Programme 1986 – Mack and Mabel

NAPIER OPERATIC SOCIETY PRESENTS

MACK & MABLE

The New Zealand Premiere Production

Artistic Director

It is with more than real pleasure we share with you our N.Z. Premiere Production of Jerry Hermans musical “Mack & Mabel” and our salute to a morsel of the great silent movie era.

The famous D.W. Griffiths director of such classic films as “Birth of a Nation”, and “Intolerance” and wrote with extraordinary vision:

“The motion picture is a child that has been given birth in our generation. We poor souls can scarcely visualise or dream of its possibilities. We ought to be kind to it in its youth, so that in its maturity it may look back on its childhood without regret.”

It has been precisely our aim to pay tribute to that era, considered simpler and more desirable than ours, and particular to one man’s work, the work of Mack Sennett – his crazy dreams – his wild ideas – his single mindedness and above all his driving obsession and love for the work – to the exclusion of all else.

This self same dedication has been so evident in the months of caring preparation by the construction/wardrobe/painting/property/publicity and technical teams who have committed themselves totally to this challenging endeavour. I hope you will admire and delight in their work as much as we do.

It has been wonderful working again with such professionals as Eric Thorpe and Shirley Jarrett and together with the talented and hardworking cast. We hope you may share some of the joy, energy, discipline and fun they have shared with us during the rehearsal period.

The Theatre is not only to entertain/to educate and inform – it is about magic, it is about evoking old memories – it’s all about dreams. The creation and realisation of any major dream needs “Dream Merchants” – I knew just the person.

The appointment of Bob McMurray as Artistic Designer by the Society’s Executive Committee indicates their very real intelligence and insight. His offer was indeed a thrill and turned the clock full circle for me – I was an eighteen year old faced with a mammoth four act production of Thornton Wilders “The Matchmaker” when Gwyn Ace and I first sought his advice.

His experience and expertise, his knowledge of the theatre and the theatrical – his creativity, his painstaking attention to detail, his simple enthusiasm and joy for the work have more than fulfilled my concepts and expectations.

Our desire is to support and serve the script and in so doing serve you, our audience.

Along with Shirley and Eric I hope you will enjoy being a very important part of Mack & Mabel.

Gillian Davies

Designer

BOB McMURRAY

Bob McMurray has worked in the amateur and professional Theatre for thirty years in a variety of roles; as director, designer, scenic artist, lecturer, tutor and adjudicator.

Bob says his work as director, designer or scenic artist includes “six operas, four ballets, five Shakespeare plays, four experimental productions, four pantomimes, twenty five dramas, fourteen comedies, six Revues and eight musicals, (and a partridge in a pear tree)”.  For nine years he was tutor and lecturer in all aspects of the theatre for University Extension, the N.Z. Drama Council and N.Z. Theatre Federation.

For the final two years of the former N.Z. Ballet and Opera Trust Bob McMurray was scenic artist for the company. Among his commissions was the painting of the opera ‘Aida’, the largest and final production of the company.

In 1982 he worked for a year as designer for Palmerston North’s Professional Theatre, Centrepoint, and was then appointed Chairman of the administrative Board of Centrepoint Theatre, a position he held until 1985.

‘Mack and Mabel’ gives Bob McMurray the welcome opportunity to work with Gillian Davies after a first meeting twenty five years ago.

Musical Director

Eric is no stranger to the Hawke’s Bay Musical Scene.

His genuine love of music and the flare and colour of his playing and orchestration has given real pleasure to theatregoers for many years.

He, too, is pleased to take up “The Baton” as well as “Tinkle The Ivories” and introduce you to the fine music of “Mack & Mabel” (music made popular by Britains Ice Skaters Jane [Jayne] Torvill and Christopher Deane [Dean]).

ERIC THORPE
Musical Director

Choreographer

The work of a first class choreographer requires very special skills – both physical and creative – while at the same time the end result must always support the direction of the production.

Shirley Jarretts discipline and drive, energy and joy is infectious and exciting.

We say “Thanks for joining with us again Shirley, and we just know she’ll TAP YOUR TROUBLES AWAY!”

SHIRLEY JARRETT
Choreographer

Lighting Designer

GWYNS dedication to the theatre and to lighting design in particular, stems from a lifetime of experience and total involvement.

To mount any production is a mammoth task and to light it well is of paramount importance.

We thank Gwyn for joining with us for “ANOTHER OPENING OF ANOTHER SHOW!”

