Page 3: Pocket Playhouse Personalities

Previous 1 2 3 4 Next

Timothy Bennett

Timothy Bennett as ‘Prince Armand’ and Loretta Thompson as ‘Beauty’ in “Beauty and the Beast”

Timothy Bennett was just starting out as an actor when he appeared in “The Red Shoes” in 1970 for the Pocket Children’s Theatre. Later, in 1972 he was to play the leading male role in another children’s play “Beauty and the Beast”.

Meanwhile he graduated to acting in evening performances and first appeared in “Heloise” in March 1971.

When “Gods and Warriors” the Noh plays of Japan was projected Tim was among the aspirants for a role. At the first reading the producer Norman McVicker explained that it was to be an all male cast requiring some actors to play female parts in accordance with Noh tradition.

In one of the plays an “angel” was an acting/ dancing character. At first Timothy baulked at playing what he thought was an unsuitable part. Norman convinced him otherwise and in 1971 Timothy was the recipient of the Pocket Playhouse Constance Robertson Memorial Award for outstanding achievement as the “Angel” in “Gods and Warriors”.

Timothy also appeared in “Portrait of a Queen”, “Banjo”, “Fairy Tale Theatre” and “Damper and Tea” to name just a few plays.

When the Pocket Playhouse closed in 1973, after a few years, Timothy gravitated to the Genesian Theatre where he has appeared not only as an actor but as a director as well. He learnt tap dancing to play in “Stepping out”.

Now retired from full time work at Sydney University he devotes his spare time to Genesian Theatre activities.

Joy Lewis

Joy Lewis c1947

Joy Lewis commenced her professional acting career with Kathleen Robinson and Whitehall Productions at the Minerva Theatre, Kings Cross in Sydney.

In 1946 she appeared in “Life With Father” at the Minerva Theatre. This production toured to Adelaide in 1947 and returned for a further season at the Minerva in 1948.

In 1947 Joy appeared on stage in “O Mistress Mine” at the Princess Theatre in Melbourne and in June 1948 at the Majestic Theatre in Adelaide.

Back in Sydney in May 1948 she was in the cast of “Pride and Prejudice” at the Minerva Theatre and in September 1948 in “The Winslow Boy” again at The Majestic Theatre in Adelaide.

Joy Lewis was also a court reporter and stenographer for many years. She first came in contact with Norman McVicker when she brought her young nephew Brett Johnson to the Pocket Children’s Theatre. Years later he was to be an Arts Adviser to NSW Premier, Bob Carr.

In May 1966, Norman enticed Joy out of theatrical retirement to play in his production of "Barretts of Wimpole Street" which opened at the Pocket Playhouse, Sydenham, on May 14th 1966. That was her last performance in a theatre.

In the years that followed it was Joy who turned Norman’s often illegible handwritten drafts of plays into intelligent play scripts. At the age of 90 she now lives in retirement on the Central Coast but retains an interest in theatre as a member of Charles Little’s Theatre Appreciation Group. Joy and Norman remain in constant contact with each other.

David Brown

David Brown has had a long and varied career in Australia and overseas. On leaving school he entered the advertising world and became interested in the theatre.

David Brown

In the 1960s he was cast in roles in two world premieres David Ireland’s “Image in the Clay” and Oriel Gray’s “The Torrents” at the Pocket Playhouse. He also acted in “Mrs Gibbons Boys” before leaving for London.

In London he worked in television advertising, production and scriptwriting before touring Europe and returning to Australia and further work in advertising.

In the late 1960s he was back in London working in publicity and promotion for the “Evening Standard” newspaper. From June to September 1970 he spent three months in Canada and America visiting newspapers and art centres.

On his return to Australia in October 1970 he was appointed the first Publicity Manager of the Sydney Opera House and remained as Head of Public Affairs after a staff restructure until his retirement in 1997 when he was the recipient of the Public Service Medal for his contribution to the Sydney Opera House and performing arts.

On Australia Day, 1993 he was the first Australia Day Ambassador to Mudgee Shire at the request of Shire President, Peter Mansfield.

David and Norman have been friends for almost 50 years and remain in constant contact by email, telephone and personal visits.

Previous 1 2 3 4 Next

Page 3: Personalities

During his years in the theatre Norman McVicker was fortunate to meet many theatre personalities from ‘top of the bill’ actors, directors and technicians to those who worked on the sidelines as playwrights, musicians and mechanists. Here are some of their stories:

Colin Croft

Studio portrait of Colin Croft used for publicity purposes.

Colin Croft started his stage career at the age of seven with the Young Australia League. I first saw him with this company in a performance at the Prince Edward Theatre. I was about seventeen at the time and Colin and I were about the same age.

During World War II I caught up with him again when he was a comedian, actor and dancer with an Australian Army Entertainment Unit in which he did a comedy act on roller skates.

After the war years Colin’s career blossomed and it took him all over the world in practically every branch of show business and he was equally at home in drama, variety, cabaret, films, television, radio, ballet and light opera as well as the concert platform.

He toured the Orient and South Pacific for four months making an extensive study of Japanese drama, Chinese opera and Polynesian dancing. He was also a writer and director.

At one stage in his career Colin was resident comedian at Sydney’s Menzies Hotel in a series of famous Broadway musicals, where the critics lauded him from ‘virtuoso’ to ‘tour de force’.

In 1970 before starting a 2 months tour of NSW country towns with Anna Russell in “The last gasp of Anna Russell with resuscitation by Colin Croft”, they did a run-in of their show at the Pocket Playhouse.

Sadly, Colin Croft died some years ago.

Anna Russel

Anna Russell as she appeared in the programme for “The Last Gasp of Anna Russell with Resuscitation by Colin Croft”.

Anna Russell was a ‘top of the bill’ performer before she came to live in Australia. London Born Anna attended the Royal College of Music for five years, majoring in voice, piano, composition and cello.

With the outbreak of World War II, Anna and her mother moved to Toronto, Canada, where she performed on radio, entertained army personnel, wrote and composed her own material, and appeared with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra.

A year later she set off to conquer New York. She did! Major critics hailed her as one of the truly great artists of her generation. Anna starred in every important music festival in North America, and was a featured soloist with major symphonic orchestras. She appeared with the New York City Opera Company and starred in her own Broadway show.

On her second visit to Australia for the ABC Anna bought a large house on the waterfront at Sylvania Waters, Sydney in 1968.

In 1970 she toured NSW country towns with Colin Croft in their own show “The last gasp of Anna Russell with Resuscitation by Colin Croft” in which she performed the piece for which she was renowned “Wagner’s Ring of the Nibelung”. During a run in season at the Pocket Playhouse she presented me with (inscribed and autographed on the cover) a copy of her LP that includes her “Ring” piece. It is hilarious!

The last time I saw and talked to Anna Russell was in Brentano’s Bookshop in San Francisco where she was “holding court’ as a guest speaker. In her last years Anna lived at Rosedale near Bateman’s Bay where she died on 18th October, 2006, aged 94 years.