WHAT ARTISTS THINK
Town Hall Arrangements
‘‘The approach to the platform of the Town Hall is typical of Wellington—it is hilly,” remarked a visiting concert artist several years ago. Dor more than 25 years the arrangement o£ the platform, its approaches and the inadequacy of the dressing-room have been criticized. One of the first to draw attention to the disadvantages of the platform approach for singers was Miss Bosina Buckman. iShe said that the two inclines to negotiate "took the puff out of one.” • Toti Del Monte, the gifted lyric soprano, had expressive language for that approach. More recently Madame Lotte Lehmann said that the slanting incline up to the platform and the public gaze was a handicap. These reminders of the disadvantages of the stage approach and the inadequacy of the makeshift dressing-room (there is only one) provided for visiting artists, are timely, now that it has been announced that the Town Hall is to remain closed for three months for strengthening after the recent earthquakes. A redesigning of the back-stage' is needed to provide at least two large dressingrooms on a level with the platform, without interfering greatly, with the choir accommodation. Originally such rooms were provided one on each sidd of the organ mechanism on the Mercer Street frontage. One was for years, reserved for the city organist, leaving one room for artists. When the city organist’s room was taken over by the city solicitor, the organist moved to the other, room, leaving no accommodation for visitors. A makeshift dressihg-room had to be contrived near the stage entrance of the western side of the building. Chorus and orchestra had to dispose of themselves as best they could in’ the blower room of the organ. Originally there were also cloak-rooms for people attending functions in the Town Hall and Concert Chamber. They were only reserved as such for a few years after the Town Hall was erected, as the room was wanted for the everincreasing council staff.
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https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/DOM19420826.2.20
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Dominion, Volume 35, Issue 281, 26 August 1942, Page 3
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329WHAT ARTISTS THINK Dominion, Volume 35, Issue 281, 26 August 1942, Page 3
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