GWYN ACE
Lighting Designer

Production Personnel

DONALD HURLEY
Stage Director

JOHN BRIGGS
Construction Manager

SAIMA PRITCHARD
Wardrobe Mistress

LYNDA SHIRRAS
Properties Mistress

VERN CRABTREE
Production Co-ordinator

DALE REID
Directors Assistant

NEILL PAGE
Lighting Director

ROBERT LOCKYER
Sound

SYD JAGO
Film Effects

BILL SHARRAS [SHIRRAS]
Asst. Stage Manager

LEIGH JONES
Asst. Stage Manager

ALAN JONES
Mechanist

DAWN McCOWATT
Make up

CLIVE BUTTERY
Fly Floor

IRENE DAVEY
Production Secretary

NAPIER OPERATIC SOCIETY PRESENTS

MACK & MABEL

BOOK by
Michael Stewart

MUSIC & LYRICS by
Jerry Herman

Cast

THE CHARACTERS (IN ORDER OF APPEARANCE)

EDDIE, The Watchman   Tony Ironside
MACK SENNETT   Ray Coats
LOTTIE AMES   Valda Peacock
ELLA   Connie Barfoot
FREDDIE   Lex Barker
WALLY   John Williams
FRANK WYMAN   Michael Curley
MABEL NORMAND   Jane Pierard
MR KLEIMAN   Lex Barker
MR FOX   Barrie Browne
ANDY   Brian Schaab
WILLIAM DESMOND TAYLOR   Michael Bostock
IRIS   Jillian Sweeney
HARRY   Andrew Prentice
MABELS DANCING PARTNER   William Waitoa

THE “MACK & MABEL COMPANY”

Pat Anderson
Guiseppa Bartle
Douglas Bowie
Christiaan Briggs
Jenny Bullot
Linda Carrad
Kim Cleverton
Diane Coughlan
Peter Crawshaw
Cheryl Cunningham
Keith Dixon
Hayley Dowdell
Graeme Dunnett
Gavin Etheridge
Kim Evans
Geoff Souter
Lucille Flemming
Jan Gare
Cheryll Hawthorne
Robert Hickey
Fraser Holland
Phillipa Jones
Suzanne Jones
Melanie Jonson
Sacha Lawson
Wendy Lawson
Julia Mahony
Harold Matthews
Vanessa Maunder
Kirsten Mitchell
Doug Moody
Helen Youngman
Anne Moore
Roger Morris
John McCord
Sue Page
Sharon Pardoe
Arlene Perry
Leigh Petersen
Alec Rainbow
Anna Reid
Haley Reid
Janine Reid
Sarah Reid
Darren Shand
Karen Shand
Sheryl Smith

as
MOVIE STARS, GRIPS DANCERS
BATHING BELLES EXTRAS & CHILDREN

THE SCENES AND MUSICAL NUMBERS

ACT 1

Scene 1:   The Sennett Studios, 1938
MOVIES WERE MOVIES   Mack

Scene 2:   Brooklyn Studio, 1911
LOOK WHAT HAPPENED TO MABEL   Mabel and Grips

Scene 3:   Mack’s Office, Brooklyn
BIG TIME   Lottie and the Family

Scene 4:   En Route to California
I WON’T SEND ROSES   Mack
REPRISE: I WON’T SEND ROSES   Mabel

Scene 5:   Los Angeles, 1912
I WANNA MAKE THE WORLD LAUGH   Mack

Scene 6:   On the Set
REPRISE: I WANNA MAKE THE WORLD LAUGH   Company

Scene 7:   The Orchid Room of the Hollywood Hotel, 1919
WHEREVER HE AIN’T   Mabel, Partner & Company

Scene 8:   On the Set
HUNDREDS OF GIRLS   Mack and Bathing Beauties

THERE WILL BE AN INTERVAL OF 15 MINUTES

ACT II
Scene 9:   Mack’s Studio – Bathroom, 1923

Scene 10:   Studio Early Next Morning
WHEN MABEL COMES IN THE ROOM   Company
HIT ‘EM ON THE HEAD   Mack, Kleiman, Fox and Kops

Scene 11:   A Pier, New York
TIME HEALS EVERYTHING   Mabel

Scene 12:   “Vitagraph Varieties of 1929” and William Desmond Taylor’s Apartment
TAP YOUR TROUBLES AWAY   Lottie and Girls

Scene 13:   Mack’s Office – then Mabel’s Bedroom
I PROMISE YOU A HAPPY ENDING   Mack

Scene 14:   The Sennett Studio, 1938

Performed at the
NAPIER MUNICIPAL THEATRE   AUGUST 2nd – 16th, 1986

Cast

What you earn – is a living
What you give – is a life
LILLIAN GISH (1927)

The original production of “Mack & Mable” premiered at New York’s Majestic Theatre on October 6, 1974.

