Theatre in Australia

CU of Australian flag. WS exterior of Theatre Royal at night. Silhouette figures at entrance backlit. GS of brick wall with tattered theatre posters. Figure appears in silhouette, pastes poster onto wall with brush. Opening titles (in style of old theatre bill). VS at night of city streets, theatre exteriors and signs - Theatre Royal entrance with signs for "A Streetcar Named Desire", tilt up to "Royal" neon sign. Sign for Mary La Roche and Richard Collett in "South Pacific". Sign for "Annie Get Your Gun". Tivoli entrance, tilt up to neon sign. Independent Theatre neon sign. GS stage lighting, tilt down to backstage preparations. High angle WS over actors running to positions on stage. WS ornate theatre ceiling. Tilt down to large audience in mezzanine and stalls. WS stage curtain rising to reveal large cast of actors in Scandinavian folk costume. VS actors around maypole. WS audience and pan back up to roof of theatre.

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VS of Aboriginal men and boys performing Corroboree in bush clearing. They wear traditional white body paint with western shorts. GS of the dancers circling two Aboriginal men in full western dress and Akubra hats, one playing didgeridoo. Low angle MS of man in traditional dress playing didgeridoo and good shots of dance.

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Unidentified colonial painting of Sydney Cove. Painting "A View of Sydney Cove, NSW". Playbill for first Australian Shakespeare performance "March 8, 1800.. The Recruiting Officer". Colonial paintings - "Ansicht der Georgs Strasse zu Sidney, Neu-Sud-Wales", "Sydney Cove looking to the west", unidentified paintings of Sydney Cove and busy street. Book "Sydney Directory for 1834" with hands flipping through pages. "Levy, Barnett, Theatre Royal". Painting of Royal Hotel. Sketch of "Mr. Levey's New Theatre". Still of Dymock's building, Sydney. 1832 Sydney Theatre Royal bill advertising "Black-Eyed Susan". Theatre Royal advertisement for (Conrad) "Knowles Benefit Night". Colonial painting of Sydney street. Various playbills for Royal Victoria Theatre Pitt Street listing actors including Miss Winstanley, first Australian born stage actress, and performances of "Othello", "The Middy Ashore", Mr. Nesbitt in "William Tell", "Hibernian Father", "Currency Lass".

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Various paintings and drawings showing developing Sydney colony including "A view of Sydney Cove, NSW". Colonial drawing of immigrants in Victorian formal dress crowded onto wharf. CU of open book (Shakespeare's First Folio) with portrait of Shakespeare. Page turns to reveal next page with list of actors for Shakespeare plays. Various CUs of spines of old leather bound books by Shakespeare, Ben Jonson, Beaumont and Fletcher, Aristophanes, Euripides, Goethe, Schiller. CUs of open books by Karl Gutzkow, Voltaire, Moliere. Painting "George Street from Margaret St. looking south". Various stills of Sydney theatre exteriors including Castlereagh St. Theatre Royal, Victoria Hall and Hotel, Queens Theatre, Her Majesty's in Pitt St. Still of WS of tiered audience at Her Majesty's. Still of WS of group standing on rubble of burnt theatre remains. Painting of Theatre Royal interior (Sydney 1875). Painting of theatre audience from behind rows in upper level.

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Performance of melodrama "The Streets of London" as staged by Whitehall theatrical company in Sydney circa 1948-9. Scene shows man waking under lamppost on set portraying city street. He wonders aloud about how he'll find money. A beggar passes and sings a short song to get a penny from a rich man. The man's sister Lucy arrives and they exclaim their woes. They embrace and are covered in a load of fake snow. CU of painting of theatre audience from behind rows in upper level (as seen previously at 00:07:41:00). New scene in stately home depicts wealthy father with large moustache plotting to control his future son-in-law by lending him money. Includes scheming monologue to camera. CU pan across sketch of line of Victorian era women, possibly actors, flinching in fear. VS of play continued. Repeat sketch of scared actors.

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CU of drawing of aristocratic man in suit with piece of fruit about to hit him in face. VS of performance of melodrama "The Streets of London" continued, as staged by Whitehall theatrical company in Sydney circa 1948-9. The plotting father and daughter prepare for the wedding. CU of painting of theatre audience from behind rows in upper level (as seen previously at 00:07:41:00). "The Streets of London" continued - the father is foiled when future son-in-law catches on to his scheme and marries a different woman. CU of "The Programme" theatre newspaper page with section on "The Streets of London". CU of Minerva theatre program for "The Streets of London".

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Tilt down to table with portraits of various performers laid out. Wider shot of room (perhaps museum) with woman examining document. Various paintings and drawings of early Melbourne theatres including The Pavilion, Bourke St (Theatre Royal), the Eagle Tavern and Theatre Royal, Queen's Theatre, and Olympic Theatre (Iron Pot). Playbill for (George) Coppins Olympic Theatre. VS of old sisters (Coppins' daughters) at home looking through photographs including their father actor/entrepreneur George Coppin, producer/actor Joseph "Bland" Holt, Coppin in Marble Bar at Melbourne Theatre Royal, actor/manager George Rignold in suit and top hat and in costume with turban. CU of wood engraving of actor Gustavus Vaughan Brooke. Still of actor Joseph "Bland" Holt. Stills of unidentified actors. Theatre Royal advertisement for actors wanted, addressed to the "honest, respectable unemployed... what the state cannot rectify the stage can... Advance Australia!".

