MONTHLY LETTER January 1956 THE CHRISTMAS DINNER ...

theatre will not be ready for the 1957 season but it is planned to have it completed for
* 1958.
Boardings around the boulevard at the north end of University Avenue in Toronto are
an indication that at last work has commenced on the memorial to the late R. H. Saunders,
Chairman of the Ontario Hydro-Electric Power Commission. It will be of interest to
members to know that the central feature of the memorial will be a relief portrait of
Mr. Saunders designed by fellow member, Emanuel Hahn. This will have a setting on a
massive stone base leading to a pool into which a stream of water will flow.
OF THE THEATRE AND TELEVISION
Floyd S. Chalmers in his capacity as Chairman of the Charitable Foundation Committee
of the Stratford Permanent Theatre Fund has been busily engaged of late in rounding up
subscriptions for this very worthy cultural objective. It is reported that he has personally
raised more than a quarter of a million dollars to date. Mr. Chalmers is President
of the Maclean-Hunter Publishing Company Limited, Toronto.
Rai Purdy is going to Scotland to become Director of Programs for Roy Thomson's TV
station there. He left Toronto six years ago to become a Television Director for CBS in
New York. He has retained his connection with the Club as an out-of-town member and now
would like to let his fellow members know what he has in prospect. The Thomson station
will be the one and only commercial TV station in Scotland and Rai says - "I am certain
that a good volume of very worthwhile material and talent will find its way into our
Sweekly schedule. We have bought the Theatre Royal in Glasgow and will remodel it for
TV studios. The transmitter will be half way between Glasgow and Edinburgh. We hope
to start televising next August, with a comprehensive coverage of the Edinburgh Festival
which we will feed to the whole of the British Isles." Rai sends his warmest regards to
all who remember him.
Earle Grey and his players are now in the midst of their nine weeks "barnstorming"
tour of the secondary schools of Ontario. This year they are visiting 40 schools in a
series of one-night stands, putting on a 22 hour performance made up of lengthy selections
from Hamlet, Macbeth, Twelfth Night and Merchant of Venice. In this way they
combine the interest of the senior grades in the tragedies and the junior grades in
the comedies. Travelling by automobile with their paraphrenalia - scenery, costumes,
lights, etc. - packed in a truck, their progress from town to town bears a certain
resemblance to the way the itinerant players of old used to move about the country.
They customarily arrive at a school at 3:30 or 4 o'clock in the afternoon and spend the
time until dinner getting everything in readiness for the evening performance. After
the show their equipment is removed and repacked; they spend the night at a hotel or
motel and move off next morning to their next engagement. There are 6 men and 3 women
in the company and all are competent to do just about everything in running the show.
The tour opened on October 2 and will conclude the end of November.
Mavor Moore contributes to the autumn number of the University of Toronto Quarterly
an article which should be "must" reading for all concerned with the future of the
theatre in Canada. Between his opening assertion that "we own the world's most famous
blank face" and the wind-up of his article several pages on, when he warns that "if
Swe miss our chance our face shall be not only blank but red", he has built up a powerful
argument in support of "a theatre for Canada", which shall be original and not
imitative. He instances the outstanding success of two purely Canadian productions,
"Ti-Coq", a record breaker in Montreal, and "Spring Thaw" in Toronto, as proof that there
is a field in Canada for the development of a national theatre. As a backing for this
8.