The New Zealand Players

Very pleased to see young players like Michael Cotterill, Diana Rhodes and Rilla Stephens being trusted with important parts and using their opportunities so well. Judging by what I have seen of the amateur theatre in Dunedin and Wellington, and other parts of the country, there seems to be an ample reservoir of talent available. The amateur players of New Zealand are of a higher standard thn many people think, as has been shown in recent years by such competent producers as John V. Trevor, Ngaio Marsh and Richard Campion. This, in spite of the rampant cultural snobbery such as was illustrated by the difference in size of the audiences seen at the. Stratford Players' performances and these efforts by New Zealanders to show that the greatest of all arts is very much alive at home. They are a long way from perfection yet, though they are good, and if they obtain the public backing they deserve, we who wish the future of the Arts in New Zealand well, need have no fears.