Page 5 - OT_70th Anniversary

With the rental of the Aubrey Street house mid-year we did
we really had a foot in the door of manage to enter
something that could become permanent, the One Act Play
so now we really had to get our act Festival and
together (no pun intended) and a lot of stage a three-act
hard work and planning left hardly any time play at the
for play acting. Whangarei Inter-
mediate School
Hall. While the
alterations were
being carried out
every-one
decided that our
membership had
to be built up but
there is no
record of the result of that drive.

At this stage it does seem that the Society
was suffering from that strange disease
Small cottage at rear of 13 Aubrey St c1969 that had struck us 10 years earlier called
‘a state of flux’ but we still managed to
Alternative plans were drawn up for the place two one-act plays on stage for the
alterations to the old house. The 1971 Play Festival.
Committee was given three options in
these plans. Making their decision, they With no road extension going ahead, we
chose the plan using the front room (now felt more secure in Aubrey Street than we
the wardrobe) for the seating of 32-35 had done for a long time.
patrons; the second bedroom became the
stage (now the disabled washroom By October 1972 our membership must
facilities), leaving the lounge as the dining have risen, as we were - after nearly three
room. Tiered seating was built against the years - able to stage a three-act play at
bay windows of the front room. Kamo High School in November.
Voluntary labour (with only weekends
available to many of the members) tended
to slow things down a bit but we still
managed, once again, to enter the One
Act Play Festival.

To finish off the first twenty-five years with
a flourish in 1973 we
finished with (what
proved to be a very
popular show with
the public) a rave
review and a letter to
Pygmalion staged 1965 the Secretary
congratulating the
Society on a fine
performance of ‘The
Victorian Music Hall’.

This, it would seem, heralded the revival of
the Society.

With all this going on, no wonder there was
little doing on the acting front, although

3