CHILDREN’S CONCERT

Te Awamutu Courier, Volume 59, Issue 4221, 8 December 1939, Page 4

CHILDREN’S CONCERT

TO AID RED CROSS FUNDS. SOME EXCELLENT ENTERTAINMENT. The children’s concert, promoted by Mrs H. Steer and Mrs M. G. Sullivan, in aid of the local Red Cross funds, attracted a good attendance to the Empire Theatre on Wednesday evening, and the promoters are deserving of congratulation for the work they had put into the production. Some of the items were very good indeed, but it, was noticeable almost throughout that audibility was poor. All too few of the children had voices that could be heard at the back of the theatre. The costuming was most effective, the dancing good, the staging quite up to the mark, and the music splendid. Proceedings opened with selections by the Municipal Band, under Mr A. Smith, and an orchestral selection. National dances by Ethne Wyllie and Joan Carseldine (English), Daphne WhiteT and Valeria Richards (Irish), and Nola Morriss and Dawn Russell (Scottish), were effective, and earned the hearty applause. Then followed a play by the High School pupils, “Saint Joan,” by Bernard Shaw. It was a revelation to the audience, and well merited the highest commendation. Ray Quick took the part of Captain Robert de Bandricourt, Heather Oliphant that of the Maid of Orleans, John Sinclair was the Steward, and David Andrew was Bertrand de Boulanger. The dialogue was bright and presented excellently, reflecting credit upon all concerned. Plays so well presented will always earn high praise in Te Awamutu. The next item was “Vespers.” in which two tiny tots, Margaret O’Brien and Joy Rossiter, figured in a bedside prayer. They almost “brought the house down” with applause; it was a pretty conception. The next was a Dutch scena, with good parts taken by Margaret O’Brien, Joy Rossiter. Jeanette Wyllie, Brenda Lines, June Whitehead, Shirley Whitehead, Joyce Whitehead, Molly and Jean Ward, Valerie Richards, Daphne Whiter, Beverley Rickit, Gaynor Nicholson, Diana Eyre, Helen Jourdain, Betty Pollard and Dorothy Armstrong, the latter acting as school mistress and the others were her pupils. Songs, clog and tap dances were introduced as specialty numbers.

After the interval a drill display by senior pupils of the High School, a squad of boys doing physical drill, while the girls did rhythmic drill. Nola Morriss was excellent in a Bavarian tap dance in costume. The cantata, “A Christmas Dream,” was a very fine item, but here again much of the effectiveness of the number was spoiled by the weakness in the singing; it was sweet but there was not enough volume. The time was Christmas Eve, and the place a children’s bedroom. A quartette, Bernice Hebden, Betty Harden, Barry Parker and Barry Pearson, indulged in a pillow fight, and sang “Going to Bed” quite nicely; then came Santa Claus (Mr W. Foggin) through the chimney with a bag full of gifts; the Fairy Queen (Valerie Richards), very prettily gowned, and attended by Shirley Whitehouse, Brenda Lines, Joy Rossiter, Margaret O’Brien, Joyce Whitehouse, Beverley Rickit and Jean Ward as her fairies; tile Sleeping Beauty (Colleen Savage), Cinderella (Heather Smith), Robin Hood (John Lees), Friar Tuck (Eric Shaw), the “merry men” in support (Gordon Ferriman and Ron McNeil), Little Miss Muffet (Ruth Garvey), Jack and Jill (Betty Wolfe and Ella. Waters), Little Bopeep (Frances Mackenzie), Red Riding Hood (Barbara Hiskens), and Snow White (Margaret Swarbrick), with her Seven Dwarfs (David Cullen, Eric Harden, John Moffat, Cedric Bryant, Errol Bryant, Freeman Raine and Jack Allen). Each carried out his or her part very conscientiously, and the younger ones evoked storms of applause. Altogether there was plenty of entertainment.

The accompaniments during the evening were capably played by Mrs T. Nicholson, the Misses P. North and Moir, and Messrs R. C. Judd and McMahon.