STAGE ROLE GIVEN UP

Timaru Herald, Volume CXLIV, Issue 20982, 10 March 1938, Page 12

STAGE ROLE GIVEN UP

MRS PENROSE-FITZGERALD’S PLAN The many friends and admirers who followed with interest the stage career of Miss Isabel Wilford (now Mrs Edward Penrose-FitzGerald) are disappointed to learn that her plan to resume it, at laest temporarily, has been frustrated by ill health. Mrs Penrose-FitzGerald has already begun rehearsals as understudy to Miss Irene Vanbrugh in Noel Coward’s new play "Operetta,” and was also to play a small part in it, but has reluctantly been forced to give it up. She has no further definite plans for returning to the stage, for, though she is recovered from her illness, she will need to rest for some time. She plans to remain in England. As an actress Mrs Penrose-Fitz-Gerald achieved fame when, in 1928, she took over Miss Tallulah Bankhead’s part in “The Garden of Eden,” which she had been understudying. She had several offers of other parts immediately, but her contract would not release her until the end of the run of “The Garden of Eden.” Later she appeared in "Sauce for the Gander.” “He's Mine,” in whicch she also understudied Miss Bankhead, and "A Damsel in Distress,” understudied Miss Olga Lindo in "The Best People,” and played in “The Dover Road.” In May, 1933, she became engaged to Mr Edward Penrose-FitzGerald, whom she married in Lima. Peru, the following year, after a visit to New Zealand with her parents. A daughter, Sarah, was born in 1935. her godparents including Mr Anthony Eden