I have created this blog as I can find no mention of Tusitala Players on the internet. It contains only my memories of the shows I was involved with between 1972 and 1973. I have included memorabilia from the productions that I save for my 'scrapbook' at the time. The Tusitala Players' history predates my involvement with them and certainly continued after I left them. Any errors in the following text are probably due to fading memory and not intentional.
If anyone seeing this blog wishes to contact me with further information about the Tusitala Players and other productions produced by them, I will be happy to add it to the information presented here.
As well as providing good quality theatre productions for a community, these companies were an excellent training ground for people starting out in the theatre. Many professional careers had their roots in amateur theatre company involvement. They also provided a creative outlet for people with theatre interests who did not want to, or were not able to, work professionally in the theatre. Running a theatre company involved a multitude of tasks in addition to acting and directing. Sewing costumes, organising publicity, building sets, lighting, sound effects, running the front of house area with ticket selling and providing refreshments were all essential tasks that you could get involved with and feel like you were part of the company 'family'.
As a young person interested in acting, I joined the
Tusitala Players in 1972. This was a small theatre company that had recently begun performing
in St. Andrew’s Church Hall in Walkerville in South Australia. I believe that the company had previously been
situated in Glen Osmond for many years.
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| St. Andrews Church Hall, Walkerville, Adelaide in 2013 |
When
I joined them, they were preparing for a production of ‘Pygmalion’. It was an excellent group to learn about
theatre from the ground up. We would
spend all day on a weekend building the set, making props and painting
backdrops. I was pretty useless as a
builder but I could paint and hammer the occasional nail when required. However, just being there to see how things
were done and what it took to mount a production was a great education.
At
the end of the day, we would all sit down together at a trestle table set up on
the stage and have a roast dinner, which had been cooked in the hall’s kitchen
by some of the ladies while we worked.
Many of the company had worked together on shows for many years and it
was like becoming a member of a very happy family.
Rather
than having the expected rows of seats in the large hall, small tables were set
up on the flat floor during performances with table cloths, twinkling candles and about 6 chairs each, creating a
very pleasant atmosphere. At interval,
tea and coffee were served at the tables.
PRODUCTIONS
1972
PYGMALION by George
Bernard Shaw
Tusitala
Players, Walkerville, Adelaide, July 12-15, 1972
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| Program Cover for the production |
On
the opening night, we were still running a bit late with painting the backdrop
for the final act. During the first
three acts, the section of backdrop unseen by the audience was busily being
completed. Unfortunately, the painter
got so pre-occupied with what he was doing that when he finished, he walked the
wrong way and was seen by the audience in his modern painting clothes as he
passed by the French windows of the scene being played onstage!
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| Cast list for 'Pygmalion' from the program |
I played the small
role of ‘Host’ at the Ball where Eliza is presented and I walked on and off as
‘Crowd’ as required. I loved every
minute of it! Director, Marilyn Spry,
was a good teacher and very patient with eager but inexperienced actors like myself.
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| Crew list of 'Pygmalion' from the program |
There
were some very strong performances especially by Brian Kenneth (Marilyn Spry’s
husband) as Professor Higgins, Margaret Summerton as Eliza Doolittle and Keith
Viney as Alfred P. Doolittle.
It
was a huge amount of work for a show that ran only four nights. The hall seemed full at every performance.
THE BRIDE COMES BACK
by Ronald Millar
Tusitala
Players, October 11-14, 1972
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| Program Cover |
First
produced in London in 1960, ‘The Bride Comes Back’, an amusing domestic comedy with a supernatural element, by Ronald Millar was a sequel
to a popular 1956 play, ‘The Bride And The Bachelor’. These light comedies were popular with audiences in those days and we attracted good audiences for the season of 4 nights.
The
play was directed by an elderly lady, Agnes East, MBE. She was friendly but quite formal in her
dealings with the cast. We had to
address her as ‘Mrs. East’. As well as
directing the play, she elected to be the Prompt for all performances. It was somewhat disconcerting to have her
facing you from the wings with book in hand, a constantly worried expression on
her face and silently mouthing every word at you as you tried to perform to the
audience.
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| Cast list from the program |
The
show also gave me my first taste of onstage disasters. As part of the plot, a practical joking ‘ghost’
had supposedly filled the bag hanging on the handle of an old-style vacuum
cleaner with snow (we used finely chopped up bits of polystyrene.) With the bag hanging open, it was, unseen by
my character, supposed to spray snow amusingly all over the leading lady behind
me as I moved offstage into the wings. On
cue during a performance, I hit the vacuum cleaner ‘On’ switch and nothing
happened.
My
heart stopped but I had the presence of mind to scratch the gag without delay
and quickly take the vacuum cleaner offstage into the wings while the play
continued. The stage manager rushed over
to see what the problem was and couldn’t resist trying the switch herself. It suddenly started up with a deafening roar
and the audience saw a geyser of polystyrene ‘snow’ rising higher than the top
of the set for no apparent reason. It also
landed on another cast member waiting in the wings to make an entrance in a red
crushed velvet dress. We brushed her
down as quickly as we could but she had to go onstage with bits of polystyrene
mysteriously stuck to her when her cue arrived.
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| Dress rehearsal. From left: Wendy Cambell, Len Power, Heather Conroy and Keith Viney |
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| Crew for 'the Bride Comes Back' from the program |
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| Publicity for the show by 'The Advertiser' |
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| After show party onstage. From left: Verity Neuling, Eileen Paterson, Alvin Summerton, Heather Conroy, John Neuling, Keith Viney, Agnes East (Director), Geraldine Shirras, Allan Bray, Wendy Cambell. On stairs from left: Michael Goult, Doris Allen, Irene Bishop (photo by Len Power) |
THREE ONE ACT PLAYS:
ROUNDABOUT, CRYSTAL CLEAR AND A MELODRAMA
Tusitala
Players, late 1972
The melodrama was written in-house. This photo is the only surviving memorabilia I have of this season of plays.
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| Verity Neuling helping Len Power prior to a performance of the melodrama |
1973
I AM A CAMERA by John
Van Druten
Tusitala
Players, August 22 – 25, 1973
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| Program cover for 'I Am A Camera' |
Small
companies looking for a play to do can often provide an opportunity to
a company member to direct for the first time. I had been very impressed by the
movie musical, ‘Cabaret’ which had only recently been released. Finding out that the play, ‘I Am A Camera’
was based on the same source material as the musical, I proposed it to the
committee as a play the company should consider. They asked me if I would like to direct it
myself and so I did!
Looking
back, I can’t believe I had the confidence – or nerve - to do it, given my
minimal experience, but it turned out rather well, I think. I had a strong cast and we got excellent
houses for the show, probably because of the interest generated by the movie.
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| Cast list from the program |
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| Crew list from the program |
PICNIC by William
Inge
Tusitala
Players – late 1973
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| Good publicity coverage from 'The Advertiser' for 'Picnic' |
