. Mr Johnstone, who was awarded an 0.8. E. in the Queen’s Birthday Honours

I List for services to the , ■theatre, said that he pre-! ■ ferred his plays to have very little emphasis on the set., 'apart from what could be! : projected on to theatre walls.i i In his Court Theatre pro-!' : duction, “The Canterbury! Tales," he intended to con-!' ;centrate on striking costumes 'rather than sets, as it was a ' I play for actors and characterisation rather than setting. “The 'Canterbury' Tales' is I the type of play that I like 'Producing, because it relies ' jon the actor more than any- ; i thing else,” Mr Johnstone I said. “It has lots of vitality, and the characters are very ; [rich and gutsy.” “I have been very lucky in i managing to get a cast of ( such good actors all at the one time.” he said. “It was writ- ; ten for more mature actors,!, apart from three young leads, |, and of the 20 parts. 14 are , of equal importance, so that , an experienced cast is a . necessity.” Rehearsals for “The Can-1i terbury Tales,” which has 26 :■ songs in it, mainly in a light - folk idiom, began on Mon-i; day evening. It will open ini the James Hay Theatre for a > i two-week season on July 20.1,