POLLARD'S OPERA COMPANY.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 9710, 4 February 1910, Page 6

POLLARD'S OPERA COMPANY.

The following from the "Dunedin Star" will no doubt prove interesting reading—Theatregoers who sit in a comfortable circle or stalls seat, inlaying the reputation of a modern m isical comedy., have little idea as to the amount" of forethought, research, and labour attached to the preliminary rehearsing, constructing and welding together' of the diferent concomitants so as to make the perfect whole. For months sometimes an army of seamstresses, §cenic artists, and property men have bean worki"g, probably day and night, ! each in their ditierent departments, j preparing for the first night of a j spectacular musical comedy. A visit j to His Majesty's theatre during the week, where the Pollard staff are j getting ready the new musical comedy, "Miss Hook of Holland,'' would open the eyes of playgoers to the enormous expense and energy displayed in the preparations for this long-expected work. Musical comedy is undoubtedly the most expensive of present-day theatrical attractions. His Majesty's Theatre is exceptionally well adapted to the producion of spectacle, as there is so much room to work in. In looking round, one sees the scenic artist with his three assistants using brushes varying in size from a fitch to a two-xie, and gradually converting acres of virgin canvas into Dutch streets with their quaint "gabled houses and Dutch landscapes with the traditional windmills. Tfie mechanist and his assistants are making frames, which will eventually .become houses, ships, set pieces, etc., and will use over 6,000 feet of timber and 500 yards of special canvas. Tie property room resembles a Chinese, garden, with its pa'pier macbe melons, cabbages, carrots, etc.—in fact, such a variety of fruit and vegetables as would make a Chinese gardener green with envy. In one corner there are piles of cheeses, reminding one of a dairying district in a busy season. As the first act of "Miss Hook of Holland" takes place in the cheese and vegetable market of Arndyk, a town on the banks of the Zuyder Zee. it wilk be seen that to give local colour these properties are necessary. The second act takes place in a distillery in Amsterdam, from which comes the famous liquor 'Cream of tbeb'tcy," out of which Mr Hook has made a fortune. To make this scene natural the property man has to provide vats, hogsheads, demijohns, and bottles. There are so many of these in His Majesty's Theatre that if the Pollard management cared about going in for smuggling they could take enough liquor into a Prohibition town to cause a revolution. But it ia in the wardrobe department that the greatest bustle prevails. The two wardrobe ' mistresses of the company are seen cutting out dresses, While a dozen seamstresses, with as many sewing machines, are busy putting them together. A glance round the room shows dozens of rolls of silks and satins, and hundreds of yards of checks, browns and drab material,, so familiar in Dutch costumes. On the walls are hanging scores of white caps, with their quaint ear flaps, that Dutch women have made the national headress for centuries. Over in a corner are dozens of pairs of sabots, the peculiar canoe-ahaped footwear that tor hundreds of years have made the cobblestones of the streets of Holland ring like valleys of musketry., The building hun.s with the noise of the workers, and is a veritable hive of industry. When Mr Moss secured the- rights of "Miss Hook of Holland" he coulJ x have purchased the entire production, but as everything had been in use for a year he didn't think it would be "good enough for New Zealand." Secondly, being a native, and as the company spend most of their time in the Dominion, he resolved ou . making evsrything in Dunedin. He brought over sketches of the scenes, dresses and properties, and the production is now well under way. Local business people will reap the benefit, as considerably over £6OO will be divided among them. J The management deserve the thanks j of playgoer?, not only for securing | the rights of this much-boomed piece,- but.for patriotic spirit in keeping the oitl.y in the Do-J minion. It will be ....j.ut the middle; of April before "Miss Hook" and j her compatriots will make their bows to a local audience, aod when playgoers sit and.enjoy the, charm-J ing music, the merry quips and i cranks, t.nd gaze on the wealth of. spectacle, they can also lay the flat-: tering unction to " their souls that ' everything in sight bears a mark that ought to be seen more often—' "Made in tne Dominion." , i