Boy following the rainbow

Press, Volume CXVI, Issue 34072, 9 February 1976, Page 4

Boy following the rainbow

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ROBIN TURKEL

Andrew Hawthorn. I the 13-year-okl chosen I to star in TV2’s “Hunter’s Gold,” sat in the Hargreaves Street rehearsal room, which was about as cosy as a union hiring' hall when there is no work. This was his first meeting with the press, which Auckland could hardly be J called a terrifying experience. Still, Andrew displayed, an aplomb beyond his years.! “My new sandals? They are; for Auckland Grammar! School. I just started there! on Monday. But I won’t be; going back there until the middle of May.’’ Someone said that thatwould be just in time for the; I holidays, and everyone, laughed. Andrew, too — but not too heartily. The headmaster would be reading about it. “I’ll have a tutor in Otago,; a vicar’s wife,” Andrew said, “and a chaperon. I’ll meet l her on Saturday.” On February 18. Andrew and the director, Tom Parkinison, and a lot of other people will go down to the Queenstown area to begin putting ! together the network’s most ambitious series yet. OTAGO GOLDFIELDS In 13. parts. shot on location. it will tell of a boy's search for his widower father in the rough-and-tumble of the Otago goldfields of 1861 The site was chosen, and a town and mining camp built.' because the area resembles, Otago and TV2 thinks the: ring of ''Queenstown” will help overseas sales. “You look pretty fit. Andrew. What’s the most difficult thing you’ll have to do?” “Well, I don’t know. Bui one of the things I have to. do is plunge into a stream — wade in, really — and rescue a barrel.” “A barret?” "Oh. there’s a boy in it.” i It was all unintentional —

I but the timing would have done credit to Morecombe lor Wise. “When did you know the part was yours, and how 'did ■’ it come about?” “It was the last day of school last year. I went for an audition in the morning, and they told me the same day.” “Just like that?” Andrew shrugged slightly, inot knowing what to say.| Tom Parkinson came over. “It was the last dav for; iauditions," he said. "We had (looked at about 150 schoolboys. Several of them were excellent. But when we watched Andrew, we knew ■he was just right.” It was a classic director's statement. However technical the medium becomes, there has to be room for intuition, without which there would be no creativity. Andrew always wanted to' act. He does not know quite' why. There is no family theatrical background. His father is a business (executive, and his mother watches over three children, including lan and Susan, who will be 15 and 8 respectively this month. ACTING LESSONS “Mv mother encouraged me to take acting lessons,” Andrew said. “I had been in :two or three dramas at Remuera Intermediate School, and I went to the Central Theatre’s acting classes.” The Central director. Mary Amoore. remembers Andrew as “one of three boys in the iclass who were very imaginative. and physically and; mentally agile. He was a humble sort of boy, not the least bit affected.” At the same time. Andrew was singing in the Auckland Boys’ Choir. The acting les-’ sons and the singing paid oft” in a minor singing role in the new fndepedent Theatre’s pre-Christmas production of “O Temperance.” Then Andrew Hawthorn heard about the • “Hunter’s, Gold" auditions on television, i Now he is following the rain- ■ bow in earnest.