"DOMINIE'S" LOG

New Zealand Listener, Volume 17, Issue 431, 26 September 1947, Page 28

"DOMINIE'S" LOG

Dunedin Drama Group Tours Central Otago

HIS is a report of a tour of Central Otago undertaken by a group of amateur actors. The play was Sutton Vane’s Outward Bound, the company ll members of the Dunedin Training College Drama Club, travelling . under the name of "Dominie Drama Group." The tour occupied 10 days, the play being presented six ,times-at Milton, Roxburgh, Alexandra, Cromwell, Tarras, and Hawea Flat. There were 15 people in the party, the six men and three women of the cast, the make-up-artist-wardrobe-mistress, the business manager, the producer and his wife, and the -owner-driver of the truck with his wife, all except the last three being Training

College students. Our transport consisted of a -one-ton truck, a baby car and an old touring oar. Accommodation: varied from frosty motor camps to private billets and the luxury of a -guest-house at Hawea ‘Flat, where we _ ended | our tour with three days | of ease and plenty. The previous night, at Tar-. Tras, most of the party had camped in the hall, cooking food over an. open fire outside. . _ Ours was not the first. tour of its kind in recent months, a Dunedin W.E.A. group calling themselves the "Unity

Players" having blazed the trail last Christmas with Night Must Fall. We received much useful information and advice from them before embarking on our own tour, and since returning have been interested to compare notes. Our route was not quite the same as theirs. We played Roxburgh and Alexandra instead of several smaller places included in their itinerary. Of the places in which both groups had played, both found that Milton was "no good." For some un‘known reason, no more than about 60 people came to our performance there, the Unity Players having had only a slightly larger audience at Christmas. Those who did come seemed interested and appreciative, but I fear that for an opening night, especially one of such an experimental nature, quantity even more than quality is required of an audience, so that both groups are agreed that Milton will not be the startingplace for future tours. They Thought it Funny One of the most interesting aspects of our whole trip was the way in which audiences varied from. place to place. We had a full house at Cromwell, and one almost as good at Alexandra, but at both these places a large proportion of the audience treated the entire play as high comedy, a reaction which at first the cast found somewhat disconcerting, although it left them in no doubts about the audience’s enjoyment of the play. The Tarras hall was the smallest in which we played, the stage being so small that part ‘of the set had to be omitted and new stage moves worked

out at the last minute. These could not all be rehearsed beforehand because of an unexpected power failure lasting for about one hour and ending only half-an-hour before the play was due to begin. The audience, too, had been delayed by the blackout, and the performance that night started nearer 8.30 than 8 o'clock. This audience, which comprised all ages from babies to the very old, like its predecessors preferred to treat the play as a comedy. In spite of this most general reaction, however, it seems that the uncanny atmosphere of the play "got across" to the audiences, as this’ impression was mentioned in Press ree ports which appeared in the Cromwell and Alexandra newspapers.

Our last audience, at Hawea Flat, was perhaps the most appreciative of all. This widely-scattered community provided a large and much-to-be-ad-mired audience who turned out on a very frosty night, armed with rugs and hot water bottles, to sit for two-and-a-quarter hours on backless forms in an unheated hall. At the beginning of that night’s performance there were a few whistles and jocular remarks flung at the stage from the back rows, but these soon died away, a development which we took to be a compliment to actors, audience and author alike. Final Performance The play itself, from the point of view of the cast, wore well. They continued to enjoy performing it throughout the tour, even after weeks of rehearsing and two preliminary performances given at Training College before the end of the term. From the point of view of the three members of*the company who worked in the front of the house (ticket-selling, programme-selling and ushering) it remained interestirg, somewhat to their surprise, up to the last night. On that occasion, owing to the coldness of the hall combined with fear (this time unjustified) of the embarrassed: titterings which usually accompanied the last scene, they suddenly felt unable to sit through another performance. Up till then the play itself, the form of the actors during each different presentation? and the varying reactions of the audiences managed to hold the attention even of those who saw and listened to it night after night (continued on next page)

~--this in spite of the fact that the feeling of eeriness and suspense was lost after the first hearing of the play. Halls and Roads A tour of this kind is no profit-mak-fing venture, a fact for which luckily we were prepared from the moment the producer first thought of it. We had done some fairly expensive advertising, including press and screen announcements and a preliminary trip over the 4, proposed route by the producer and ~ business manager, who examined stages and made contacts with local drama groups and hall committees. For the halls we had to pay rents varying from £1/10/- to £3/10/-, and copyright fees for the six performances amounted to £26. This is one obvious reason why so few companies, either professional or amateur, visit any but the larger towns. Another is the state of most roads apart from the main highways. Even the main Central Otago Highway is in many, places badly corrugated and appallingly dusty. Those who travelled in the back ‘of the truck emerged most days yellow from head to foot, hoarse-throated and sore-eyed. The secondary roads were even worse, and seemed to us to be the one, but great, disadvantage of life in the beautiful districts of Hawea or Tartas. Our time was strenuously filled during those 10 days. Once we played two consecutive nights in different towns, another time three nights in succession, and always between performances we had to clear one hall, pack stage pro.perties and personal belongings, travel, often cook our own meals, unpack, set up a new stage, re-press curtains and costumes, and play again. And all over again the next day. Thus the tour gave us neither personal profit nor a "thorough ’oliday"; but we did gain new experiences, new scenes, new acquaintances, excitement and suspense and adventure of a kind, and above all a sense of achievement, of doing something that was worth doing as well as being pleasant and interesting todo. ,

| Written for "The Listener" by | |

B.

P.