Busy Jubilee Week Ahead For 3YA

Radio Record, Volume VIII, Issue 42, 26 April 1935, Page 20

Busy Jubilee Week Ahead For 3YA

Municipal Election Clashes With Special Broadcasts — Array of Talent For 3YA — Memories of an Easter Mix-up- ' Enthusiastic School of Drama.

UBILEE week is entailing much work as far as national stations are concerned. For.the first two nights 8YA are broadcasting from Wellington and for the whole week works by British composers and ‘authors are to be broadcast. However, the municipal] elections intervene during this week, and the authorities in Christchurch are lending a hand to enable 8YA to keep listeners in touch with progress results during the evening of May 8, and a very efficient service should result. On this particular evening the 3YA orchestra are scheduled for a programme of classical works by British composers and the election results will be interspersed with this programme. At 9.5 p.m. the Right Hon. Winston Churchill, M.P., will be heard in a recorded talk on "The Causes of War.’ This series of talks by eminent British statesmen is being eagerly followed by listeners and during this patriotic week this vital subject should be followed with interest. MANY artists of note will shortly be heard from 8YA, and amongst these will be Madame Betts-Vincent, piano, Mr. John Robertson, the New Zealand cornet player, Madame Winnie Fraser, soprano, and Paul Vinogradoff, pianist, During the relay from the Radiant Hall on Saturday, May 11, of the Male Voice Choir, Walter Kingsley will be heard from the studio, and this will mark his first appearance in Christchurch, RRANGEMENTS are well in hand for the charity concert to be given by the New Zealand Broadcasting Board on May 14 in St. James Theatre, Christchurch. 8YA will broadcast this exceptional performance, when the audience and listeners will be treated to some wonderful singing by the wellknown tenor Lionello Ceci] and Walter Kingsley, the popular baritone. These two artists will contribute solos and duets, and the noted cornet player, John Robertson, will be heard, and the Woolston Band will also contribute. The celebrated Russian pianist, Paul Vinogradoff,.will play Liszt's "Second Rhapsody," and there will be an orchestra of 14 players. {ASTER brought back recollections of a& merry mix-up: in broadcasting in Christchurch when, by an oversight, the Gebbie Pass operators failed to remember that Sunday programmes are

broadeast on: Good Friday. Getting near 7 a.m. and receiving no answer from the station, the operators at the pass carried through with a_brignt breakfast session, which ended at the usual weekday hour, 8.30, when they went for breakfast. Just at that time the operators at the station arrived and, ringing the pass for the com. mencement of the Sunday programme, could get no answer, much to their consternation, each vperator thinking the other was enjoying an extra forty winks. To add to their troubles, the general manager, Mr. Hands, arrived in Christchurch that morning and had the "pleasure" of listening to a bright jazz programme, and needless to say someone had to "‘toe the line." ISS VALENTINE DIAKOFYE. whose talk on life in Manchuria, followed later by a Russian Theme Programme from 3YA, will be remembered by listeners, will leave Christchurch on May 10 for Wellington. Miss Diakoff is visiting New Zealand as a teacher on exchange from Australia, and after her stay in Wellington will put in a term in Auckland, and later leave for Australia. Miss Diakoff gave an interesting lecture to the Round Table Group of the Canterbury Women’s Club on life in the much-dis-cussed territory of Manchukuo 9ne evening last week. ‘THE Christchurch arrangements for the King’s Jubilee will include a combined open-air meeting in Cranmer Square. This will take the form of an open-air ‘service at 11 a.m. on May 6, and a programme is in course of being compiled by a sub-committee consisting of Dean Julius, the Rev. T. W. Armour and the Rev. Clarence Eaton. It is hoped to broadcast ‘this service, and if the weather should interfere with arrangements an announcement wili be made by broadcast at 9 a.m. [THE Little Theatre at Canterbury College was the scene of this year’s Baster School of Drama, held in Christchurch under the auspices, of the Canterbury Area of the British Drama League. Forty students were enrolled, and though the majority were from Christchurch, registrations were also received from as far afield as Hawera, Blenheim, Timaru and Geraldine. 'The principal instructors wre Professor J. Shelley, Mrs. A. M. Spence-Clark, Messrs. Bernard Beeby and G. A. Worthington.

After the enrolment of the students last Thursday evening, the class listen-ed-in. to the broadcast from 3YA of ‘the dramatic sketch, "The Death Orchid," the parts being taken by Professor Shelley, Mrs, A, L. Haslam and Mr. Cyril Wheeler. ‘Immediately after the reading of the play, Professor Shel- * ley returned to Canterbury College where the presentation of the play was then discussed. and eriticised. Mrs. Spence-Clark’s classes were devoted to instruction in choral verse-speaking, which comprises. voice and breathing exercises for the students, followed by recitation in chorus. Mr. Bernard Beeby’s classes took the form of instruction in stagecraft, movement and other aspects’of acting. ON the Sunday a. lecture was given by Professor Shelley on Continental and American drama during the afternoon, and in the evening the Canterbury College Drama Society enacted "X-O," the same club presenting the previous evening John Van Druten’s play "There’s Always Juliet." This school of drama is only the second one held in Christchurch, the: first having been held at Haster, 1933. Particular attention this year is being paid to-in-struction in make-up as it is recognised that jnstruction in this branch of work is most required by amateurs, "THE popular little Sunshine Station (83ZM), Christchurch, were -off the air for the four days during Easter to conduct their annual overhaul, They commenced again on Baster Monday night at 8 p.m., and continued until midnight, and to make up their hours are not closing down until eleven p.m. for the rest of the week, ~