[
    {
        "id": 209590,
        "series_id": 26,
        "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine",
        "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊",
        "series_use_hku_proxy": false,
        "document_key": "RAS-1982",
        "page_number": 247,
        "title": "RAS-1982",
        "content_text": "225\n\nmanagement. We hope they may not be out of pocket as the Garrison Company was last year.\n\nAfter 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.\n\nThe 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.\n\nWhen 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.\n\nTHE THEATRE ROYAL\n\nAmateur 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.\n\nIn 1861, the China Mail looked toward the future:\n\nWe 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",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1982.txt",
        "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mk61z420p",
        "rank": 0
    },
    {
        "id": 209603,
        "series_id": 26,
        "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine",
        "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊",
        "series_use_hku_proxy": false,
        "document_key": "RAS-1982",
        "page_number": 260,
        "title": "RAS-1982",
        "content_text": "238 \n\nCARL T. SMITH \n\nThe Regiment Amateur Dramatic Society put on in 1876 at the Garrison Theatre two short pieces, \"Maud's Peril\" and \"John Brown John's Holiday\". Both were written by an anonymous local resident. \n\nCapt. Bunbury wrote a burlesque entitled \"Butter Cup Bower\" for presentation at an open air fete to raise funds for the Alice Memorial Hospital in 1886. It was repeated several months later as the dramatic portion of “A Musical and Dramatic Entertainment\" to raise funds for an annual treat to the children of non-commissioned officers and men of the Garrison. \n\nGARRISON AMATEUR GROUPS \n\nWe have noted that the first amateur dramatics were encouraged as diversion and entertainment for the military. Through the years various army and navy amateur groups have been organized in Hong Kong. \n\nThey performed under different names. These often included the name of the ship, regiment or unit of the performers. In the 1860s a group called the Garrison Amateur Theatrical Society was active. It was composed of officers. In 1897 there is notice of The Garrison Dramatic Society. The Military Mummers flourished from 1889 to 1892. In the 90s other groups called themselves \"The Sons of Neptune\" and \"The Beetles\". \n\nDuring the 90s it was popular to put on productions called \"Grand Assault at Arms\" accompanied by \"Military Spectacular Exhibitions\". An 1893 production of this type concluded with \"a grand representation of an attack on the Fortress of Ali Musjid\", and at another in 1898 by a naval group from H.M.S. Powerful, the finale was three \"real life Tableaux\": Ready for Action, Battle Scene, and the Death of Nelson. At this particular performance Prince Henry and Princess Irene of the Prussian royal house were present. A patter song was introduced expressing these hopeful sentiments: \n\nOne word before I end my song \n\nTo welcome in far Hongkong \n\nThe grandson of our Gracious Queen† \n\nPrince Henry's mother was Victoria, the Princess Royal, daughter of Queen Victoria, and wife of Frederick III, of Germany.",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1982.txt",
        "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mk61z420p",
        "rank": 0
    },
    {
        "id": 211773,
        "series_id": 26,
        "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine",
        "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊",
        "series_use_hku_proxy": false,
        "document_key": "RAS-1989",
        "page_number": 188,
        "title": "RAS-1989",
        "content_text": "163\n\nconcert. Everything was conducted in a quiet gentlemenly manner so that we imagined ourselves in a drawing room more than in a theatre. There was no attempt at grandeur of display (...) which characterises too much the quasi musical taste of the day where the composition of the author is sacrificed frequently to the execution of the performer and the audience is led to think more of the latter than of the former**. \"The \"Shanghai Commercial Record\" reported in a similar laudatory way about the Annual Volunteer Concert on February 15, 1865: “We fancy few home concerts could show anything better; amateur concerts we are sure rarely could\".20\n\nHowever, about professional musicians, and those formed the majority of performers, the critic sometimes made no bones about his disapproval: speaking of a recital given by a Professor Shonbrun on the piano in March 1859, he was \"sorry to say we have no great opinion of his powers; the skill and artistic feeling which would be highly respectable in an Amateur reflect no especial credit on a professional player'\"; at the same time **the Amateurs who assisted Mr. Shonbrun did their share well and merit great praise\". Thus the line was drawn, at least by this particular reviewer.\n\nIII. The Companies\n\nA. Theatrical\n\n**21\n\nWriting about the theatrical companies that performed in Shanghai during the period 1850-1865, a distinction must be made between those that were got up from among the local residents, those that were initiated by the military garrison, and those that were of a professional, travelling nature.\n\nThe Local Companies\n\nOn November 15, 1866, it was proposed at a meeting of the Dramatic Corps of the Infantry and Rangers of the Shanghai Volunteers Corps that “a Dramatic Society be formed\",22 and hardly a month later the Shanghai Amateur Dramatic Corps was established on December 7.23 Its objects were stated to be \"the encouragement and maintenance of an amateur theatre in Shanghai; the maintenance of a theatrical library and the management of funds for theatrical purposes\". There were to be no honorary members but only those who were willing to be active",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1989.txt",
        "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8336pm92h",
        "rank": 0
    }
]