OTAGO WOMEN’S CLUB

Otago Daily Times, Issue 23849, 1 July 1939, Page 22

OTAGO WOMEN’S CLUB

TWENTY-FIFTH BIRTHDAY CELEBRATIONS HISTORICAL PAGEANT: 1914-1939 The celebrations in connection with the twenty-fifth anniversary of the Otago Women’s Club were brought to a conclusion on Thursday evening when a historical, pageant was presented to an enthusiastic audience of members in the Concert Chamber of the Town Hall. The result of steady rehearsal and willing co-operation was manifest in what may be regarded as an event in the club’s history, reflecting credit on everybody connected with. it, ■ and worthy of being described as a completely successful venture. The pageant, divided into five halfdecades. told in dance, act. song and tableau the story of the birth and growth of the club, each event being announced before by herald. The opening dance of creation in which a large egg and life-size baby doll engaged the activities of 10 dancing maidens who later were seen to represent the 10 circles of the club, was a particularly pleasing item, as also was the final dance in which all the outstanding events of the last decade, including the planting of trees at the club cottage at Waitati, were symbolically suggested. Each half-decade was characterised by episodes peculiar to the period and by the introduction of certain famous people who had been entertained at the time. Dorothea Spinney, Ada Reeves, Rosina Buckman. Allan Wilkie. Irene Vanbrugh. Edna Thomas, Mark Hambourg and Lady Chaytor thus made their appearance and refreshed the memory of the audience by their performances.

Two trios, one of speakers and one of singers, who kept reappearing through the various half-decades, were responsible for much of the humour of the evening as they expressed the opinions of typical club members and others in regard to the club’s activities. The speaking trio dealt with war work for soldiers in 1915. a meeting in regard to the Prince of Wales ball, the club rooms at the New Zealand and South Seas Exhibition, and sewing for the unemployed in 1930, the singers being responsible for telling the tales of the club kitchen staff, the railway stations gardens’ annual competition, and the yearly competition for the original short story and play. The fact that all the costumes worn were true to the situations added to the general amusement.

A mime connected with the ball given by the club to the officers of the American fleet, a dance depicting the first grandmothers’ party, and a tableau dealing with the presentation by the club of the regimental colours to the Ist Regiment of the Otago Infantry also received, applause. Each halfdecade concluded with a picturesque tableau showing the circles grouped around the club who, in varying stages of growth from childhood to womanhood, stood behind a birthday cake with an ever-increasing number of lighted candles. The pageant was written by Mrs F. G. Soper and the dedication to the president by Mrs R. Gilkison, who also made the opening speech of the evening. The Entertainment Committee and producers were Mrs A. A. Fairbairn. Mrs R. Gilkison and Mrs Wakefield Holmes, the dances and tableaux being the work of Mrs Soper. Mrs G. H. Eliffe was the pianist and members of the circles assisted in dressing the pageant and making the necessary stage properties. The performers were:— Herald: Mrs C, M. Focken. The club: 1914-1919, Jill Fraser, 1919-1924, Sylvia Focken; 1924-1929. Nancy Wales - 1929-1939, Mrs Gerald Lane. The speakers: Mrs E. H. Murray. Mrs R. Paterson, Miss Lilian McCarthy Mrs E. Anderson. Mrs O. Stephens. The singers: Mrs L. Beaumont. Mrs N Ellis. Miss Molly Fenton. , Famous people: Mrs P. Dick. Mrs N Ellis, Mrs Wakefield Holmes, Mrs R. G. C. McNab, Mrs F. G. Soper, Mrs H. Speight, Miss Meda Paine, Miss Anita Winkcl.

The officer: Miss Lilias Samson. The grandmothers: Mrs H. Chapman, Mrs W. Garrett. Mrs R. Hudson, Mrs W. Porteous. At the Fleet Ball: Mrs E. Hartley. Mrs R. G. C. McNab. Mrs O. Stephens, Mrs Warrington Taylor, Miss Margaret Sawers. Miss Doris Watson. The Circles: Misses Betty Allan, Betty Bell, Mary Buchanan. Joan Buchanan, Kathleen Falconer, Stella Fitchett, Mabel Grant, Dorothy Neal Bertha Salmond, and Beryl Service. The pageant ended with a tableau ot the performers around Mrs Stanley Batchelor, who, in the unavoidable absence of her sister, Lady Ferguson, president of the club, in time-honoured fashion cut the twenty-fifth birthday cake and congratulated Mrs Soper on the excellence of the evening’s entertainment Mrs Soper and Mrs EllifTe were presented with bouquets by the performers, who later helped, to serve supper to the audience and dispose of, the souvenir programmes, which as they contained the words of the pageant and the names of those taking part in it, had purposely been held back until the close of the evening so that they might not spoil the surprise of tiie performance by too early a distribution. ,