High School Pupils Present Five Plays To Packed House

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 13, Issue 32, 13 December 1948, Page 5

High School Pupils Present Five Plays To Packed House

The Whakatane District High School’s new little theatre unit was seen by the public for the first time on Thursday evening, when five one-act plays were presented to a capacity audience. Drama work /is now regarded as an important part of the secondary English- syllabus, and a feature of the evening’s programme was the fact that three of the five plays presented were written by pupjls of forms lIIP/C and lIIGI. The production as a whole, attractively mounted and presented with commendable precision, revealed considerable talent among pupils, as actors, scene-designers and technicians. Although comedy was the keynote of the show, the plays showed considerable variety in treatment and approach, from the farcical caricature and vigorous buffoonery of the third form plays to the thril-ler-farce “The Grand Cham’s Dia 1 - mond,” and the smoother comedy of ‘Money Makes a Difference.” The plays were produced by Miss E. Jull and Messrs I. R. McLean and D. A. Hogg. The stage manager was Mr I. R. McLean. , Plays and their casts were as follows: The Great Mistake, written by pupils of IIIGI: Jill Lockyer, Ron Dredge, Judy Ferguson, Jean Baker, John Hawkins; “Father-in-Law” written by pupils of lIIP/C: Lester Alley, Dianne Yates, Peter Stubbs, Maureen Hurndell, John. Williams, Lesley Bryers, Anne Burgess; “Bags,” by pupils of lIIP/C: Michael Warbrick, Barbara Bell, Bob Bloor, Joy Shaw, Cheryl Clarke, Michael Phillips, Michael .Morris, BarYie Hannah, Margaret ,Pithie. “Grand Cham’s Diamond,” by Alan Monkhouse: Barbara Wilson, Jack Bowering, Pam Henderson, Ron Mahy, Matthew Carroll. “Money Makes a Difference,” by F. Morton Howard: Terence McCarthy, William Paterson, Lawrence Heikell, Joseph Tukaki, Lois Hawkins. The curtains, stage and scenery were ail constructed by the pupils. J. Ross* J. Kilgour, J. Hawkins, M. Smith, M. Love and A. Savage worked long hours behind scenes as stage hands. The backdrops were painted by J. Carter, who also arranged the incidental music.