Page 24 - OT_70th Anniversary
P. 24
No history would be complete without some wheeled in at the back - all to feed 400
record of those anecdotes we all treasure - of the people a three-course meal in one hour.
funny, the traumatic, the tragic, the momentous THOSE WONDERFUL moments at Music
moments that shaped the path of the Society over Hall like the occasion when the actor
the past 70 years. Here are some of them.
DID YOU HEAR THE ONE ABOUT …? playing the father of the heroine in the
melodrama had a very quick costume
THE SCENE in ‘French Without Tears’ change to become the hero at the end. His
where Corbet Woodall was rocking back on frantic change in the passage-way proved
his chair when an irate voice was heard as entertaining as the scene on stage.
from the dress circle and Doug Gerard, THOSE SATURDAY night Music Hall
(owner of the brand new suite) yelled performances at the Settler's Motor Inn;
"Corbet! If you tilt that bloody chair once changing into costumes from various areas
more, I'll come down and remove it, it cost of the complex, running like mad to make
me a fortune!" an entrance on time, the staff getting
OPENING NIGHT for ‘Aren't Men Beasts?’ fractious, the patrons getting more
Boy Oh Boy, PANIC STATIONS. In the raucous, the stage getting smaller as the
refurbished Town Hall with enlarged stage, patrons spread out and the night's
new dressing rooms, new paint, new performance getting longer and longer.
curtains and new switchboard. Time for THAT SPECIAL performance for the
curtain up, house lights dimmed, stage Hotelier's Association where most of the
lights on ... BLACK OUT!!! What now? patrons were eight sheets to the wind
The City Council electricians assessed the before we started? They didn't want to be
situation and suggested to the audience there, didn't appreciate our artistic talents,
that they go take a walk or go window threw bread buns at us, Pat Hill exhorting
shopping and return in half an hour. us with "the show must go on" and Barbara
Eventually the fault was found - a pole fuse Thomson plonking the piano. We’re not
in Hunt Street that none knew existed! entirely sure, but we think the show
That night we played to one of the most finished under twelve hours.
understanding and appreciative audiences THE FIRST Music Hall at the Octagon
we had ever played to. ‘London Scene’ with Frank Whitehead (that
AND THE MEAL CRISES like the first fantastic trouper) as Chairman. The
meal cooked in the Playhouse. Food was weather was freezing and the cast was
cooked on gas rings on the kitchen floor standing outside ready to start the show.
because there was no stove. Shortly The Director Keith Thomson has written an
afterwards it was discovered that there was introduction for Frank - BIG MISTAKE -
a coal range in perfect working order in the Frank already knew a hundred years' worth
kitchen that someone had walled up. of jokes and told them all before he got to
THE MEAL at the Golden Church before the introduction. Some of those colourful
‘Murder in the Cathedral’. In our wisdom costumes clashed horribly with the very
we chose a medieval menu: Thick soup in blue people wearing them.
mugs and roast meat to be “carve yourself” THE FUND RAISING ventures - manning
which all led to DISASTER! Patrons in the early morning flea markets at the Town
their Sunday best didn't want to carve their Basin. Pat Hill, Carol Freebairn and
own meat. They had nowhere to sit and Beverley Dowling doing the Can-Can in the
what to do with their greasy hands? The Mall; flashing their attributes all to sell $10
thick soup stayed in the mugs and, when raffle tickets.
poured down the sink, blocked up the CO-ORDINATING with Doug Chowns to
drains - and we had a water shortage. Still, present a New Zealand Wool Board
the play was a hit! fashion parade in the Mall, only to have a
THE TIME we took a show to the Exhibition pop-top caravan collapse on all the models
Hall to accommodate 400 patrons. The and the lights go out! What the models
caterers moved in early, the doors opened, wore and in what order was anybody's
patrons arrived, sat down, and all hell guess
broke loose! Food was whipped up, placed
on borrowed hospital gurneys and raced
down the Forum North concourse to feed
those at the front, while more were
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