TRAGEDY OF THE STAGE

New Zealand Times, Volume XLIX, Issue 11305, 2 September 1922, Page 10

TRAGEDY OF THE STAGE

MOST OVERCROWDED OF THE PROFESSIONS, HUNDREDS OF APPEALS TO MISS THORNDIKE'. The announcement of an agreement under which Miss Sybil Thorndike goes into management at the New Theatre, London, in a month’s time as Lady Wyndhom’s partner has been followed by her receiving hundreds of appeals fur work from actors and actresses. Interviewed by a "Daily News" reporter at her home in Chelsea, Miss Thorndike (Mrs Lewis Casson) expressed the opinion that ; here was proportionately more unemployment in the theatrical than in any other calling. “There are," she said, "about eight times too many people on the stage! There is not’ enough work, and the distress is appalling. “The ' war was responsible for many people obtaining stage work who had never attempted it before. The letters I am receiving are principally from' persons who have had perhaps two months’ work in the last two years. "There are awful stories from men i who have wives and children, and .some-' times other people to maintain. Yon don’t know how to face it. It is quite hopeless for the less experienced among them to expect to get in anywhere on the stage.” ' Miss Sybil Thorndike added that the' Actors’ Benevolent Fund was receiving many calls, and contributions were urgently required.