News Release:
Play revival illustrates Armidale's education history
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Date 3/3/03 No 023/03 A highlight of the Alumni Weekend celebrating 75 years of teacher
education in Armidale will be a performance of one of the first
plays ever produced at Armidale Teachers' College. Education alumni of the Teachers' College (later the Armidale College
of Advanced Education) and the University of New England will attend
next weekend's program of celebration at the University after travelling
from as far afield as Tasmania. They will include at least one graduate
of the College's "Pioneer Session" of 1928-29. The Man in the Bowler Hat, by A. A. Milne, was performed
by students on December 12, 1930, as one of a trio of one-act plays
to celebrate the opening of the College building and the establishment
of drama education courses Local theatre director Judith Lamb is directing a cast of young
actors in the play, which will be presented to alumni and special
guests at 6.30 pm on Saturday 8 March in the Old Teachers' College
Auditorium (the scene of the 1930 performance). Ms Lamb came across
details of the 1930 production during her research into the history
of theatre in Armidale. "The play is a comedy and was very
popular with amateur theatrical groups at the time," Ms Lamb
said. "It is appropriate, fun, and an authentic glimpse at
the popular entertainment of that period." Bill Crocker, who
was a Principal Lecturer in Communication at the College and a prominent
actor in Armidale, and his wife Lenore, a well-known theatre designer,
are assisting in the production. After the performance, the audience of about 150 will sit down to a celebratory dinner at which Professor Ingrid Moses, Vice-Chancellor of UNE, will welcome the alumni and other guests. The guest speaker at the dinner will be Wendy McCarthy, AO, a graduate of both the Teachers' College and the University in Armidale, a winner of the UNE Distinguished Alumni Award, and Patron of the Friends of the Old Teachers' College. |
The dinner will close a day of activities including tours of the
Old Teachers' College (now the University's C. B. Newling Building),
the UNE Heritage Centre's Education Museum, Booloominbah (the nineteenth-century
mansion that forms the historic heart of the main UNE campus), and
the University's Education Building. Sunday 9 March will begin with an Education Forum titled "Challenges for the Teaching Profession in the 21st Century", chaired by Paul Johnstone, MBE, and facilitated by Dr Warren Newman, a former Principal Lecturer at the College. The speakers will be Mrs Rosemary Torbay (a teacher at Armidale City Public School), Mr Bill Driscoll (a former Principal Lecturer at the College, Ms Judith Fell (a teacher at Newling Public School), and Professor Steve Dinham from UNE's School of Education. At noon, Dr Lionel Gilbert OAM, an historian and a former Principal
Lecturer at the College, will speak at the unveiling of a sundial
dedicated to the memory of former College Principal Paul Lamb. Commissioned
by Judith Lamb, and designed by her and Dr Gilbert, the sundial
will stand in the garden facing the main entrance of the C. B. Newling
Building. Media contact: Dr Margaret Gummow, Senior Policy and Project Officer
to the Vice-Chancellor, UNE, Armidale (02) 6773 3246 or Alumni Relations
Officer, UNE Armidale (02) 6773 3365. A photograph of Lenore Crocker (left) and Judith Lamb (right) taken outside the Old Teachers' College (C. B. Newling Building) is available. |
