AMATEUR DRAMATICS

Taranaki Daily News, 16 November 1935, Page 16 (Supplement)

AMATEUR DRAMATICS

“THE UPPER ROOM” GROUP

PRAISE BY PROFESSOR SEWELL, “LOVELY LANGUAGE OF GESTURE.” PROVINCIAL AND OTHER ITEMS.

(By

“Haromi.”)

A group of members from the Stratford branch of the British Drama League put on an enjoyable one-act comedy, “Change of Ideas,” at a W.I. celebration on Monday. The Stratford secretary, Mrs. F. P. Uniacke, afterwards gave an illuminating and instructive talk on production. She stressed the necessity of the producer “knowing" the play, not so much the words as the spirit and matter, before attempting to bring to life the author’s ideas. Other useful advice given was to study production from any of the good books procurable and, .above all, to rehearse and rehearse. “No staleness arises if rehearsals are taken seriously,” said Mrs. Uniacke.

The cast in "Change of Ideas” included Misses C. and A. Uniacke and Messrs. H. Goodman, K. Von Sturmer and Wynyard. The same play was put on at Tariki last night, tb help with the Sports queen campaign. At the end of the month a review organised and produced by a band of enthusiastic amateurs in both drama and theatricals, is to be staged at Stratford. Two entertaining nights are promised.

Elthara Amateurs Quiet. Very little has been heard of Eltham. amateurs this year. Nevertheless there is some good talent there. Last week the Women’s Institute drama group held a successful reading. Mrs. Carter was the producer.

Keen Spirit at Inglewood. Last week the Inglewood Play Box Reading Club held its final assembly for the season, a three-act play aptly called “Summer is a’Comin’ In” being presented in the parish hall. The club also produced a playette, “Charity Begins at Home,” at a church concert last week. There are some very keen players and readers at Inglewood and they are leading a willing. public in a commendable community spirit way.

An Ibsen Reading. ■At the Hawera Women’s Educations' Association study group’s evening nex Friday: “Warriors of Helgoland,” a threeact idealistic play by the celebrated Norwegian playwright H. Ibsen will be presented. A New Zealand Star.

Miss Trevor Hunter, Wanganui, well known" in South Taranaki as an aviatrix, who is to the fore as a dancer, is playing the feminine lead in a sound film at present being made at Dunedin, “Phar Lap’s Son.” Miss Marion Gordon, Marton, who is in the cast also, has many friends in Taranaki. Miss Hunter was a regular competitor at the Hawera competitions for a number of years, being a pupil of Miss Audrey Hughes-Johnson. She now has a dancing studio of her own at Wanganui and this year several of her pupils competed with success at Hawera. “Captain Moonlight” for Hawera.

“Captain Moonlight,” a play written by the well known Wellington cartoonist, Mr. A. S. Paterson, for the Wellington Savages, has been' selected by the Hawera Savage Club for its Christmas cheer concert next month. This play should hold additional interest for Hawera people owing to the fact that, the author is an old boy of South Taranaki. The cast, which is not yet complete, will be made known shortly.

Nancy Kent Studio Recital. , On Monday week the annual recital by Miss Nancy Kent is to be given in St. Joseph’s hall, two one-act plays and a farcical sketch being included in a programme full of variety by the juvenile talent at Hawera. The first playette, “The Dyspeptic Ogre,” by Percival Wilde, which has a modernised fairy theme, recently won the junior one-act play section at the New Zealand national Eisteddfod and took two other first places in competitions at Wellington and in the South Island.

Thespians Present “Afterwards.” Walter Hackett’s new play, “Afterwards,” opened successfully at Wellington on Wednesday for a season of four nights. It was played by The Thespians, a very live club of amateurs at Wellington, and was produced by Victor S. Lloyd. In paying a tribute to recent amateur productions a Wellington critic says that owing io efficient and keen amateur clubs throughout New Zealand and, in fact, throughout the Empire, the public is now given an opportunity of seeing new plays much sooner than it had to await their performance by professional companies. “Afterwards,” which is a difficult play for amateurs, was a credit to both performers and producer. Criticism of “The Upper Room.”

At the South Taranaki festival the judge deejined to make any public criticism of “The Upper Room,” which was declared the winner for the southern area, on the grounds that it would be quibbling of him to rob ‘both audience and players of a certain elation and awe that he felt was created by the uplifting and strikingly artistic performance.

