Story: Actors and acting

In New Zealand and elsewhere, live theatre was severely affected by the rise of cinema. Many performing venues and theatre companies closed in the 1930s and 1940s. By 1950, when this newsreel was made, the country was again considering the possibility of a professional theatre company. A group of semi-professional actors from the Auckland Adult Education Centre toured the North Island with a production of George Bernard Shaw's Arms and the man. This clip shows a performance in the local hall at Takapau, a small farming town in Hawke's Bay.