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Craven School Pupils in "The Cup"

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Description: Pictured here is the cast of the original comedy, "The Cup", performed by the students of Craven School for Girls for the benefit of the Sick and Wounded Soldiers Fund. From left: Esther Armstrong, Betty Joske, Nita McHardy, Phyllis Goodson, Mr Stevens, Jessie Ritchie, Glory Simson (?), Dorothy Levin. The Craven School for Girls was a boarding and day school for young ladies, mostly from Palmerston North but some of whom came from as far as the South Island to board at the elite school.

Theatre and variety show performances were one of many ways that local people gathered funds for patriotic efforts. The girls pictured here are pupils of the school, but the man in the centre is Mr Stephens of Wellington, who was the singing tutor at the school according to the caption on the back of one of the photographs. The reviews for the show were very positive (see below) and a total of £46 10 s (over $6500 in today's money). The script for "The Cup" and several of the musical numbers were written by Miss W Fraser, one of the head mistresses at the school. It was about a statue (played by Mr Stephens) that comes to life in a girls school - no other performances of this play could be found in the newspapers of the time.