THIS GROUP THEATRE PROJECT—What Does It Mean?

New Zealand Listener, Volume 10, Issue 249, 31 March 1944, Page 4

THIS GROUP THEATRE PROJECT—What Does It Mean?

HERE has been a good deal of talk during the last month or so about a New Zealand Group Theatre project. We have made it our business, as all good reporters should, to find out what this talk has been about. We discovered on investigation that it wasn’t as we were afraid it might have been, all rumour and hot air. We found that a small group of responsible and knowledgeable people have got together to see to its coriclusion what may well be a very big thing indeed. These people are Ngaio Marsh, well known the world over as one of the first five women writers of detective fiction, and as well, in this, her own country, as a first-class producer of plfys; George Swan, secretary for many years of the Wellington Repertory Society, and a producer and actor of very considerable distinction; Arnold Goodwin, of Auckland, whose varied work in the drama is known throughout the country; and Sam Williams, who has gained a wide and varied theatrical experience in London. A scheme evolved by four New Zealanders with the glue and sawdust of the theatre running in their veins seemed worthy of further investigation, so we dialled 390 and called Miss Marsh on the long-distance wire. While we waited we jotted down some questions. The interview went like this:

MISS MARSH, I wonder if you could tell us what is the e New Zealand Group Theatre project? I hear you are interested in it. Is it another amateur organisation, or is it to be professional? Is it to do straight plays, musical shows, or what? A. T’ll answer the second part of your question first. Of course I’m interested. For years now I’ve nursed just such a project in my own mind, and when George Swan and Sam Williams talked to me about it, I was off to Wellington by the first available ferry. We talked solidly for two days, and anything I can tell you about it had its origin in the first discussion. That was when the Project was born. We call it the Project; it’s the New Zealand Group Theatre to you. Alone in the Commonwealth of Nations, New Zealand is a country without a national theatre movement, without professional drama of any sort at all, unless we count the visit every three years or so of a touring stock company. The Group, we hope, will be the means of filling the gap. It'll be a professional organisation with a company of players thoroughly and intensively trained for their job. It will present straight- plays-good straight plays -in the modern manner. Sets, lighting and technique, will, we hope, be progressive and venturesome. It is a new movement, and must start bravely. In the Beginning Q. Let’s begin at the beginning. Who began the Movement, and what were their objects? A. Well, I suppose it started at that meeting in Wellington. George Swan, Sam Williams, Arnold Goodwin and I whacked out a sort of basis for what we felt was really wanted. Primarily, our object was to bring theatre into the lives of a people, who for the most part have grown up without it. It was to be good theatre. We wanted to give to the average New Zealander that particular pleasure that is born with the sound of

tuning strings, that increases when the house lights go out and the curtain rises to disclose qa widening band of light, that is sustained throughout the action of a play, and that lives on when he goes out of the theatre into New

Zealand streets * and catches his tram. It’s quite a big job to do this, but we believe it can be done. : Q. Is New Zealand ready for such an undertaking? A. Surely. New Zealand has her artists, her musicians, her racehorses, and her sportsmen. Why shouldn’t she have her theatre? Think for the moment of the Repertory Societies. When the talkies came, people said there would be no more theatre in New Zealand. Professional companies faded out, theatres went dark, cinema houses sprang up like mushrooms. This lasted, it’s true, for some time, and then look what happened. All over the country repertory societies were born. They have prospered. Annually their membership increases, people are prepared to catch trams, wait in queues and, in some instances, sit in uncomfortable seats or risk being turned away, to watch and hear flesh-and-blood actors. I believe that a country gets what it wants, and. the standard of amateur acting in New Zealand is remarkably high. Certainly we are ready for such an undertaking. No Lack of Players or Money Q. Will the local talent be up to professional standard? A. It will be up to high professional standard. The players will go into a school of instruction and, under expert tuition, will be moulded into an integrated unit, technically equipped for their work. There are such instructors in the country, able and willing to do the job,

Q. Have you found ‘out whether any likely players would join the Group? A. Yes. A small advertisement in one or two papers brought in a most heartening response. From all over New Zealand, experienced amateur players have written asking for information, and in many cases are unconditionally ready to join up. Q. What financial start has been gained for the Project? A. Here again the response was startling. All the financial backing that is meeded has been secured. One Big Problem Q. How would you get on for access to new plays and theatres? A. That’s a very pertinent question, and it covers one of our big problems. The business of obtaining the acting rights of plays and access to the theatres is complicated and difficult. We believe that it can be overcome, and are still in negotiation to acquire the use of the theatres and the rights of the type of plays which we hope to produce. We want to begin with the best, and have in mind three well-contrasted pieces, one of which will ‘be a good modern comedy. "The Talkies Are Not Enough" Q. Is the Project to be subsidised by the Government? A. No. Q. Why not? A. We feel that if the theatre-move-ment is to be wholesome at the core, (Continued on next page)

(Continued from previous page) that is to say an enterprise that satisfies a genuine need of the people, it will be self-supporting. Q. Don’t you think the talkies fill the bill for most people? A. Emphatically not. Or rather, I believe that at the moment they only fill the bill because most people don’t know what they are missing. The talkies are gtand entertainment, and, of course, people will always go to them, but may -I, very briefly, try to suggest the diffference? A_ flesh-and-blood performance is literally for you. It is something that is recreated .anew with each performance for a fresh audience. When the actor comes out from the darkness backstage on the lighted set, he is like an orator facing a crowd. Like an orator he exposes himself, and his is the tremendous task of winning an emotional response from the unseen audience that sits in judgment upon him. No two audiences are alike, and no two performances are alike. A performance is something that takes place between the player and his audience. An actor’s technique must be flexible and supple, he must know how to use you as a fiddler uses his violin. He is for ever adjusting himself to your mood. He must learn how to control your laughter and your tears. He is extremely vulnerable, but when he succeeds he will give you a warmth of feeling and an intense stimulation that no canned photograph, gesticulating to an accur-ately-timed sound system, can ever approach. The average New Zealander who doesn’t go to Repertory doesn’t know this, but one visit to a good show will-convince him of it. It’s a cold fact that New Zealanders, under the age of 30, who have never left this country,

have also never seen an absolutely firstclass flesh-and-blood play. But there is no reason why they shouldn’t. Q. But is this the time? A. Yes, it is the very time. With the stresses and strains of four years of war bearing down upon us the filmy shadows of the cinema leave us vaguely dissatisfied. We want to be released from our tension and given new thoughts and inspiration. Plays for Children Q. What about children? Do you propose to do anything for them? A. I’m glad you mentioned that, because that is one of the things we have in mind. We hope to incorporate with the Project a group of student-actors

who, as they complete their training, will go on tour to smaller theatres or halls with plays for children. I don’t mean by this that the standard of acting for children’s shows need not be so high-but the plays, by their simpler character, present fewer difficulties to the young actor, and are therefore good material for his earlier appearance. Now, this seems to be growing into a very long toll-call, Amy more questions? Q. Not just now. A. Good-bye then. Good luck to the Project. Operator's voice: "Have you completed that call?" A. Yes, thank you. Q. Good-bye.