STAGELAND

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 394, 30 June 1928, Page 22

STAGELAND

(By

COTHURNUS

FIXTURES HIS MAJESTY’S THEATRE In Season. —“The Silent House” I (Maurice Moscovitch). July 25. —“A Cuckoo in the Nest,” j “Rookery Nook." and "Thark.” September.—Dion Boucicault and j Irene Vanbrugh. COMING J.C.W. Celebrity Vaudeville. "The Girl Friend.” “Princess Charming.” “Castles In the Air.” Grand Opera Company. ST. JAMES THEATRE July 5. —“Archie.” July 14, "Sunny,” I and July 23, “Mercenary Mary” (Elsie | Prince). August 14. —Grand Opera Co. TOWN HALL To-night and Monday. Alfred O'Shea, Irish tenor. CONCERT CHAMBER July 5,6, 7 and 9: “Outward Bound.” | Little Theatre Society.

I Harry Green, here with “Give and | i Take,” is playing “Is Zat So?” through j ( ! South Africa. j Eileen Sparks and Brandon Peters j | are supporting Irene Homer and Sam j ! Wren in “The Patsy,” a sentimental ; | American play recently produced by | I “The Firm” in Sydney. Ruth Draper, an American actress, j who has settled in London and who j I commands a large following, is to be j presented at Court this summer. This is considered a wonderful distinction for a working actress. The full cast of “Outward Bound” I to be produced at the concert cham- j ber on July 5 by the Auckland Little j Theatre Society will be as follows: — | Scubby Arnold Goodwin ' Ann Xante St. Clair-Whyte. • Henry Montague Steele \ ' Tom Prior Roberts Tole - Mrs. Cliveden Banks .... Daphne Knight . Rev. William Duke John Stewart ’ Mrs. Midget Lynda Murphy Llngley J. D. Swan ; Rev. Frank Thomson .. .. F. L. Armitage ! Several new players are making J their first appearance with the society

Ii u “ Outward Bound.” which promises to be an ex- | cellent production, i Miss St. Clair- ; Whyte, Mr, Stewi art and Mr. Armi- ! tage are three of j the newcomers i and their work at J rehearsals shows promise.

* s * Fred Carpenter, the Australian dancer, is doing well in New York. He is “doubling up" with a young American dancer, and the Press is enthusiastic over their work. Carpenter has been booked up for a tour of the Continent after his New York engagement. * * * Following on the successful one-act play “Country Courtin’ ” last year, the St. Andrew’s Society has embarked on a more ambitious project and intends staging Graham Moffatt’s delightful three-act play ‘‘Bunty Pulls the Strings” in the Concert Chamber for four nights from July 25. The producer. Mr. Kenneth Brampton, has got together a strong cast of local amateurs and rehearsals are well forward. Scottish life and character are entertainingly depicted, and older theatre-goers will have very pleasant recollections of the season played here by the author about the beginning of 1915.

“Seats in Hell ”

Gladys Moncrieff Auctions Seats in Sydney GALA NIGHT FOR FLYERS Cheap seats in Hell? No, the auctioneer made herself more clear. She was asking £2 2s for two seats in L row. She got £7 10s. Gladys Moncrieff was the auctioneer, and she was offering seats for a performance of “Rio Rita” to the highest bidder, the proceeds of which went to Kingsford Smith and his companions. The performance took place in Sydney recently and a large sum was realised for the flyers. Miss Monerieff’s appealing manner caught the hearts of her hearers, and they responded wonderfully. The comedians of the company helped to brighten the proceedings, and prices for seats in the stalls ranged from £ 1 Is each to £lO 10s. A box for six was purchased for £4O. The acting-Premier, Mr. Buttenshaw, secured two seats at £1 Is each. Miss Moncrieff knocked the first two seats down to herself for £lO 10s, and other members of the company hid out of their turn and had to pay the penalty. Appealing to bachelors. Miss Monerieff offered one in row K. “Is it a good show?” inquired Charles Sylber. Assured that it was, the actor offered £2 2s. “Going! Going!” said the auctioneer, with the hammer raised. Sir Benjamin Fuller read a telegram from the producer saying that he thought the idea was great, and magnanimous. He asked for two seats. “Five pounds,” said Sir Benjamin (acting as agent) when the next two were offered. “I’ll bid £10,” said the auctioneer. “£11” said Sir Benjamin. “£15,” from the auctioneer. “He wants two.” said Sir Benjamin; “so £16.” “£20,” flashed back Miss Moncrieff. “£21,” replied the bidder. “Done,” said the laughing actress as she hanged the hammer on the table.

“I have just signed the biggest con- i tract of my career,” said Dorothy Brunton, in London recently. Miss Brunton is to play in Harry Welchman's musical comedy, “The WTiite Camelia,” in September. She disappeared from London for several months, but she explained that she went to Vienna in order to “polish and manicure her voice.” Thereafter she went to Paris and America. Friends have anxiously been inquiring Miss Brunton’s whereabouts, “but now you can tell them of my good fortune, and that I am feeling fine,” said the actress. * * * Preparations are being made by J. C. Williamson, Ltd., for the appearance in Melbourne of Jack Hylton and his band. This famous organisation is already well known in Australia through the medium of the gramophone records. He has recently returned to London from the Continent, where he played a phenomenal season, including Paris and Berlin.

