AMATEUR THEATRE

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Issue 146, 8 July 1937, Page 14

AMATEUR THEATRE

Art Flourishing in Victoria ADJUDICATOR'S OBSERVATION^ There was a noticeable absence of.exaggleration and pedantry, .besides a good standard of speech, at the recent Victoria art and drama festivals at which he adjudicated, said Mr W- Rus-sell-Wood, of Dunedin, who ,-arrived at Wellington in the Wanganella yesterday from Sydney after a tour of Victoria under the auspices of the Music Teachers' Association of that State. He considered the best work he had judged was at Bendigo and Melbourne. Mr Russell-Wood also lectured on speechtraining and New Zealand poetry and drama. Compariug the New Zealand ainateur theatre with the Australian, lle said he thought the movement in the Dominion was fairly well advanced. Producers were easier to find in the Australian eities, and there were better scenery, costuming and . lighting facilities, but iit individual and team .work he considered New' Zealand casts and pioductions were equal to any he had seen m Australia. An interesting and unusual feature of the festivals, was the exclusion of all but standard works, selections being taken from Byron, Shakespeare, Slielley, Thomas Rardy, Masetield and ltupert Brooke. Scripture readings and recitals were also heid, and Niu the latter he found an exceptionall'y high standard. "I have never listened to such inspired and impressive work in a junior section any where," he said. A good deal of most helpfui and artistic work was being done in Victoria and New South Wales by group recitations and verse-speaking choirs. In Melbourne he saw Miss Eileen O'Keefe's unusual presentation of 1\ S. Elliott's classic "Murder' in the Cathedral," in which the principals were actually subsidiary to tlie chorus of women. It was predicted that the National Theatre in Victoria would become the Mecca of music and drama. Outstanding among the many who had given the movement help and encouragement was Mrs May Hoban, who was steadily fostering the younger Australian writers. The association was a very powerful one. It had a membership of more than 650 in Melbourne alone, and in that centre also were 500 drama clubs. Branches of the association were flourishing evetrywhere, especially at Geelong, Ballarat and Bendigo.