LITTLE CARRIE MOORE

New Zealand Listener, Volume 4, Issue 91, 21 March 1941, Page 41

LITTLE CARRIE MOORE

HE last curtain is taken. The band plays "God Save the King." While the audience file slowly from their seats, there is a rush behind the stage for dressing-rooms. Stage hands are busy dismantling the set. Some of the principals linger, discussing the evening’s performance, but the ladies gf the chorus are already busy with cold cream and towel removing their make-up. There is chatter and laughter in the brightly-lit dressing-room, as the girls hurry out of their costumes and into their street dress. Behind them the dresser moves about, hanging up frocks and straightening things for the night. In an incredibly short time the room is emptied. As the girls hurry from the stage door, a notice on the board informs them that there is to be a rehearsal at 10 a.m. sharp. They look at the word "sharp" and sigh. It is another way of saying "Everyone on time, please!" Next morning, business like in their practice suits, they are back in the theatre. Rehearsal-dancing and singing till 12.30. If everything goes well, they will be free till the evening’s performance, but if the stage manager thinks otherwise, there is a looming threat of another afternoon rehearsal. Strenuous but Fascinating A hard life? The slender, dark-eyed girl, who at 18 has been made a ballet mistress, shook her dark, curly head. "Not really. We work hard, of course, but we love it. I remember my first pantomime, which, incidentally, was the first show I ever appeared in. It fascinated me so much that I couldn’t bear to leave the theatre-even for meals. We played then two shows a day. I often used to bring in my tea and eat it in the dressing room. Such a dingy little dressing room it was, too, white-washed walls, and roughly boarded floor-but to me it was beautiful. On the last night, I remember, I wept when I saw the dresses being packed away in the theatrical baskets for the last time. They had become a part of us during the eight weeks we had played, and it was like being robbed of something personal and intimate. Now, of course, I have become much more prac-tical-but the theatre never really loses its thrill." "Particularly," I added, "for people who are born to it-like yourself. Tell

me, do you find it a help or a handicap to belong to a famous theatrical family?" Something to Live Up To Little Carrie Moore put her head on one side and considered the question seriously. "It is something that one has to live up to all the time. When I get tired or down hearted, I think ‘this will never do.’ I’ve got to work hard to be worthy of my Aunts — Carrie Moore and Eva Moore — both world-famed actresses of their day. I’m staying here with my Aunt Eva while the show is playing in Wellington. She is a darling-and such a help to me in my work." This little Carrie Moore already shows evidence of inheriting the family’s- histidnic ability. Before coming to New Zealand on this present tour, she memorised, within five months, the entire songs, dialogue, acting and dancing of nine Gilbert and Sullivan operas. She was given further responsibility when they appointed her ballet mistress. "T think I do a bit of everything," she laughed. "I dance-go on in the chorus. Do a bit of stage-managing-ringing the curtain up and down, and so on. Coach some of the artists in morning rehearsals, and do two or three understudies myself in between times." *Do you like travelling about?" "Not really-it soon loses its novelty. We welcome a chance to settle down in one place for a decent period." "Your Audiences are Wonderful " Little Carrie Moore, who, almost from her baby days began to think and talk theatre, first visited New Zealand when she was eight years old: The show she appeared in was a pantomime, the proceeds of which were donated towards the relief of the Napier earthquake victims. "I’m afraid," she said, "the experience is rather dim in my mind. The only memory that stands out clearly to me is Mount Egmont. On this present tour of the Gilbert and Sullivan Company I hope to see as much of New Zealand as possible. I’m loving the whole trip." "What do you think of New Zealand audiences?" "I think they are wonderful. Before I came over here, they told me I would find New Zealand audiences very restrained, but we have found them the opposite here in Wellington. They have been most enthusiastic and, on the last night-quite overwhelming." The Good Old Days We talked about the past days of theatrical glory that the movies delight so much in portraying — when chorus girls were just chorus girls. not "ladies of the chorus," as they are styled to-day, when the stage door gallants were. almost as much a part of the theatre as the artists themselves, when champagne

flowed, and flowers and jewels were lifted in homage across the footlights; To-day the stage has become a more serious and thoughtful business. The glitter and the glamour is still there, but its dazzle is subdued. A new type of girl joins the ranks of the chorus across the footlights. She must have looks and deportment. She must sing well and dance well, In fact, she must be good if she is to hold her place, This same girl, if she had lived in those old days of theatrical glory would have remained quietly at home. She might have been permitted to visit the theatre-but to join the ranks of the chorus-never! Except, perhaps, if you were another little Carrie Moore, burdened with the weight of a great theatrical tradition. Then probably you would go on-under any conditions-just because there was something bigger than yourself urging you forward. It is the way great stars are made. Little Carrie ieore is toaey to have been born to this generation, for it is the day of the individual-and rewards go to the individual effort. Five. or 10. years hence-who, can say? -this young Carrie may see her name twinkling in electric lights — as that other CARRIE MOORE twinkled years ago in leading theatres throughout the world.

That is the road on which little Carrie’s dancing feet are set. She knows it is not an easy path to follow. It means work and hard application, disappointment-and often heartbreak. But she knows, too, that when the top is reached, all those early strivings were not only necessary, but are jubtified. Good luck to her!