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management. We hope they may not be out of pocket as the Garrison Company was last year.
After the initial ballyhoo about the Committee, described as a "scolding given in true washer-woman style", which only amused the town, the season was a great success. A slightly sour note was injected into the 1862-63 season because only four performances were given, while it had been announced when advertising for subscriptions that there would be six. Complaints compounded in 1863-64 when prices were advanced to a sum which was thought to be "just beyond the limit to which a class were prepared to pay for entertainment". Consequently, the theatre for the first performance was only half filled.
The 1865-66 season also began inauspiciously. At a meeting in November to arrange for the coming season, there was such poor attendance that it was feared the Amateurs might have to give up.
When the Amateur Dramatic Corps looked back on its history, it gave its founding date as 1860, however, in the announcements of the group in the 1860s it is called the Hong Kong Amateur Theatrical Society.
THE THEATRE ROYAL
Amateur dramatics took on a new vigour with the organisation or reorganisation of the theatrical group in 1860. Revived interest emphasised the need of a suitable theatre. Until the opening of the Theatre Royal in the City Hall in 1869, various makeshift arrangements had to be made after the Victoria Theatre was closed in the 1850s.
In 1861, the China Mail looked toward the future:
We hope the time is not distant when a neat permanent building constructed on the best known principles of acoustics will take the place of the temporary mat sheds, which need so much exertion on the performers' part, and indulgence on that of the audience. The acoustics are bad. Now that the capability of having these entertainments annually is beginning to be procured, it would be well to take measures soon, to
225
management. We hope they may not be out of pocket as the Garrison Company was last year."
After the initial ballyhoo about the Committee, described as a "scolding given in true washer-woman style", which only amused the town, the season was a great success. A slightly sour note was injected into the 1862-63 season because only four performances were given, while it had been announced when advertising for subscriptions that there would be six. Complaints compounded in 1863-64 when prices were advanced to a sum which was thought to be "just beyond the limit to which a class were prepared to pay for entertainment". Consequently, the theatre for the first performance was only half filled.
The 1865-66 season also began inauspiciously. At a meet- ing in November to arrange for the coming season, there was such poor attendance that it was feared the Amateurs might have to give up.
When the Amateur Dramatic Corps looked back on its history, it gave its founding date as 1860, however, in the announcements of the group in the 1860s it is called the Hong Kong Amateur Theatrical Society.
THE THEATRE ROYAL
Amateur dramatics took on a new vigour with the organisa- tion or reorganisation of the theatrical group in 1860. Revived interest emphasised the need of a suitable theatre. Until the opening of the Theatre Royal in the City Hall in 1869, various makeshift arrangements had to be made after the Victoria Theatre was closed in the 1850s.
In 1861, the China Mail looked toward the future:
We hope the time is not distant when a neat permanent building constructed on the best known principles of acoustics will take the place of the temporary mat sheds, which need so much exertion on the performers part, and indulgence on that of the audience. The acoustics are bad. Now that the capability of having these entertainments annually is beginning to be procured, it would be well to take measures soon, to
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