‘N.Z. ACTORS NEED PUBLICITY’

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31109, 12 July 1966, Page 2

‘N.Z. ACTORS NEED PUBLICITY’

New Zealand professional theatre would benefit from the services of a “with it” press agent to give its leading lights the publicity overseas players receive, according to a Wellington actress, Pat Evison.

An “image” could become embarrassing in a small country, but while theatre people retained a self-effacing “we’re-all-in-the-company-together” attitude, the public would be more attracted by lavishly billed overseas actors.

“We suffered from this in Auckland when we were playing with “Comedy of Errors.’ When the Tlello. Dolly* company arrived, Carole Cook was given great publicity and noone had heard of her until ehe came here,” Pat Evison said.

Many New Zealanders who had made a name for themselves overseas—she cited Nyree Dawn Porter—had done so with the help of a press agent Pat Evison Is in Christchurch to play the somewhat submerged leading lady in Samuel Beckett's “Happy

Days” for the On Stage company. She spends the fii.t half up to her waist in sand and only her face is seen during the second act Strange Play “It's a strange play,” she raid. “Very modem, a commentary on marriage and on life, and the difficulties of communication. It’s also very funny, with a wit of this age.”

During her career, which Included several years in England with the Old Vic company and training at the company’s theatre centre, Pat Evison has not encountered a more exacting part “After a tremendously successful month at Downstage in Wellington, I felt that I would be happy if I didn’t do another play. I had such great satisfaction from ■Happy Days,’” she said. Downstage is a professional intimate theatre company, which combines a restaurant and coffee-drinking facilities. Clients book for a meal and may then see the play. Pat Evison sees intimate theatre as a possible answer to the problem of getting professional theatre firmly established in New Zealand. The financial undertaking is not too heavy and a box office failure is not too disastrous. The Wellington company, which has plays running continually, pays its actors, but has much amateur help has its ups and downs. Most productions are “intellectual” plays or the theatre of the absurd.

“Happy Days” was one of the “ups.” Crowds queued for seats and Pat Evison received many letters of appreciation.

Young Audience The many young people, particularly university students and senior high school pupils, made a “marvellous” audience. She found she had to work hard to understand and be able to communicate the meaning of the play, but the young people were on the author’s “wavelength.” For young people, time spent at the theatre is never time wasted, she maintains. She was “appalled” at the lack of enthusiasm found among some school teachers and a headmaster when the "Comedy of Errors” was touring.

“Plays should be seen acted, not just read,” she said emphatically. “We had good school attendances in Christchurch, but other centres were apathetic. Here you have a trained person lecturing on play presentation at the Teachers’ College, and that’s a great step forward.” Parents, too, should take their children to the theatre more often. Pat Evison’s children, John, aged 14, Anne, nine, and Timothy, seven, see productions regularly, and are very perceptive. Pat Evison describes herself as dedicated to theatre and says she has a professional approach, but it is not her whole life. She does not regret the decision made in England 16 years ago to return to New Zealand and make raising a family her main task. “I could have become a truly professional actress then —there were plenty of openings,” she said. “Many I worked with are now big names in the theatre and I would like to renew contacts and do a few seasons over there. However, if I had my time over again I would make the same decision."