Open Microphone

New Zealand Listener, Volume 36, Issue 921, 5 April 1957, Page 18

Open Microphone

NEWS OF BROADCASTERS ON AND OFF THE RECORD

NATASHA TVER, who is seen above, is the young actress listeners will temember as Gwenny in The Late Christopher Bean, and she will be heard again in the title role of Tania from 1XN on Wednesday, April 10, and later from other stations. The part of the half-British, half-Hungarian girl, reared in France but going to NATASHA England, should come naturally to Natasha, for her parents are Russians, and for most of her life the family lived in Germany. In Munich in 1948 she began to take the juvenile roles in a professional Russian theatre, which. provided for the thousands of Russians there. This theatrical life lasted until the family came to New Zealand in 1951. At first, although she was working hard for her University Entrance and winning college cups for public speaking, she felt very depressed here. "I thought I would never know enough English to go on the stage. For as long as I can remember I have wanted to be an actress. There was nothing else. Thinking my English would never be good enough, I gave up drama completely when I started to do my degree. I wouldn’t see, hear or read a play. Then someone persuaded me to see a particular play, and I had to decide that the theatre was worth fighting for." Since then Natasha has studied, with Maria Dronke and gone to as many auditions as she could. From being a page boy in Much Ado About Nothing, she had graduated to leading parts in The Crucible and In Camera (Huit Clos), as well as playing such minor parts as an old woman in Amahl and the Night Visitors. Lately she has been working in the comedy part of Dooniashia in Chekhov’s The Cherry Orchard for the Victoria University College Drama Society. As well as acting in this play, Natasha worked with the producer, Margaret Walker, on a retranslation of it. "It began as a few alterations," she said; "and ended up a complete translation. It had been translated before to be read, not acted, and the brevity and tension of the Russian original was lacking. I’d give Margaret the literal translation, and then we’d work together to get the closest English

idiom." Natasha, speaking French, English, German and Russian, is intensely interested in the proper translation of plays. Natasha plans to go to England in July for further dramatic study and some university lectures. This combination of activities is no new one to her -last year she began recording Tania on the same day as her first University final examination. "I was very nervous about both," she remembers, "but the excitement of the play carried .me through the examination." * ‘THE Australian stage and radio actress Diana Perryman, who is being heard in two ZB serials-she is Jo Bright in Conquest of Space, and Nurse Helen King in Tempest-has been touring New Zealand lately in The Reluctant Debutante. This is her FIRST VISIT first visit to this country, though her sister jill-"the musical comedy side of the family"-will be remembered here for her parts in Can Can and Call Me Madam. It’s not surprising that the two sisters are on the stage, for their parents acted in J. C. Williamson productions for many years. Diana took up radio work after the war, working as a free lance with the Macquarie Network and in Grace Gibson productions. Her stage training was at the Independent Theatre, Sydney, where she recently played leading roles in The Love of Four Colonels and Winter Journey. But from 1951 to 1954 she took a rest from acting to visit the United Kingdom, where she worked as an air hostess. Since her return, however, she has continued her stage and radio career, Besides playing in Tempest and Conquest of Space, Diana Perryman has been heard here in Broadway Theatre, The Air Adventures of Biggles, and [ux Radio Theatre.