ARMY AND STAGE.

Digger (Invercargill RSA), Issue 15, 25 June 1920, Page 4

ARMY AND STAGE.

NEW ZEALAND AGTuR. REMARKABLE CAREER OF MR SHAYLE GARDNER. There are many returned soldiers who remember Mr Shayle Gardner, the young New Zealander who has made such rapid prcgress in the dramatic art in England, and who bids fair to hecome one of the most popular artists in the Mother Country. Some interestin^ details of Mr GardiL»r appear in the latest number of the "British Australasian" just to hand, from which we cull the following : — About eight years ago a young New Zealander startled his fellow students at the Academy of Dramatic Art, in Gower street, by caijying off the most of the honours of the year. He won the Lady Gilbeifc medal for tragedy, the ForbesRobertson medal for elocution, the fiencing prize, and a scholarship tenable for o ie year. This was Mr Shayle Gardner, whj impersonated Nadir Shah, of Persia, in the recent production of "The Sunshine of the World" at the Empire Theatre. His first professional experience was as understudy to Aubrey Smith on tour, the latter's repertoire including "Marjorie Marries," a comedy by Norman McKeown, an Australian writer. Then, from watking on in Tree's production of "Joseph and his Brether," he reached the altitude of appearing as the central figure in a special performance of "Hamlet," eefore an Educational Congress at the Imperial Institute. A season at the Little Theatre followed, and then he became a member of Mr Philip Carr's ccmpany at the Petite Theatre Angles, and afterwards at the Court Theatre, London, in a Shakespearen repertoire. He was in the first production in England of "Damaged Goods;" and in the original production of Barrie's one-act play, "Der Tag," at the Coloseum. Subsequently he played one of the leading parts in "The Land of Promise," on a provincial tour. Rejected three times in England, Mr Gardner enlisted witli the New Zealand Expeditionary Forces in the Dominion, rising from the ranks to be captain, serving altogether three and a half years. Ten months before his discharge General Russell appointed him Director of Entertainments, when he had the control of t 'u cinemas ar*l three or four companies, the most notable being "The Kiwis." On nis discharge he was cast for one of the principal parts in "The Eyes of Youth," ai St. James's Theatre. The actor, in the intervals of stage work, Eas acted for tbe movies, one of his characters being Ghristopher Codrington, in a screen version of Philip Gibbs' novel of the Press World, "The Street of Adventure." Mr Gardner, who was born in Auckland, went to the Auckland Grammar School, is a grandson of Francis Shayle Gardner, poet and educationalist, and a nephew of the late Dr Boyd Carpenter, who fo/ twenty-seven years was Bishop of Ripon. Mr Gardner has travelled all over the world, and at twenty-eight has seen more of life than many men of sixty.