Young Actors To Tour Secondary Schools

Press, Volume C, Issue 29516, 18 May 1961, Page 17

Young Actors To Tour Secondary Schools

(Neu> Zealand Press Association)

WELLINGTON, May 17.

Next Wednesday, a small group of young New Zealand actors will start on a tour of secondary schools which will take them on the road for almost six months. The director of the New Zealand Theatre Company (Mr R. Hope) said today that the company would be presenting worth-while programmes to pupils. The leader of the group is John Batstone, of Christchurch, who is 25. The other members are Mr Batstone’s wife, Christine, who has had professional experience in Britain, Kenneth Poitevin. aged 21, of Auckland, and Vai Baker, aged 22. of Wellington. Starting their tour with Wellington schools, the quartet will travel as a self-con-

tained unit, carrying with it sets, costumes, and properties, as well as a portable lighting unit. Under the general title of “Let’s Make a Play.” the quartet will present excerpts from “Under Milk Wood,” bv Dylan Thomas Shakespeare’s ‘Midsummer Night’s Dream." George Bernard Shaw's “St. Joan," the Pellinore scene from T. H. White’s "The Sword and the Stone." and the first act of “Our Town," by Thornton Wilder.