“Haromi” has just received the private critique of the judge, Professor W. A. Sewell, and it makes most interesting reading. Under the B.D.L. headings for adjudication, Professor Sewell writes: — “The miming of Mary, the Mother of Jesus, was the most beautiful individual performance in the whole festival. If dance is, as Gordon Craig has put it, the poetry of movement, then in this kind of miming we have the poetical prose of

movement. This player expressed herself with great loveliness in the language of gesture, facial expression and movement. The acting of all the players was well in keeping with the dignity of the theme. Samuel spoke perhaps a little too obviously to the audience when she delivered her rather difficult narrative, but was otherwise excellent both to look at and to listen to. Judas and John were not sufficiently differentiated. Achaz was a trifle stage-shy, but he never spoilt the picture. Mary of Magdala gave a moving performance, but I think in appearance she might have been made a little more traditional. John, by the way, has a lovely voice. Longinus spoke a little too stridently: the producer could have insisted on a quieter rendering of his lines. Honours for Producer.

“The great quality of this production was the unifonnity of mood throughout the play; never for a moment did the producer lose the atmosphere of reverence and sacred passion. In tempo, therefore, and tone the producer did her work remarkably well. The mechanics were good, too. Now and again the grouping was not as" significant or as smooth as it might have been. Mary was masked at her first very important entrance. The table was too much down-stage, thus bringing much of the action too near the footlights. In scene 3 Samuel was in the dark; he could have been picked out with a spot from the side. These are all details, however, and they did not mar the quality of the whole.

Setting, Lighting and Make-up. "The stage was well-set;' but 1 think that here the producer did not make the best of her opportunities. The opening centre-back was not wide enough, so that here was nu spaciousness in the movement of the spears, and, particularly, of the cross. This opening could have been marked b. pillars. Drapes are too ambiguous to give incisiveness to so important an element in the set. Pillars give a solidity and dignity. The backcloth was poor; it would have been much better to have had a plain white sheet and to throw on to it blue light from a small flood. The costumes were very good, but the wigs and beards were bad, perhaps the only important jarring note in the whole performance. The lighting was good, but it might have been better. It was too flat in most of the scenes, and more ingenuity might have been used in the ‘thunder and lightning’ scene. Ideally, it might have been possible to follow Mary with a small ‘baby spot,’ so that whene she walked there was light. The spears, too, might have been made to glint in a kind of sunlightdone by the horizontal projection of a ‘baby spot,’ narrowed as much as possible." Praise for Production.

Practically full marks were given under the important heading of production, the judge remarking: “This was a beautiful play beautifully done. The silence in the audience and their attentiveness showed that the players were creating a true theatrical illusion. I liked, too, the great seriousness with which the play was taken, for.if the drama is to show any reward to those who are interested it must be taken seriously. And the more seriously it is taken, the more fun we shall get out of it. The players of "The Upper Room,’ I should say, were without exaggeration different men and women for having played their parts. That is what the drama should do to us ,and for us. Congratulations.” . B.D.L. National Council. ■ At the last meeting of the national council of the B.D.L. held after the annual meeting of the league at Hastings, those present were Miss A. G. Kane (in the chair), Misses E. Blake, D. Isaacs, E. Wemyss, B. Thomson, Mesdames Whitlock, Tweedy, E. Maslen, Kelso, King, Messrs. S. Natusch, Lawrence, P. Latham, A. Goodwii. and Keesing. Invitations for the venue of the 1936 national final were received from the Otago and Manawatu areas and the South Canterbury Drama League, but no decision was made. Schools of Drama; Speaking on behalf of Mrs. Bristow and Mr. E. W. Hogben, Miss Blake suggested more advanced work for producers at drama schools and it was resolved that the syllabus for the summer school should include an advanced course. A suitable place for this summer school had not yet been arranged, she said, but during the year other schools were to be held at Dunedin, during Easter week, and at Wanganui during the King’s Birthday week-end. Miss Elizabeth Loe Would be on the staff at the two last-mentioned schools. A scroll of fame is, being completed by Messrs. Page and Natusch. No Summer School This Year. Late news to hand states there will be no summer school this year owing to arrangements to obtain lona College having failed, and because it. is too late to complete arrangements at Timaru.