Community Drama

Timaru Herald, Volume CXXXVIII, Issue 19953, 10 November 1934, Page 12

Community Drama

L Sidelights on the Amateur Stage || . (By “Prompter”;

The first religious play to be staged in Timaru will be presented next month in St. Mary’s Hall. It is a Christmas mystery play “Eager Heart” one of the best of its kind, a beautiful setting of the Christmas story. Much careful

preparation is being put into the play, special staging has to be constructed, while an important feature is the music under the direction of Mr A. W. V. Vine.

The Summer School of Drama, which is to be held in Auckland under the auspices of the British Drama League, is apparently creating considerable interest in southern centres of the league. Applications from intending students have been received already from Hastings, Hawera, Dannevirke, Marton and Palmerston North, as well as from students of the drama in several centres of the Auckland province. The visiting students will stay at the Epsom Girls’ Grammar School Hostel. Remuera. An interesting feature of the school will be the public evening sessions at the Workers’ Educational Association Hall. Among the subjects to be taken will be addresses on lighting, make-up. verse-speaking, modern production methods and “Dancing in Relation to Drama.” The lecturers will include Professor J. Shelley, Professor W. A. Sewell, Mr F. E. McCallum, Miss Beatrice Mackenzie and Madame Baird.

Since his return to New Zealand in December Mr Walter Russell-Wood, formerly resident in Auckland and producer for 11 years for the Southwell Boys’ School, Hamilton, has been living in Dunedin, where he has established a Playbox Theatre, in addition to a studio. Some good wofk has been

done, including productions of such plays as “The Lake” (Dorothy Massingham) and “The Wind and the Rain” (Merton Hodge). The latter play created tremendous interest in Dunedin, as Mr Hodge spent several years there as a medical student, and it is said that certain residents of Dunedin are the prototypes of characters in his successful play.

Every seat in the Wellington Concert Chamber was filled and numbers were turned away recently, when five one-act plays were presented there by the Wellington Repertory Theatre. The plays had been chosen from those produced by members at the society’s social evenings during the past twelve months.

“The Twelve-Pound Look,” by J. M. Barrie, was produced by Mrs John Hastings and Noel Coward’s “Mild Oats,” was produced by Mrs Vera Horton. The winning play in the last Wellington British Drama League festival, “The Dumb and the Blind.” by Harold Chapin, produced by Mr G. H. A. Swan, was played. “E. and O. E.,” by Eliot Crawshay-Williams was produced by Mrs Mary Mackenzie, and “So This is Paris Green,” a Grand Guignol burlesque by Kenyon Nicholson, was produced by Mr N. A. Byrne.

Tired of being mimicked by other stage artists, Miss Gracie Fields, the famous cemedienne, recently issued a general warning that legal proceedings would follow further impersonations unless the impersonators have her written permission. “I have been forced to take this action,” explained Miss Fields. “The times I am imitated each week has gone beyond a joke.” Managements are asked to take note of the warning, which reads:—“To whom it may concern: There are so many artists giving impersonations of Miss Gracie Fields that it is becoming nauseating. One day last week she was mimicked in no fewer than four different broadcast programmes. A few weeks ago at a well-known London variety hall she was impersonated by three out of the eight acts on the bill. The impersonations are good, bad and indifferent, and often injurious to her professional reputation. Therefore, unless such artists have written permission to give these impersonations legal proceedings will be instituted forthwith. This refers to all type of entertainment, including music-halls, theatres, concert parties and broadcasting. This warning also covers the performance of any of Miss Fields’ own songs.” It is added that the warning is issued “solely for the purpose of protecting Miss Fields’ own interests.”

The scheme for building a repertory theatre and head-quarters for amateur drama, which has been launched by Mr J. D. Swan, president of the Auckland Little Theatre Society, deserves most sympathetic consideration, even by those who may consider that a project costing £25,000 is possibly over-am-bitious at present. Even on a less costly scale, such a theatre as the scheme envisages would be of incalculable benefit to dramatic art in Auckland. An option has already been obtained over a site on the east side of Upper Queen Street, immediately below the former “Dixieland.” The property has the great advantage of three frontages to public streets. It is 93ft wide and slopes downward to the rear. Mr Swan has gone to an extraordinary amount of trouble in obtaining data of repertory theatres in Europe and America, and has had great assistance from the head-quarters of the British Drama League in England. As a result sketch designs have been prepared for a building which incorporates all the most modern ideas and which is quite unlike any theatre now existing in New Zealand. The auditorium seats 900 people, and is in plan like a sector of a circle. The rear seats are elevated to form a “gallery.” The side walls and flat ceiling converge to a stage opening 40ft. wide and 21ft. high, but there is no proscenium or “picture frame.” In front of the opening are a fore-stage and a broad removable flight of steps on to which the actors may descend if required. The flat stage js 40ft deep and runs the full width of the building. The most interesting feature of it is the background, a “cyclorama” or great, concave surface of white plaster. This is curved horizontally on a wide radius and in the vertical plane it rises from stage level in a more or less parabolic form. Its main use is to represent the dome of heaven in outdoor scenes, and under suitable lighting it gives the illusion of infinite space. Any kind of sky, even including clouds, can be reproduced, and the stage designer’s task is thus greatly simplified. For interior, movable scenery may be placed in front of it. There are footlights, and the stage is lit from a bridge over the opening and from a projection box at the back of the auditorium, with other lights in the wings, as may be required. In such* a theatre any form of drama, from the Greeks and Shakespeare to a drawing-room comedy by Noel Coward, can be produced with equally good effect. The designs for the building include all the appurtenances of a well-equipped theatre, such as drees-ing-rooms, scenery and property storage. There are also a green room and eoffe room where players and spectators may meet. In the basement is a hall cr ballroom sealing 400 people, complete with a stage. This and two other rehearsal rooms arc v.d table. for small performance!, anil provision also made fer offices and cluor ou-s ior the various dramatic organisation*.