In the true Broadway ‘blockbuster’ tradition, it is packed with “…romance, action and thrills…”, to steal a line from Mack.

The story traces the changing fortunes of Mack Sennett, the legendary Hollywood director and his beautiful, talented star, Mabel Normand.

Sennett’s genius for comedy made him the foremost director of “two reelers” from 1910 to the coming of sound in the late 1920’s. He created such stars as Charlie Chaplin, Fatty Arbuckle, Gloria Swanson, Marie Dressler and Ben Turpin and elevated slapstick comedy to an art form with his wonderful Keystone Kops and pie throwing scenarios.

Sennett’s films were often improvised, utilising every prop within sight: sticks to hit with, doors to be chased through, stairs to be fallen down, water to be fallen into, walls to collapse, custard pies to be thrown, cash registers to be stolen from, sausages for dogs to steal, dogs to tear holes in  pants, pants to be lost, pretty girls to be kissed, fat ladies to be sat on, soup to be spilled, dishes to be broken, and above all, cars to chase and be chased: small cars to disgorge a score of cops; cars to proceed after being sliced in half, to pass unharmed through brick walls, to proceed without wheels, engines or sometimes drivers, always emerging triumphant and unscathed. In Sennett’s world everything went to extremes – absurd, illogical and surrealistic.

The essence of the Keystones was movement – not thought, emotion, desire, need, or human reaction. The essential Keystone actions were dash, crash, smash and splash. Figures ran after things they wanted, ran away from things they wanted to avoid, ran over mountains, over dangerous ledges, fields, beaches. If they didn’t run, they rode – in cars, in boats, on animals, on bikes. And they kept running from the start of the film until they smashed into something that stopped them, fell into something that soaked them, or simply fainted from exhaustion.

Violence – pure mayhem – was an important feature of all early comedies. From star to extra, everyone had to know how to take falls, dangle from ropes, climb to high places, bounce back from blows on the head; and generally be as much an acrobat as an actor.

Mack Sennett presided over these antics like a master puppeteer. He directed, acted, thought up most of the stories and occasionally even ran the camera himself. He used no scripts, directed according to whim and inspiration, and held story conferences and business meetings while lolling in a bathtub he had installed by his office.

Sennett felt that the motion picture was a medium capable of being understood by everyone. Therefore, he was impatient from the start with anything that stood in the way of his elemental appeal to humour.

The crude eloquence of silent slapstick won a huge following throughout the nation where motion pictures were growing increasingly popular.

Often the germ of a picture would be a single gag. Two gags provided enough material to build a one reel picture.

Some of them, it is true, mistake energy for invention, and flounder, but parts of them survive the years with the ease for Sennett, more than anyone else, helped usher in the Golden Age of Comedy in the movies. Throughout the country people looked forward to their comedies; fans stood in line in rain and snow for the opportunity of laughing at what Arthur Knight calls “ordered insanity”.

Our generation has lost the ability to laugh at itself – an ability which helped out forefathers to keep themselves and the world around them in proper perspective.

Regardless of the intellectual scorn directed at slapstick in our world of today, it lives on in the long-ago world of Keystone and Mack Sennett, a world where Kops and custards reigned supreme.

Unfortunately, Sennetts supremacy was severely shattered in his lifetime.

The coming of sound – the advent of the double feature and the popularity of the animated cartoon, combined with “The Wall Street Crash” of 1929 wiped out his considerable personal fortune and severely crippled his remaining contributions to “The World of Celluloid”.

MACK SENNETT
ROSCOE ARBUCKLE
SWANSON & HAVER
CHAPLIN & NORMAND
BUSTER KEATON
BATHING BELLES with CHESTER CONKLIN

KEYSTONE FILMS
A QUARTET OF POPULAR FUN MAKERS
MACK SENNETT
MABEL NORMAND
FRED MACE
FORD STERLING
SUPPORTED BY AN
ALL STAR COMPANY
IN SPLIT REEL COMEDIES
A KEYSTONE
EVERY MONDAY

MABEL NORMAND
CHAPLIN & KOP
ARBUCKLE & ALLEN
CHAPLIN & MARIE DRESSLER
BEN TURPIN
FORD STERLING & MABEL NORMAND

MACK SENNETT – KEYSTONE COMEDIES
The Great Big Splashes of Fun and Beauty
Are You Wearing The Keystone Smile?

