DRAMA IN AMERICA

Timaru Herald, Volume CXXXVIII, Issue 19944, 31 October 1934, Page 10

DRAMA IN AMERICA

The chairman of the New Zealand branch of the British Drama League has received a letter written in Los Angeles by Miss Elizabeth Blake, in which she states: —“The dramatic part of my travel has hardly begun yet, but two very interesting things have happened here—(a) I went to the Pasadena Community Playhouse, one of the most famous of American Little Theatres, and went over it most thoroughly, taking some notes. I also had a very interesting talk with the school director. It’s a perfectly delightful place and I wanted badly to stay and work there, (b) I went to the famous open-air theatre. the ‘Hollywood Bowl,’ and saw the great German Reinhardt’s production of ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream.’ Some of the acting was very poor, the poetry hashed to bits; none of them spoke verse decently. I don’t think Reinhardt had attempted to make them; he had simply used the play as background on which to create exquisite pictures, and very, very lovely they were. “The lighting was most thrilling. Imagine a perfect, still, warm night, tier upon tier of people <1 was told the Bowl holds 30.000), the stage a little knoll with trees on it and a lawn in front, and behind on all sides steep hillsides. Down these great processions carrying flaming torches came, and when the fairy scenes happened all the great dark hillsides flickered with glow-worm lights. “Prom an acting point of view there was only one person on the stage, Dickey Rooney, who played Puck a fierce accent but such a priceless performance; and the beauty of the picture I shall never forget.”