STAGE JOTTINGS.

Auckland Star, Volume LIX, Issue 225, 22 September 1928, Page 2 (Supplement)

STAGE JOTTINGS.

The Auckland Amateur Operatic Society is occupying His Majesty's Theatre with its annual production. This year it is the ever-favourite musical comedy, "The Belle of New York." The season will extend until Saturday evening next. -

Miss Dorothy Brunton has signed a contract to be leading lady to Mr. Harry Welchman in a play entitled The White Camellia." The figure which she is to get is .a large one. She has been in Vienna for some months, studying singing, and her voice has greatly improved.

The popular London actress, Miss Margaret Bannerman, is to make a brief tour of the Dominion under the J. C. Williamson banner. During the Auckland season, which commences at His Majesty's Theatre on Wednesday, October' 3, the company will be seen in "Our Betters," "Sexes and Sevens," "Other Men's Wives," and "Diplomacy." Miss Bannerman is a Canadian and is deserving of a successful New Zealand tour.

The Fuller-Gonsalez Italian Grand Opera Company will on Monday evening enter upon the third week of its triumphant Auckland season. Two new operas will be presented, "Carmen" (Bizet), and "Mignon" (Thomas). There will be two evening performances of "Carmen." There will also be repeat performances of "II Trovatore," "Rigoletto," "Un Ballo in Maschera" (Verdi), "Barber of Seville" (Rossini), and "Norma" (Bellini). »

An artist who is making his first appearance in Australia with the WilliamsonMelba Grand Opera Company is Signor Fernando Autori, who is noted for his interpretative gifts and acting ability, as well as for his voice. Last season he sang in "Turandot" and other operas at Covent Garden, London, with great success. Signor Autori is a very clever caricaturist, and his pen and ink drawings of his fellow artists are''highly prized souvenirs. He also has gifts aa a linguist and speaks, English fluently.

•The three-act play "Come With Me," by Miss Margaret Kennedy and Mr. Basil Dean, has met with success In London. Mr. Dean acts as producer The piece concerns the very intimate relations of the members of two families —Ijhe Zaidners and the Luckins- Others, in the cast are classed as "The Onlookers." Miss Edna Best, who was sucL a success in "The Constant Nymph" last year, scores gracefully again as Cecil Zaidner. Mr. Lan Hunter and Mr. Harcourt Marshall are also in the east.

According to present reports Auckland will not have "Rio Rita" for its Christmas attraction at St. James' Theatre after all. The piece was so great a success in Sydney that it has only recently been taken to Melbourne where it is expected to run about six months. This means that Auckland is not likely to see it before March next. At the conclusion of the grand opera season at St. James' Theatre the "League of Notions" Revue Company will return to Auckland. The Stiffy and Mo Revue Company, accompanied by a jazz band known as the "Charleston Six Symphonists," may also be expected in Auckland before long. Musical comedies to be sent over from Australia will most likelv include "Funny Face," "Merry Malone," Good News" and "Baby Cyclone." Miss Elsie Prince and her company will probably be seen in at least some of these.

Miss Ruth Drape*, the American entertainer, has once again performed the miracle of crowding a London theatre all by herself. She appeals in a series of sketches, and, with the exception of only a shawl or a table and "two chairs, has no assistance of any kind and no orchestra. While she was at the Garrick last year -Miss Draped took £3000 a week, all the money going into her own pocket except £450, the rent of the theatre, and less than £10 spent on bills and the hiring of table and chairs. She refuses to be interviewed and lives in a small hotel known only to her manager, and she never goes out. She may be' regarded as the world's mystery woman of the theatre. At he Garrick it was the housekeeper who dressed her, and the only other person employed was an electrician, who ran up the curtain and did everything. Yet on one occasion eighty persons stood at the back of the dress, circle, paying 8/6 to hear her.

The story the author tells in "The Round Table," a tragic comedy by Lennox Robinson, to be presented in the concert chamber of the Town Hall, from September 26 to September 29, by the Auckland Little Theatre Society, deals largely with the dual personality of Daisy Drennan. A difficult and very important part is that of the "woman" who comes in otft of the night and talks to Daisy. This woman is in reality the dual soul of the girl. This part will be entrusted to Mrs. Humphrey-Clark, a very staunch supporter of the society who has played on several occasions With marked success. Mrs. Clark's last appearance was in Shaw's "You Never Can Tell," but on this occasion she is called upon* to play a very different kind of character. Her work at rehearsals is very sincere and very promising. It is perhaps the most serious effort that this lady has tackled and it calls for very sure treatment, but no doubt is enter* tahiedV by the producer that Mrs. Clark will, rite to the occasion by giving an exceUeait ~