THEATRICAL NOTES

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22350, 22 February 1936, Page 36 (Supplement)

THEATRICAL NOTES

w DOMING PRODUCTIONS [THEATRE AND CONCERT HALL I TOWN HALL CONCERT CHAMBER. To-night.—Miss Hinemoa Roaieur. HIS MAJESTY'S THEATRE February 19 to March 14.—Gilbert and Sullivan Benson. 3?ew Shaw Play "Tho Millionaires," a hitherto unproictuced play by Mr. Bernard Shaw, was given its world premiere in Vienna recently. Commenting on a full-dress rehearsal staged for critics, a writer states: "It is not easy in sophisticated [Vienna for a dramatist to raise a laugh at a performance beginning at 10 o'clock in the morning, but Mr. Shaw kept his invited audience chuckling for two and hours with a four-act Shavian trifle, in which nearly every lino was reminiscent of the 'Pleasant Plays' at their best.' 1

Carriage ol Amateurs' Volce3 On the ground that it has been found in practice that tho distance within which amateurs can effectively be heard is 75ft., no seat in the new theatre built for tho employees of the Rowntree Cocoa and Chocolate Factory at York is above this distance from the stage. The resulting auditorium gives seating for 450 people. Another feature of the theatre is the provision of a full set of stage curtains, selected for their colour reaction to light, so providing, in conjunction with the lighting, variable combinations.

yalue of, Musical Training Musical training for a child, physifcally, as a means for training the eye, ear and hand, can hardly be over-esti-mated, says an American writer. These organs must be trained to assimilate many things at once, in perfect coordination. Thus they become organs that are accurate, faithful and obseryant to a great degree. Has it not been through finely-trained sense organs that tho human race has attained such valuable knowledge along scientific lines? The value of any study or training that will help fulfil this demand for skilfully trained sense organs cannot be easily denied or ignored.

Complete Singing "To sing with a singing voice alone means nothing. It never will enhance the singer's progress in art; and it never will reach his hearers' hearts. But to tell the different stories of human/life -and emotion through the voice; ah, that is another matter I Aiid that is why the theory of 'voice, voice and again voice,' is not sufficient. If one is born with a voice in his throat, •he has simply an added blessing for which to be grateful. What he does * wi'h it depends on himself; on his "ardour, his powers to observe and to reconstruct. Anyone can sing notes and syllables as they appear on the printed page. Some can even penetrate into the music enough to sing melody and words. But only the very few learn to sing the c song itself, with all its human emotion, all its joy and suffering. Those who do are artists. They devote themselves • to portraying the truth of life through music." —Feodor Chaliapin.