DRAMATIC ART

Waikato Times, Volume 125, Issue 20906, 11 September 1939, Page 9

DRAMATIC ART

PROGRESS IN SYDNEY HAMILTON GIRL’S SUCCESS After acting as principal adjudicator; in the verse-speaking and drama sections at the annual Sydney Eisteddfod, Mr Walter Russell-Wood, of Dunedin, and formerly of Hamilton, has returned to New Zealand. The work of adjudicating at Sydney, said Mr Russell-Wood, was more arduous than that at other festivals. The day’s work began at 9 o'clock each morning and many classes did not terminate until 11 p.m. Entries in the children’s sections were exceptionally large and some delightful work was done. Many of the young performers, particularly the boys, had strident and nasai voices, said Mr Russell-Wood, the much-discussed Australian accent being evident in all male sections. He found more refinement and much better vocal tone in the women's classes. He considered the best of Wellington competitors to be as good as, and in some instances better than, the Sydney women. Having judged at all the principal festivals in Australia and New r Zealand, he said that the highest standard of dramatic art was undoubtedly to be found at the Ballarat Eisteddfod, where in all classes work of exceptional merit and beauty was found. Radio Voice Test Miss 'Betty Welch, of Hamilton, won the verse-speaking championship in the women’s sections at Sydney and also won the radio voice tests conducted and judged by officers of the Australian Broadcasting Commission. In this section the entries numbered 65. and it was regarded as one of the principal events of the Eisteddfod. In the one-act play sections 15 teams participated, and here Mr Rus-sell-Wood found a great variety of work. The New Theatre League again won the drama shield with an excellent performance of Muntz’s “Rehearsal,” an experimental drama. “ There are many groups producing in and around Sydney, but the most courageous with experimental work is perhaps the New Theatre League,” said Mr R.ussell-Woo<l. The general standard of acting disappointed him. He found casts wanting in production, make-up, and general stagecraft. Development of Verse-speaking Choral verse-speaking was greatly developed in Australia, and especially in Sydney, said Mr Russell-Wood, and at the Eisteddfod there were ten choirs, some containing as many as 60 voices, even though entries at the festival w T ere curtailed by a measles epidemic. The principal verse-speak-ing event was won by a choir of boys who, though they lacked the technical equipment of girls’ choirs, were much more spontaneous, , . Before leaving, Mr Russell-Wbod witnessed a performance of the scintillating comedy, “French Without Tears,” at the New Independent Theatre in North Sydney. “Miss Doris Fitton is still the guiding influence at the Independent Theatre,” he said, “and I found her opening production one of great artistic merit and much better than many full-length plays seen in New Zealand; however, with Sydney’s vast population there are so many more experienced players to draw on, and individual work in New Zealand is well up to the best Australian standards.”