DRAMA LEAGUE

Evening Post, Volume CXXIV, Issue 27, 31 July 1937, Page 15

DRAMA LEAGUE

ANNUAL FESTIVAL

THE THIRD NIGHT

The third night of the British Drama League festival of community drama attracted a large crowd to the Concert Chamber last night. Four oneact plays were preserved. Trie- adjudicator, Professor James Shelley, again offered advice and criticism at the end of each play. His demonstrations as to the method of dealing with certain emotional situations were received with considerable interest and appreciation by the players.

The adjudicator, in his final remarks, described the session as "a very good evening."

The announcement 01 the winning performance will be made at the conclusion of the festival this evening.

The first piay was "On Babylonian Banks," by. Gordon Hooper (the only play in the festival by a Wellington author), and it was presented by the St. John's players. The general weakness of the play, said Professor Shelley, lay in the gestures of the actors. Gestures must be prepared as much as the words until they come naturally. One should not rely upon the spur of the moment for the actions. The spur of the moment was unreliable in this as'in many other spheres of life. Actions spoke louder than words. A play should be rehearsed without the words.

"In these days when the , spoken voice is becoming more and more important, words must be spoken clearly,' observed Professor Shelley. "No listener will forgive a speaker if the words do not come over clearly and distinctly." Properties, such as cups of gold or daggers, should be as near the original as possible. It was the weight that mattered. Never kill Caesar with a wooden sword. In one Caesar murder at which he was present, the audience gasped, but actually no dagger was used, said Professor Shelley. "The audience knew from the actions when the murderer crept up behind Caesar that some dirty work was being done. The actions had been so perfected that the absence of the dagger in the speed of the movement was not noticed." . , „ The cast of "On Babylonian Banks was as follows:—lstar, Nancy Coull; Raschi, George Vincent; Ramman, David Grey; Sin. Ken. Johnson: a Jew, John Moncrieff; Rachel. Mary Goetzlof; Mary, Clare Gilmour. The.author produced the play. UNNATURAL ACTIONS. The Peter Pan players presented the second number, "Today of All Days, by Philip Johnson. I Professor Shelley made further comment in the criticism of this play regarding the necessity for perfecting natural actions. If a lady dusted a chair at his home as one of the characters had dusted them in this second play he would have sacked her on the spot. She left the most important part to be dusted by the visitors. The-very simplest actions must be studied. He remembered one .very memorable scene, in which a famous actress completely washed a floor in a; thorough and professional manner between the raising and the lowering of the curtain. One of the characters should have had more of the "drowned rat" appearance.

The cast of "Today of all Days" was as follows:—Elsie Bispham, Miss F. Fogelberg; Mrs. Bispham, Mrs. W. J. Wakelin; Joe Kershaw, Allan Webster; Mrs. Vallana, Mrs. A. Leigh Hunt; Mrs. Entwistle, Mrs. E. Davey; Gladys Bispham, Miss S. Cometh; Mr. Bispham, Allan Jesson. The ! producer was Mrs. R. S. McInnes.

"Calling the Tune," by L. T. Hines and F. King, was presented by the Johnsonville players. This was a good play excellently done, said Professor Shelley.:- The conversation on unemployment was well done. Fortunately the characters did not move around the stage as they might have been tempted to. . It was very important to learn the structure of the skull when studying make-up. The strongest muscles in the skull, probably the strongest for their size in the body, were in the jaw. In certain cases these muscles should be brought out by the make-up. Professor Shelley described different forms of make-up which might have been used by the characters.

HUMAN ANIMAL, NOISES

Small parts must be as fully.treated as the major ones. -The minor parts made the play. The barking of the dogs was a little too human. It was nearly always possible to get somebody in the district who specialised in the barking of the dogs, and similar animar noises. Records of expenses for the fifteenth century players were very, interesting. One of the items was of a man paid a special amount for cockcrowing at the betrayal of St. Peter. Even in those days the importance of proper animal noises was appreciated. Another item in the expenditure, curiously enough, was "beer for players." The cast of "Calling the Tune" was as follows:—Joe Trigg, Mr. W. R. Richardson; Emma Trigg, Miss J. de Ridder; Norah Trigg, Miss M. Halligan; Jess Pickersgill, Mr. Barnes; Major Hilton, Mr. T. McMurry. The producer was Mr. R. W. Stockdale.

The last play of the evening was "The Poacher," by J. O. Francis, presented by All Saints' Players.

Professor Shelley said that he had to congratulate the cast on the very excellent team work. There were very few production mistakes. One of the players should have been insinuating like Satan in his temptations instead of a trifle overbearing. The lighting was good and the actors pulled together as a. team. It was concerted work.

The cast of "The Poacher" was as follows:—Twmas Shon, Mr. W. F. C. Balham; Marged Shon, Dorothy Jesson; Dicky Bach Dwl, Dafydd Jones; Dafydd Hughes, Mr. Wm. E. Cathie. The producer- was Margaret Davies.