Melbourne had a taste of Grand Guignol drama at the Caori, St. Kilda, recently. Among the thrillers presented was “The Second Ash Tray/ I written by Gaston Mervale, who is j directing the enterprise with Joseph Cunningham. Another lurid item was entitled “The Mask,” and came smoking from the pen of C. M. Hallard, who was leading man with the VanbrughBoucicault combination in Australia and New Zealand two or three years ago. Each piece ran from 15 to 20 minutes. Zillali Bateman appeared with Gaston Mervale and Joseph Cunningham in the pieces, and in the intervals there were vocal items by Arthur Mayes. * ■* * Band attractions have already proved ppoular in New Zealand vaudeville. Henry Santrey, Tom Brown, Bert Ralston, and other conductors all have paid a visit to the vDominion. Probably, with this popularity in mind, the Regent management will introduce another musical show in Tom Katz and his saxophone band very shortly. Attired as coloured bell-boys, the band play popular modern and “elderly” numbers in the harmony of which only the saxophone is capable. Tom Katz, the leader, is an accomplished musician who has appeared in some of the world’s best syncopated bands. Much of his attention lias been directed to comedy.

SHORT RUNS

Deplo: able State of London Theatre A CRITICS VIEW Here we are well into tile London season with most of the theatres doing badly—one recently produced a piece played to only £SO on a recent evening—and with not more than half a dozen plays running that could be warmly recommended to visitors and with hardly one real star in a good part, writes a London theatrical critic last month. It is deplorable. Plays keep on coming and going after a few performances. A dozen actors and actresses

whom you might reasonably expect to find playing in London during the season—for example, Gladys Cooper, Sybil Thorndike, Madge Titheradge, Edith Evans, Alice Delysia, Seymour Hicks, Matheson Lang, George Robey, Leslie Henson. Godfrey

Tearle and Henry Ainley—are away. There are not six personal performances on the West End stage at the moment that people are talking about. It is a poor sort of show all round. This lack of good performances is decidedly below the average state of affairs, although, of course, outstand- : ing performances are sel/om in great - profusion. And. if you come to think of it, really exceptional acting occurs 1 only at intervals. I I was talking on this subject the : other evening to Charles B. Cochran • and Noel Coward, and between us we could think of only a few examples in ■ recent years. One of them was Pauline Lord in “Anna Christie.” Another 1 was Madge Titheradge’s performance in “A Doll’s House.” So much de- ‘ pends upon the part and the casting of it. > One of the great troubles with the London theatre is that so many people ‘ who really know nothing about it are 3 in control. About half the West End theatres belong to men who only understand the bricks and mortar side 3 of them, and whose one great desire is to squeeze out every possible—or, rather, impossible—pound of rent. The result is that in certain theatres pieces 'which are not immediate box- . office successes cannot hope to live; ’ rents of £6OO to £BOO a week are millstones round their necks. But soccer or later plays are not going to be the s only things choked by this grab policy. e The money that must be taken nowadays to keep a play going is responsible for the growing shortness of runs. „ Six months has now become a vei’y j good run for any play; most of them j never achieve six months in the West 6 End.

Annie Hughes, Mayne Lynton’s first wife, played a small part in the royal ; matinee performance of “The Scarlet j Pimpernel” in London last -month.

All Should Benefit

Salaries of Stagefolk NEW AWARD WANTED Ten pounds a week for actors and : actresses, £8 a week for chorus and | ballet, and £ 5 a week for super- j numeraries. i Such was the flat claim on behalf j of the Actors’ Federation of Austra- j lasia, placed by Mr. C. Dunn before j Chief Judge Dethridge in the Common- | wealth Arbitration Court, Sydney, re- | cently, when making application for a j new award. Other claims included a 36-hour j week, as against the present 48, six j performances a week, instead of eight, | and treble rates for overtime. The j application also asked that the award should cover all performers, irrespec- | live of salary, which is at present lim- ; ited to artists receiving a maximum i of £8 a week. Supporting his contention, Mr. Dunn said that one of the most unpleasant ; features of an actor’s employment was its intermittency. The average time worked by a member of the federation during the year was 26 weeks. Following an interruption by Mr. Kirby, representing the Entrepreneurs’ Association, Mr. Dunn said that, at a court in Melbourne, Mr. Kirby- remarked that if no restriction was placed on the salaries of performers who were to benefit by the award. Sir Harry Lauder, with his £BOO a week, : would benefit by the overtime and - sickness and travelling provisions of 1 the Act. , Judge Dethridge: I am sure Sir - Harry Lauder would not object. ’ 1 The case is proceeding.