STAR OVERNIGHT.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 20833, 27 September 1929, Page 10

STAR OVERNIGHT.

/ SYDNEY GIRL’S SUCCESS. LEAD M .“ SHOW BOAT.” / • ~. • (From Odb o\vn Correspondent.) SYDNEY, September 19. Romances of the Australian stage are .few and far between in these days when imported stars receive all the plums. Still, Australian theatrical companies have shown from time to time that they are: not averse to giving Australian artists a chance when the . opportunity occurs. Those opportunities are sp. few that the success of the Sydney girl who has stepped into stardom in-the'J. C. Williamson production, the '■ “ Show Boat,” at Melbourne is all the more, welcome, for it is something very real in the realm "of success. =, The new “star is the practically unknown Gwyneth Lascelles, aged 18, who is popular among a very limited circle at the seaside suburb of Manly, where she appeared with great success, in a number of musical comedies that were staged by the Manly Musical and Dramatic Club. Last November she made a great hit hi,Maud Fane’s part, in the popular “ Kissing Time,” and after that she went on the professional stage in search of a greater measure of success. She has. succeeded to a degree unexpected by herself and by her most intimate friends. And incidentally the number of her friends has been vastly increased, for when she made her debut as the star of, the company she received a wonderful reception which, her subsequent performance showed, waa juath fted. . , Miss Lascelles has thus stepped into the shoes of a very highly-paid American star, who will return home. She has got one of the plums of the profession, but it would be wrong to say that she'was merely lucky. The« eis said to be; no luck in such matters., Miss Lascelles has always been a hard worker, bent’ on a stage career, and everlastingly preparing for it with the aid of her mother. “ I always knew that I would go on the stage,” she said, “ and I have always imagined myself in leading parts. All the same, the realisation of my dreams is overwhelming. I know that I am extremely lucky, but I am not going to get a swelled head simply because I have been placed in this position. I have always worked hard, and I always will work hard, because I love the stage, and because the more I learn the more I realise that there is something more to learn. I have seen enough to know that the person who thinks that she has learned enough is finished.” The young star said that she had always cherished the idea of writing a book. Now that she had reached the pinnacle of stage success, she would do something for her less fortunate comrades. She would help them to see stage life as it really is. It would be a book of warning to those who thought that the paijh was strewn with roses. Her advice to all young women who aspired ,to stage honours was to get as much education as possible befois starting out on a job.. And they should read good books, too. Her favourite author \Vas Galsworthy.