You expect drama onstage in a theatre. There have certainly been plenty of wonderful examples of that over the past 50 years at The Court. Less well known to the public, however, are the dramas that have occurred behind the scenes at our beloved Court. That was until the publication of the “tell-all” History of The Court Theatre, written by Felicity Price with Derek Hargreaves.
Felicity is a long-time Court Theatre patron and former Trust Board chair; Derek was Secretary of the Trust Board for nearly five decades. With that kind of pedigree you can imagine that Derek had some pretty good stories to tell of “goings-on” off-stage that make the book about the theatre’s history far from dry or dull and boring. As Felicity says, “Derek’s inside info was legendary. People would often say he knew more than anyone about the theatre, its people, and its secrets. It was a story crying out to be told.”.
Over all those years Derek kept minutes and diary notes that form the basis for Felicity’s telling of The Court’s history – the history of what we as dedicated Friends (Supporters) of the theatre know is the biggest, best, longest-running and most popular professional theatre in New Zealand.
“There are stories that have never before been revealed,” says Felicity. Some of the drama at The Court was due to the man whose brilliant productions so many of us have thrilled to. Former Artistic Director Elric Hooper was, in his own words, “a hard taskmaster”, trying to get the best out of his cast and crew. Unfortunately his dramatic personality did create a few difficult staffing and other issues and there were times when the internal strife was leaked to the media creating a public ruckus. “It’s all there in the bookmaking for some compelling reading”.
Other dramas involved fights for seats on the Trust Board, especially in the 1980s/90s. Supporters of certain candidates would turn up in droves to make sure they got on, resulting in some good people, even the deputy chair in one instance, being unceremoniously dumped. That instance has particular resonance for me because the dumped deputy chair was my late husband, Wilfred Colley. Difficult but true – it’s all printed in the book!
Printed too is gossip about productions and casts, play choice controversies, and show successes. We learn as well how the theatre was under threat of closure more than once, yet overcame many significant odds and survived. Throughout the book, bringing it to life are superb photographs – of people and shows. Your Friends’ chairman Annie Bonifant and I selected these, many from Elric Hooper’s own superb and comprehensive archive. Annie and I spent quite a number of hours with Elric over several days last November, choosing the images. (I later determined the positioning of the images in the book and wrote the captions.) It was a fun time with Elric as each image brought forth reminiscences from him – juicy theatre title tattle and insights into his directorial approach to productions.
The book is available from The Court’s Box Office for only $30. It’s a great read. One Friend of The Court who bought the book at the 50th Anniversary weekend and read it straight away sent us this feedback: You have done a fine job on the book. It is lively, thorough and interesting and its warmth reflects the commitment of you all to The Court Theatre and your inside knowledge of it.”