MACK & MABEL

Mabel Normand & Scandal in Hollywood

The first great screen comedienne and probably unsurpassed to this day, Mabel Normand was one of the progenitors of the American screen comedy; it was Mabel who introduced the custard pie to the screen; it was Mabel who helped Mack Sennett found the Keystone Film Company in 1912; and it was Mabel who starred in many of his best films, including those with Charlie Chaplin – and Arbuckle.  A mere five foot three, she was irresistible in her good humour and irrepressible vitality. She was utterly natural before the camera, superbly inventive and funny without recourse to gimmicks or make up – and she was also beautiful. Her love affair with Sennett was one of the most fascinating in Hollywood.

She was involved in two scandals that completely destroyed her career. She was the last person to see director William Desmond Taylor alive before his murder on February 1, 1922, and popular press had a field day with her in the wake of the scandal about her old friend Fatty Arbuckle. She made a couple more good films with Sennett, but the public did not want to know. She died in 1930, a great and unique talent lost to the sound cinema.

As every editor knew, the surest circulation booster next to murder was a juicy scandal in Hollywood. So when the bullet-pierced body of movie director William Desmond Taylor was found in his study one February morning in 1922, the tabloids were handed a story that had everything. The victim was a classic hero: handsome, brave (he had been a British officer in World War I) and mysterious. Red hot love letters from big screen names were found hidden in the deceased’s bachelor apartment. The suspects were perfection itself: a vanished butler, a beautiful female star, a jealous boyfriend. The papers made the most of all this; the story on these pages, hinting at even more lurid revelations to come, is from the New York Daily News. The case was never solved, but its effect was lasting. Hollywood was getting a bad press; that same year comedian “Fatty” Arbuckle was tried for sexual high jinks that resulted in a starlet’s death. Concerned film moguls finally hired prim Postmaster General Will Hays to clean up the industry, and wrote “morals clauses” into stars’ contracts in an effort to keep their names, once and for all, out of the tabs.

SENSATION COMING IN TAYLOR CASE
Los Angeles, Feb. 3 – All Hollywood is being raked for the killer of William Desmond Taylor; all the queer meeting places of the actors and actresses, directors and assistant directors, cameramen and extras – restaurants, beauty parlors, studios, dens where opium and marihuana and other strange drugs are common, dens where men and women dress in silk kimonos and sit in circles and drink odd drinks – are being visited.

Every one who has come into contact with the slain director, no matter how remotely is being questioned. Things that may shock the world of moving picture fans are destined to come out of the mystery, it is said. Popular stars, male and female, may be scorched and smirched before the police investigation is over. And all the sins of the cinema colony will be made known.

Acknowledgements

John Collier
James White
Sunray H.B. Ltd
Conroy Removals
Russell Crosse
Gavin Long
Kevin Bartlett
Rothmans Tobacco Co. Ltd
Hella N.Z. Ltd
Morris Sharpe & Hamilton Ltd
Barton Marine
Cederic [Cedric] Wright

Orchestra

Leader/Pianist   Eric Thorpe
Trumpets   John Gilbertson, Stuart Boston
Trombone   Keith Robinson
Tuba   Clive Howell
Saxaphones [Saxophones]   Derek Reid, Beryl Clarke, Alan Mekin, Kevin Morris
Flute/Piccolo   Donna Briggs
Violins   Charles Jukes, Enid Dunn, Ray Grossman, Kate Holden
Cello   Francie Turner
Percussion   Malcolm Thorpe, Shirley Ford
Guitar/Banjo   Jim Baker

Society Centennial Celebrations

Established in 1887 The Napier Operatic Society will celebrate its 100th year of entertainment with Centennial Celebrations to be held over Labour Weekend of 1987. The reunion will commence with a get-together Friday 23rd at the Tabard Theatre, followed on Saturday with registrations and viewing of the Society’s Premises in conjunction with closure of Coronation Street to allow Street Theatre and various activities. A true Operatic Cabaret will follow on Saturday evening. A choral service at St. Johns Cathedral followed by photographs will occupy Sunday morning. Sunday afternoon is free to allow the many mini reunions to take place. The Municipal Theatre is the venue for an operatic evening of NOSTALGIA featuring songs and tunes from our first one hundred years.

Monday is a free day with the Tabard Theatre open to view photos of the weekend’s celebrations. Registrations are now being accepted and all past and performing members are invited to enrol by forwarding $5 to the:

Centennial Committee
P.O. Box 3225
ONEKAWA
NAPIER.

Production Teams

PRODUCTION
Napier Operatic Society Executive Committee
Vern Crabtree, Irene Davey. Directors Assistant Dale Reid.

