"——UP TO NATURE"

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 181, 26 April 1919, Page 9

"——UP TO NATURE"

A PRODUCER ON PRODUCTION

MR. GEORGE HIGHLAND'S VIEWS,

(By H.P.)

"Act IV, Scene 1: A Modern Costumier's Atelier. Stage filled with beautiful girls, artistically disposed. Each ono a fashion-plato in action." That aptly and briefly describes the opening of the fourth act of "Maytime.' It is maytime in girlville, which is ever so much more expensive, interesting, and just as coloursome as tho maytime in the garden of Act I. Every daughter of Eye that sees the elaborate sartorial display made in this play inwardly figures un what the cost must have' been to buy all those recherche frocks that so elegantly dock the pretty figures, of Mdlle. Brown's liiannaquins in her 50th Street (New York) establishment. Without giving any secrets away, Mr. Georgo Highland, tho Now York producer, who has come to Now Zealand to see "Maytime," etc., produced as well as circumstances and geography will permit, casts some interesting sidelights on what production means and what it costs under war-time conditions. ■ "Cost—well, I should just say that theatrical production under present conditions does cost money, and I say it knowing that the cost is preposterous in comparison with what it should or might be were the conditions of labour in Australia different. AVhat would you say were I to tell you," said Mr. Highland, "that to mako a 'suit' for any of those lioys in the chorus, costs anything from JJIS to .£2O, clothcs that I could buy in London for less than one-third' tho cost. And tho ladies! They're l simply dressed in 'bank-notes. Their dresses aro all mado in Sydney, from designs I have selected myself. They aro somebody's creations adapted by mo because they fit •ni.v play—they are in tho picture. "Do I think tho cost will ever come down? Oh, yes, it must come § down. When there are no munitions to make, tliero aro no munition-workers wanted, and when every factory and foundry gets into its steady industrial stride when there is no particular hurfy for anything, things will find their level, wages will decrease, and tho cost of everything will go down, perhaps not as low as in 1913, but a. good deal lower than 1919. "I gave you an illustration of the cost of dressing the men of the chorus. There is another—fresh from this morning. In 'Oh! Oh! Delphine!' there are six .beautiful models at Victor .Tolibeau's, each one holding up a rose. Those rose 3 had to- be obtained locally, bo tho property master went in quest of them in tho commercial garden down town. He returned with a sample of tho rose we required—a bit of dyed linen twistod cleverly into the sembla'nco of a rose, and announced that the price was 7s. 6d. each. After denting tho roof I informed him that tho London price was 9s, 6d. per gross—and that I had bought them at that price—during tho war. _ I think Focli ought to mako it a condition of peaco that linen roses should be obtainable at not more than a shilling <i yard.. "At the bottom tho trouble with Australia—and perhaps New Zealand, too—is that it is not a manufacturing country, hut i" a oountiy dependent upon its importations. .What was tho position soon aftor war began ? We were starved for many 'things essential to our everyday comfort/ America helped for a' time, and then she went to war, so we had lo depend more and moro on tho Japanese. I can remember walking 'the block' in Melbourne two years ngo, and computing that by tho time I had squared it I had passed 5,000,000 dollars' worth of American goods—all goods, too, that could bo mado in Australia—but for Labour. Labour is killing 'labour because it simply will not allow .it to exist. The man with money, who is prepared to spend money in industrial enterprise finds, on coming to Australia that he is beaten before ho commences—high wages, low rate of production (go slow), nnd restricted hours of labour kill everything, so you have few manufactories, and have to pay through tho nose for Amorican goods "and Japnneso junk, and then you talk of 'the high cost of living.'' "In America our labour is highly paid —it is' not a cheap country—but we do not say to a mau: 'You .must only work six or eight hours a day.' We allow the man or the woman io 'tear in' and work twelve hours a day if they so wish, and the work is offering. With a high rate of pay and long hours tho pushing man soon makes enough to become an employer himself—there is something to be gained "by added effort. That is not so in Australia.

"Why should I have to pay 9d. fcr this pair of laces in Sydney tho other day ? Japanese, Yes! Probably worth les3 than a farthing—purcha'seable in London for a halfpenny. Surely Australia could make, laces and make a good profit out of them by selling them at, say, 3d. !\ pair. We have to pay from 355. to .£2 10s. for boots for chorus men, in Australia that would only cost 31 dollars in the States. Getting back to thetheatre, Mr. Highland, who has had wide experience ts a producer in America, England, South Africa, and Australia, said that the cost of production was really staggering. Almost any musical comedy nowadays made from .£2500 to .£3OOO look silly b£ foro the curtain is raised. It might be a success—and it might not. Even to Iho scenery, the cost had jumped enormously. Canvas for scenery was pnrchaseablo before tho war for 10U1. per yard; now it was 4s— yet the prices of admission here had not been raised.

.Mr. Highland liecamo explicit as to tho functions of a producer. lie is the one on whom it devolves to get all possible out of a play—there you have it. He takes the 'script, reads it, re-raeds it again and again until he has absorbed the author's intentions. Then he proceeds to build every scene and mould every character, to get all the "fat" there is in every song, and, with the aid of 'the ballet mistress, to dress every number. Sometimes the producers hero have models, photos of scenes, and full instructions as to situations and movements, but on other occasions they have simply the bare 'script, and have to create —the producer's Teal work- Mr. Highland said lie had nothing but the 'script to go upon when he produced "Katinka" here last year, and lift built up "Oh! Oh! Delphine!" from the start in New Y r ork, then in London, and lately in Australia. He was also the producer of "Going Up," "Tho Pink Lady," "The Riviera Girl," "The Rainbow' Girl" (both in New York), and in Australia "Maytimo" and "Katinka." In America Mr. Highland has done a lot of T.ork for Klaw and Erlangcr, Charles Frohm.an, and David Belasco—really ono big corporation. Some of his successes were: "Trelawney of tho Wells," "Cousin Kate," "Witness for tho Defence," "The Speckled Band," "Damaged Goods," "Preserving Mr.' Panmure," "The Poor Little Rich Girl" (in which A'iolet Dana, the picture actress, made her first appearance on (lie stage as "Girl"), "Friendly Enemies," "Fair J'nd AVarmer." Mr. Highland, in addition to his present work, is now engaged on "The .Maid of tho Mountains" (for tho Royal Comic Opera Co.) and "A Tailor-made .Man" (for tho Max Figman Co.). From tho foregoing it is possible to grasp, how. ever vaguely, that the nnseen power behind a successful performance (apart from tho intrinsic .value of the play) is the producer.