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Unidentified drawings of gold miners. Portrait of actress Lola Montez. Playbill advertising Montez' "Spider Dance!". Painting of Adelaide Ristori performance. Playbill for Ristori and the Italian Dramatic Company's performance of "Elizabeth! Queen of England". Still of actress Sarah Bernhardt. Painting of people queuing with suitcases. Playbill (bound in book) advertising Bernhardt's first appearance in Sydney. Silent footage of Bernhardt performing as Marguerite in "La Dame aux Camelias" ("The Lady of the Camellias"). Playbills advertising Bernhardt as "Cleopatra" and "Theodora". Page from periodical "Australasian Sketcher" with wood engraving of actors James Cassius Williamson and wife Maggie Moore in "Struck Oil!". Various portraits and playbills headlining Moore and Williamson including Royal Comic Opera Company "The Gondoliers", "Iolanthe", "Farewell Dorothy", "Mikado".

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Performance of "Three Little Maids from School" number in J. C. Williamson Theatres production of "The Mikado" circa 1950. Theatre Royal programs for Royal Comic Opera Company productions of "H.M.S. Pinafore", "Yeoman of the Guard" and "The Gondoliers". Various paintings and drawings of theatre exteriors, interiors, audiences and actors including actors on stage performing to full audience, wealthy family in private box laughing and clapping, actors in costume with boy fighting dragon. Page from periodical "Australasian Sketcher" with engraving of rows of female actors in costume as warriors with shields and spears. Playbill for J. C. Williamson production with Alfred Dampier. Alexandra Theatre playbill advertising "Robbery Under Arms", starring Dampier as Captain Starlight. Playbill for "The Silence of Dean Maitland". CU of album containing various portrait stills of unidentified Australian theatre actors posing in costume.

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Various portraits of Nellie Stewart. Playbills advertising Stewart performances including "Du Barry", "Sweet Nell of Old Drury" and "Trilby". Drawing of actress striding past shocked audience. VS of female dancers performing cancan in melodrama "Streets of London", circa 1948-9. Drawing of lady hiding behind fan in audience. CU of official program booklet for "inauguration of Australian commonwealth at Sydney". Postcard in honor of visiting Duke and Duchess. Flyer announcing funeral of Queen Victoria. Advertisement for "original cinematograph". Advertisement for Chaplin's "The Idle Class". Newspaper article on pilot Ron Smith. Drawing of Her Majesty's Theatre. WS of Her Majesty's building exterior converted to shops, passing pedestrians and trams and CU of chiseled sign. Movie posters for "Show Boat", "Romeo and Juliet". Various "Hamlet" playbills including J. C. Williamson production with Dorothea Baird, Princess Theatre with Hunter-Watts, Laurence Olivier with portrait.

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VS of Act II scene ii of "Hamlet" with Laurence Olivier as Hamlet meeting the players.

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Access No. 141303 | 1 min | 1940s | © Granada International | B&W |

VS at night of city streets and neon signs including "Plaza", "St. James", "State", "Century", "Victory", "Lyceum", "Minerva". CU pages turning in book of theatre actor portraits. Still of actor, probably Oscar Asche. Theatre Royal playbills for Oscar Asche in "Othello" and Judith Anderson in "Tea for Three". CU of page reading "Marie Tempest together with Graham Browne" resting on pile of playbills. Hand picks it up. CU of book of portraits continued. Playbill for amateur performance of "Charles XII". Melbourne Theatre Royal playbill for amateur show. Painting of early Perth settlement on Swan River, dissolve to present day Perth skyline. WS exterior of Old Court House, Perth. VS of girl and grandmother taking 1839 silk program for theatrical performance of "Love a La Militaire" from jewellery box. Various playbills and programes for Women's Literary Society, Sydney University Dramatic Society, Women Shakespeare Players, Shakespeare Society of NSW and Playbox Society.

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VS exterior of Independent Theatre with double-decker buses passing. WS stagehands outside rear of theatre. WS through window over roofs of small inner city Melbourne houses. Pan to back of church hall used as The Little Theatre. WS activity in front of Little Theatre and CU of sign. GS framed document hanging on wall, possibly seating plan. Exterior of building "Munster House". WS through window to industrial buildings across street. Warehouse space with ladders and covered furniture. VS of Patch Theatre, Perth, in converted warehouse space. Producer Ida Bebe walks through stage area. WS pan across empty auditorium. WS of stage as patchwork curtain is drawn. Dissolve to match frame with people in audience. Ida Bebe walks onto stage. VS of performance of "Chance And Mrs. Buffington" and audience applauding. GS of set painter pushing ladder with stagehands hurrying past in background. MS of actress having costume fitted. WS of actress and crew on stage.

