INTEREST IN DRAMA

Dominion, Volume 30, Issue 255, 24 July 1937, Page 9

INTEREST IN DRAMA

American Impressed By

New Zealand “Interest shown in the stage in New Zealand is impressing,” said Mr. Ray Henderson when he left Wellington last night in the Maunganui for Sydney. He has toured the Dominion in the interests of Miss Katharine Cornell, the American actress-manager who is contemplating a world tour next year. “Wherever I have been I have been surprised by the activity of local groups of players presenting ex cellent plays and by the drama tournaments held in various sections of the country,” he said. All this was a healthy state of affairs and indicated the coming renaissance of drama in New Zealand as it did in America. “During the depression in America the theatre suffered severely and very few professional companies toured.. In the meantime local groups organised ‘little theatres’ UPd dramatic societies. • An indication of the hold the speaking stage has on young people was the youth who travelled 200 miles to interview me in Wellington to obtain a position with Miss Cornell’s company should she come here. Unfortunately for him, Miss Cornell will bring her entire cast of English and American players with her, as one of the purposes of her world tour is to show insofar as she is able the quality of acting and producing in the United States.” He said it had been most gratifying to discover that her achievements were not entirely unknown in this part of the world, despite the fact that she had consistently declined to appear on the screen and the radio because her love was wholly in the theatres. “It is possible that one result of her tour in a series of good plays may contribute toward giving New Zealanders another idea of our country as a place not entirely inhabited by gangsters and people addicted to a life of jazz.”