FORMER ACTRESSES REVIVE MEMORIES OF ACTING DAYS

They were just young women out to have fun when they took to the stage in Oscar Wilde's classic comedy, "The Importance of Being Ernest."

The year was 1927. Bobbed-hair cuts and finger-waves were in vogue and worn fashionably by Amy Howatt, Agnes Dickson and Lolita Dickieson of Crapaud. .

"I was full of the devil I guess," laughs Mrs. Howatt, now 81. "We were all just out to have a good time."

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,Have fun they did! On stage Agnes Dickson was young Gwendolyn Fairfax who had a strict mother named Lady Brackness. Amy Howatt was % the regal Lady Cecilly, and Lolita Dickieson was the serious Ms. Prism,

Cecilly's chaperone and tutor.

The play was directed by an Englishman named Stuart Dickson who .é had only intended to stay on the Island for a short time. Then he met

Agnes who later he married.

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;. Mrs. Howatt's husband-to-be was also in the play as Lane the :. Butler. E Sixty-three years have passed since The Young People of St. John's

,. Church performed "The Importance of Being Ernest" in front of audiences §~ 2 across the province.

: SHARED A LOVE OF MUSIC

The three girls who shared a love of music and dancing and good old-fashioned fun are now married. Mrs. Howatt and Mrs. Dickson are Grandmothers and great grandmothers. They displayed pictures of their

children and their children's children.

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They serve homemade blueberry muffins and juice to visitors. But there's no forgetting past glOries.

The young cast of "The Importance of Being Ernest" was immor- talized on film by a Mr. Cook of Charlottetown back in 1928. Copies

of that photograph are well preserved and kept proudly by these women.

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"I remember the day we had our picture taken. The old fellow was bow-legged," says Mrs. Howatt, standing up to imitate the photographer. "He made about 15 trips before he got us the way he wanted us and we

couldn't smile."

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When Mrs. Howatt heard that Homefree Productions had included "The Importance of Being Ernest" in their summer repetoire, she told her daughter that she wanted to go to Georgetown.

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