Otago Girl Student Of Dramatic Art In London Has Part In Elstree Film

Otago Daily Times, Issue 27166, 23 August 1949, Page 2

Otago Girl Student Of Dramatic Art In London Has Part In Elstree Film

I NOTESFORWOMEN

Resident Correspondent LONDON, Aug. 12. To have a part in a film, and a film which features such top-line stars as Marlene Deitrich, Jane Wyman, Michael Wilding, Alister Sim and Sybil Thomdyke, is the good fortune of an Otago girl, Miss Winsome Wallis, of Gore. This film, “Stage Fright,” is now well under production at the big ABC studios in Elstree, north of London.

Miss Wallis’s part is a small one which she has taken during the first part of her vacation from the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, but it is probable that she will be credited on the cast list—no small achievement in the fierce competition of motion picture land. She acts in a theatrical garden party sequence where she will be seen as a “barker” enticing the public to patronise the stalls run by famous stars. Such a party is run each year at Roehampton. in London, to raise funds for stage charaties. Yet although her experience is the ambition of almost every girl. Miss Wallis is not over-excited about it. After the quick action of the stage and the challenge of the audience, she

finds the mechanics of film-making laborious and uninspiring. “No, I’d rather have the stage any day,” she told me, “but the pay is good—£s a day and we seem to do practically nothing but hang around.” Miss Wallis, who is well known in dramatic circles in Dunedin, and was a student at the University of Otago, came to London 18 months ago to enter the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art. Here, with students from all parts of the world, she has been working hard studying the fine points of acting, voice production, and stage technique. She hopes to specialise in character roles, for which she has shown a pronounced flair. After the completion of her part in “ Stage Fright.” Miss Wallis will spend the remainder of her vacation in a motor tour of France, Switzerland, and Italy.