DRAMA LEAGUE FESTIVAL

Otago Daily Times, Issue 23865, 20 July 1939, Page 20

DRAMA LEAGUE FESTIVAL

FIRST NIGHT AUDIENCE The keen interest with which the first-night' audience witnessed the plays and followed the remarks of the adjudicator, Miss Ngaio Marsh, at last night’s opening of the Drama League Festival bore testimony to the reputation which Dunedin audiences have of being enthusiastic supporters of amateur theatricals of all types. The adjudicator was introduced by Mrs J. Sutherland Ross, president of the Otago branch of the Drama League, who presented Miss Marsh with a bouquet of scarlet and lavender flowers. Mrs Ross wore a smart black gown checked in gold thread and a shoulder cape of white fur. Miss Marsh was a graceful figure in full-skirted black tafi'eta, with wide white lapels, over which she wore a becoming hip-length jacket of white lambswool.

The following were noticed in the audience:—

Lady Sidey, Mesdames Richard Hudson, D. Smeaton, E. H. Williams, Wakefield Holmes, E. T. Moller, Lee Smith, George Crow, T. Holland, S. P. Cameron, . Eric Anderson, R. Gilkison, E. J. Smith, R. Lambert, J. Samson, J. Macdonald, A. J. Quin, A. K. Ibbotson, R. Johnson, Maurice Joel, James Gilkison, Hugh Speight, O. K. Tennent, A. A. Fairbairn, A. H. Lawrenson, H. C. Campbell, R. T. Little, Brickell, Eric Williams, John Anderson, R. D. B. Paterson, F. W. Mitchell, T. McKibbin, H. Henderson, F. Buttle, A. C. Stephens, Lionel Stephens, M. O’Sullivan and F. Avent.

Misses Burgess, Nelson, Bessie Thomson, McCarthy, Lilias Samson, Noeline Parker, Whitson, Mary Jolly, Dorothy Clark, Essie Moloney, Farnie, Neill, C. Little, Brugh, Mercia Hardman, Helen Birks and Hilary Runnerstrum.