Strong future seen for amateur theatre in N.Z.

Press, 21 October 1980, Page 17

Strong future seen for amateur theatre in N.Z.

By

KARREN BEANLAND

Amateur theatre will continue to be a strong force in New Zealand theatre, according to Mrs Penny Giddens, who has just returned home from 10 months in Britain. Having worked with Christchurch’s Repertory Theatre for “years and years," she "made it her business” while she was in England with her husband (who' was on study leave from the University of Canterbury) to see provincial theatre there.

“I was looking to find plays that would be suitable here. I wanted to see what our type of theatre does in England, what the recent trends and developments are.” She has brought several plays back with her, in-

cluding a couple of new plays. Whether thev are performed by Repertory will depend on the theatre’s selection committee.

One problem, she explains is that plays are still written for more men

than women, while Repertory Theatre has to cater for more female actors.

Amateur theatre is stronger in New Zealand than in England, she says. This is because there are professional theatres at all levels in England, while in New Zealand there is only

a scale of two — amateur and professional. "The theatre in England is suffering from high prices. Their 15 per cent value added tax is making theatre very expensive. People are concerned because to keep the theatres

going they have to do popular plays and this' is reflecting back on creative theatre."

The provincial theatres were performing popular comedies, repeats of popular shows, or were using “big names” to attract audiences. She saw one Shaw production that

“basterdised" the play emphasising all the comic lines, “just to get the people in ” Television was also pn. viding stiff competition to theatre. Since British television had a high standard, people in small places were well informed and demanded high standards in theatre. Mrs Giddens believes that people will continue to support good theatre. The production of “Rose” by Andrew Davies with Glenda Jackson was "packed out.” Companies such as the National Theatre Company and the Royal Shakespeare Company continued to produce “excellent theatre.”

She says Repertory can maintain its strength by selecting, good plays and by having good directors, because “actors respond to those and so to audiences.”

“If we keep our standards really high people will come to see us,” she says. “Certainly we have to do plays that people like, but that doesn’t mean you do roll-about comedies. You pick plays that people can warm to in one way or another. “I’m not knocking comedy, but some of these run-of-the-mill comedies are wasting actors’ time. In an amateur organisation the actors are giving a lot of their time

and they want the reward of really good drama or comedy.” Penny Giddens considers Repertory Theatre has an important place in Christchurch theatre. Although she thinks the Court Theatre has done extremely.well in producing the classics, she says amateur theatre has an advantage because it usually has a larger cast draw from than a professional company can afford. “I still think theatre is one of the most important cultural things in the community. Not only is it something that provides

so much for the audience, but also- for the people who participate. People find out such a lot about themselves, and the community/ from the theatre.” All theatres have been plauged by money problems “since the year dot,” Mrs Giddens says. But amateur companies are in a good position because, so long as they do enough popular plays to make ends meet, they can also do more adventurous theatre. The highlight of her visit to England was attending a week-long directing course at Bristol.

Only 12 directors from “all" over the place” were selected for the course. The 18-hour days spent on the course included voice production, dance, movement, and stage fighting techniques. But most of the course was based on an experimental exercise, dramatising a Shakespearian sonnet. ' “At first it was mindboggling —how would you produce in dramatic from a 14 line sonnet?” ask Mrs Giddens. But she soon realised how valuable it was to look at the form and colour in the framework of the tiny piece of verse.

“One of the most valuable aspects was working with actors who were absolutely scared to death by the text. It just phazed most of the actors, and they just did not know how to cope," she recalls. “That was: exciting because you had to find people s strengths.” Penny Giddens’s experiences in English theatre, she affirms, will definitely affect her future productions.

Her first production for the Repertory Theatre ■ next year will be the rock ! ■ opera ’ “Godspell.’ I