STAGE CREW
Donald Hurley S.M. Leigh Jones, A.S.M. Bill Perry, Bill Shirras, – Mechanist:- Alan Jones with Paula Jepson, Mark Collier, Ian Collins, Doug Ramsay, Alan Holt, George Ward, Wal Soutar, Ron Archer, Harold Matthews.

WARDROBE
Saima Pritchard – Guiseppa Bartle, Kathie Hawkins, Rebecca Hawkins, Sheryl Bullock, Bev Wickham, Linda Carrad, Lynette Baker, Judy Franklin, Cara McGirr, Jean Allen, Chris Field, Mr Robin Johnson, Justine Shooter, Kay Collins, Linda Fell, Valerie Shaw, June Kauter, Gertrude Fisher, Chris Shields, Anne More, Roz Van de Ven, Sue Page, Betty Ironside, Milleneur – Doreen Ritchie, plus numerous cast and outside helpers.

CONSTRUCTION CREW
John Briggs – Alan Holt, Tony Chittenden, Dane Sealy, Mark Collier, George Ward, Brian Nathan, Neill Page, Ian Collins, Syd Jago, John Williams, J. Bothwell, Paula Jepson, Vern Crabtree, Kevin Bartlett, Gail Jones, Colin Pritchard, Harold Matthews, Simon Howard, Irene Davey, Joe Dennis, Bruce Robertson, Lyn McAlister, Paul Collier, Wal Soutar, Trish Wareham, Marc Parvin.

SCENIC ARTIST
Ion Brown – Michael Blow, Trevor Hayter, plus helpers from construction crew.

PROPERTIES
Lynda Shirras – Irene Davey, Glen Ward, Leyth Martin, Mary O’Donovan, Donna O’Shaughnessy, Helen Wakely, Roy Clement, Karen White, Anne Jago, Jenny Cotterill, Marilyn Steed, Julie Brock, Anne Perry.

LIGHTING TEAM
Neill Page – Paul Collier, Tony Fry, Chris Stoney, James Bothwell, Robin Johnson, Tania Wood, Vern Crabtree, Marc Parvin.

FILM EFFECTS
Syd Jago – Ian Collins, Mark Baker.

SOUND
Robert Lockyer – Jim Thorburn, Paul Jennings, Lee Lockyer, Roy Ramsay, Gail Jones.

FLY FLOOR
Clive Buttery – Allan Howes, Kevin Bartlett, Brian Nathan, Harley Jones, Malcolm Kenah, Barry Digman, Boyd Taylor.

MAKE UP
Dawn McCowatt – Minnie Wright, Trish Green, Jill Richards, Linda Lee, Jackie Faulknor, Helen Jackson, Melanie Davies, Pauline Message, Jeanette Towers.

PUBLICITY
Peter Shepherd – Fred Twyford, Barrie Browne, Elizabeth Graney, Ian Reid, Bill Perry.

FRONT-OF-HOUSE
Peter Shepherd – Lyndsay Browne, Ian Reid, Fred Twyford.

PROGRAMME
Fred Twyford – Gillian Davies, McMillin Craig Ltd.

PHOTOGRAPHER
James White

NZFOS

NAPIER OPERATIC SOCIETY INC.
(Member of the New Zealand Federation of Operatic Societies)

PATRON:
R. Wright

PRESIDENT:
F. Twyford

VICE PRESIDENT:
D. Hurley

IMMEDIATE PAST PRESIDENT:
W. Beckett

CHAIRMAN:
P. Shepherd

EXECUTIVE:
R Van de Ven, R. Johnson, A. Jones, S. Page, V. Crabtree, J. Briggs, W. Perry, G. Ward, L. Graney, W. Shirras

SECRETARY:   I. Reid
HON. AUDITOR:   L. Robertson
TREASURER:   L. Browne
HON. SOLICITOR:   J. Matthews

SECRETARIAT:   P.O. Box 756, Napier

BANKERS:   Bank of New Zealand

INSURERS:   General Accident Ltd.

LIFE MEMBERS:
H. Collier, R. Wright, D. Unsworth, R. Houston, A. Jones, J. Collier

PRESIDENT’S FOOTNOTE

In its 99th year the Napier Operatic Society has taken on its most ambitious production – a New Zealand Premier of a big theatre show. At the same time it has been the most costly to stage – in excess of $60,000.

You see tonight the result of thousands of man hours and coordinated artistic abilities taking a technically difficult show from the designer’s mind through to a highly entertaining musical.

I am sure you will agree that Mack & Mabel is a fine example of an amateur Society staging a production of a professional standard.

I hope you enjoy this performance as much as we have in bringing it to you.

F.C. TWYFORD
President

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