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MEMOIRS from Alan Stevenson
I arrived in Inglewood in 1958 to teach in the Art Department, Inglewood High School. My very new wife, Margaret, had been teaching art there in 1957, the year the school opened, and in that year had joined in play readings with the fledgling Inglewood Dramatic Society. Then together in those early years we took part in a variety of play evenings, of scenery design and construction, of costume design and making. These evenings were held in private homes, in the Town Hall supper room and the Inglewood High School library.
When I first arrived the school hall had no stage so, on movable rostrums, I built a prefabricated proscenium with provisions for curtain, drapes and flats. The Dramatic Society staged early here, some in partnership with the High School and High School staff gave the society a life-giving jab for many years.
“As Long As They’re Happy”, the Society’s first three act play was staged in the Town Hall and later taken to Waitara to celebrate the opening of their Centennial Hall. In the play stood a shiny white grand piano and enquiries were made to buy this stately piano. Alas, I had made it from an old table! All the scenery was constructed as prefabricated units and painted in the upstairs room of the Plumbery, then lowered to a truck below through a large trapdoor. Downstairs was often filled with loose coal and heaps of lime – adding to the drama. Inglewood Motors and Drakes Furnishers were wonderfully generous with their trucks, shifting scenery back and forth to the Town Hall and were an essential and integral part of the society and well appreciated. Because the Town Hall was also the Town Picture Theatre the scenery was taken first to the supper room until the picture screen was lifted. Then the backstage crew arrived about 11.00pm Saturday and proceeded to put the set up, working well into Sunday morning and finishing in time for the 10.00am dress rehearsal Sunday morning. The Town Hall caretaker, Tom Wood, stayed to oversee every action and remind us consistently – “No nails in my stage!” As the evening turned into morning he would drop off into deep sleep – that was the time the nails went in! Because of his constant surveillance we made sure we obtained written permission from the Town Clerk to drill into the stage to take the hub of the revolving stage for “Lady Audley’s Secret”. A very deflated voice said “If he’s given the okay you can do it” – adding – “but – plug the holes in after.” The revolving stage was magic for the many scene changes.
On the last night of “Tea House Of The August Moon” the goat – perfect in all previous performances – caused great mirth as it staggered drunkenly round the stage after drinking stout from an American GI’s tin helmet – and an offer by a collector to buy our very fake jeep!
During “Toad Of Toad Hall” an early major production of 1961, a team of Jaycees worked hard high up on the Town Hall catwalk (now dismantled) pulling up and letting down painted gauze backdrops and ‘blacko’ responding to my direct phone contact as stage manager – “Pull up number 2, let down number 3 – 3 up – trees down – trees up – blacks down – and so on as scenes changed all evening. The phone – the Dramatic Society’s first electronic device – most modern! With about 30 young enthusiastic children as field mice, ferrets, weasels, stoats, rabbits costuming was exciting and staging both imaginative and disciplined. The ‘Punch-Up’ of Toad and his friends versus the Wild Wooders showed the children at their best. Meanwhile – “All along the backwater through the rushes tall, ducks were a dabbling – up tails all” to the grand beat of the orchestra filling the orchestra pit. All the scenery was made to fold up to be pushed to the back of the stage because of the film sessions in between performances.
The first time “Blithe Spirit” was produced ‘things’ flew around the stage in an impressive way from unseen nylon lines and push rods.
Of the World’s Amateur Premiere of “The Mousetrap” by Agatha Christie – enough said – and be warned – smoke machines have a mind of their own as was discovered with amazement during “Hansel and Gretel” and “Lady Audley’s Secret”.
The Billiard Saloon becoming available for sale prompted the Society to think big. It was said we were mad when we started converting it into a theatre – perhaps we were – but as always Inglewood supported us in this madness. The small team of willing workers and a town that had caught the vision of what we were about, combined to give us our first intimate theatre after years of consistent patient team work. Both the Lions Club and Rotary contributed labour and the TSB has been a financial supporter from the start.
In cutting doors into the building we discovered some could be cut in a few minutes – through a stack of river pebbles barely held together with concrete, while others were 30cms of solid reinforced concrete taking weeks to penetrate. It was no problem to comply with the building code then as no reports were required.
Peter Cramer and Barry Codd designed a micro lighting control which had not been seen before by the Strand Lighting rep. It was so far ahead of its time and a wonderful asset.
The many happy years we shared in the Old Cue – even with its restrictions – finally came to the point where new, strict building codes made it too hard to get ‘signed off’ each year by the Council. Many plans for earthquake risk and enlargement were drawn up but the reality was – it was an old building. So, many more plans, over several years, were designed for a New Cue and finally handed to an architect to complete by fulfilling building consents. The shop in front of the Old Cue was bought and incorporated into the design as a spacious foyer.
It was not until the demolition of the old building that we found how decayed it was. Two-tooth borer in the stage meant it could have collapsed anytime.
Pieces salvaged from the old building have been incorporated in the new – in the foyer the panels of tiles in their molded frames and the rimu paneling – in the auditorium the back row of original seats have been restored to their former glory – and the plaque unveiled by Ava Somerfield stays on view in the foyer of the auditorium.
Over the last 50 years the Society has always had a core of dedicated workers – some rather long in the tooth now – but they caught the vision, ran with it and carried it through. We have much to be proud of. Starting with “As Long As They’re Happy “ in 1961 and working in 2006 on “Shadowlands”, with many in between, it has been a delightful challenge to me to design, construct and paint sets for productions and great enjoyment in sharing these times with a team of wonderful people.
Alan Stevenson - 2006