interval organiser

On examining the list of Extrav. officers, I was surprised to see that the duties of Interval Organiser and Social Controller were coupled.

When Rex Collin and myself drew up the draft of the present scheme for conducting Extrav., we created a new officer—the Interval Organiser—a post quite apart from that of the Haka Party Leader, which was mainly a matter for Weir House. The function of the Interval Organiser was to fill in the gaps between scene-shifting. It was ordinarily intended that he be put. on an equal footing with the other Extrav. producers. He was expected to acquire a script, organize and rehearse a cast, and produce some kind of acceptable nonsense which would have continuity—in short to emulate the excellent production put on by Jim Winchester, Ray Hannan and others some years ago, which, to my knowledge, has never been equalled. In this case the cast had no other duties—their job was to produce a show which was as important in its way as the main show. A special dressing-room was allocated to the cast and costumes and make-up were available. Close co-operation was necessary between the Interval Organiser, the Haka Party Leader, the stage manager, and other members of the back stage staff to ensure that the timing was correct; the script was adjusted accordingly. The result was infinitely better than the ragged hakas and the ancient toilet paper gags usually imposed on a long-suffering audience. Many members of the audience were spontaneous in their praise of this new innovation.

I hope, sir, you will forgive me for being somewhat long-winded on this score, but I think it is necessary to point out that the Interval Organiser was not intended to lead hakas or dispense the usual "corny" stories.

Some of the old hands who participated in the organisation of the first interval entertainment are still about, and I think they should be contacted as soon as possible and a cast organized at the first Extrav. casting meeting.

In closing, I should like to stress that this letter is not intended as a criticism of any person or persons. It is simply an explanation of what our aims were when the position of Interval Controller was created.