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CU of theatre program for play "Baffled Idealists". Page turns to next listing "Dreamers and Singers". Various playbills including "A New Way to Pay Old Debts", Royal Victoria Theatre's "The Hibernian Father", "The Sunny South", Bohemian Dramatic Company's "A Coo-ee from the Past, or Wild Days in the Bush". CU of Coo-ee playwright Edward O'Sullivan's income tax assessment for 1906. Various playbills on wall, including "The Rudd Family". ECU handwritten script, probably "Rudd Family". MS playwright Douglas Stewart at typewriter. Playbill for Stewart's "Ned Kelly". Various "Ned Kelly" scenery and costume watercolour sketches by Norman Lindsay. VS playwright Henrietta Drake-Brockman at typewriter. WS pan across barren rural landscape to lone farmhouse. GS thick bush. Pan across surface of lake with waterlilies in bloom and ducks swimming. VS of performance of Henrietta Drake-Brockman's "Men Without Wives" as staged by the Perth Repertory Club.

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Various playbills for Melbourne Little Theatre. VS preparations for amateur production at the Little Theatre. Lounge room with actors in circle looking at scripts. Producer Irene Mitchell rehearsing actors. Stage with producer Brett Randall in beret gesturing to technician adjusting light levels. VS technicians working on lights and painters working on sets. LS down hallway cluttered with props. Tilt from ceiling lined with old playbills to dressing room with male actors applying makeup. GS of actress in dressing room pulling on pantyhose with leg propped on piano stool. MS woman buying ticket from producer Brett Randall and wider shot of box office. CU framed document hanging on wall, possibly theatre seating plan. VS of cluttered office and Randall taking script from shelf. VS of performance of "Volpone", as staged by New Theatre in Melbourne, in scene where Mosca meets Leone. Includes VS of small audience.

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CU autographed program for Australian amateur theatre "1939 Drama Festival Competition". VS meeting of WA festival committee with group sitting around boardtable beside fireplace as adjudicator Paul Hasluck reports on his visits to various amateur theatre companies. Quick shot of "Repertory Club" sign on glass door. WS pan of office. LS of city street with pedestrians along footpath. Pan to corner of building with various signs advertising entrance to Repertory Theatre and warning to watch for vehicles. Pan to LS of laneway. Low angle WS of rafters in studio roof. Tilt down to group of drama students. VS of students practicing laughter and elocution. WS of teacher and class watching two students miming seduction scene on stage. VS of female students learning deportment descending stairs balancing books on heads. CU of female student in fencing gear pointing foil at camera. CU of female student reciting lines from Bernard Shaw's "Saint Joan".

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VS of courtroom scene in student production. Actor playing judge stands at pulpit beside fake jury made out of wood and operated by technician behind scenes. Class watches in audience. VS of male student reading "Amateur Dramatics" book, then "Hamlet", and practicing line "to be or not to be" with dramatic gesticulation beside mirror. VS of actors rehearsing on stage in large theatre with understudy watching on. VS of J. C. Williamson Ltd art director George Kenyon showing miniature sets and scene sketches to managing director Frank Tait. VS of Tait and Kenyon inspecting set workshop. Young male assistant paints boat on large backdrop. Includes CU of paint brush dabbing paint. Technician lowers another backdrop for old man painting with spray gun. CU of album with various photographs of completed sets as hand turns pages. CU of book with various illustrations of theatre actors in costumes. Pages turn. ECU of illustration of women's costumes.

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MS of two wardrobe ladies working on dress. VS of female actress beside mannequin, both wearing similar regal costume. VS of old man pulling various costumes off rack and grinning at actresses who appear beside him wearing the costumes. VS of masks on shelves. VS of man constructing papier mache horse mask in mould. Man holding completed horse mask, moving eye and mouth. VS of pantomime horse performing on stage, dancing around woman then falling over. Long rack of theatre lights being lowered over electrician. Large electrical switchboard as technician flicks lever. Electrician gesturing for lights on rack to be dimmed. LS along stage curtain to technicians at flies on far wall. The curtain is raised, backdrop lowered. Pan across labelled fly rail. VS flymen operating pulleys and backdrops falling. VS of Tivoli Theatre set changeover with numerous stagehands turning reversible set, rushing furniture and flats onto stage and adjusting lights. GS of switchboard continued.

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GS painted garden backdrop through window in theatre set and sound effects. MS stagehand operating wind machine by cranking handle of wooden drum under canvas sheet. Garden backdrop as rain starts to fall. CU of stagehand drumming metal thunder sheet labelled with list of directions "louder", "crash" etc and stagehand turning rain sound effect barrel. VS rain machine on stage with stagehand cranking pump lever and trough catching rain. Technician wearing goggles and smoking cigarette squats over soldering iron in background. VS of fire scene in theatrical production. Firemen with ladder and antique water pump rush onto set with city buildings. Stagehands backstage flash lights and blow through pipe into pan of lycopodium to create flames in window. The firemen attempt to put out the fire. MS of J.C. Williamson employee Harold Bardon? sitting at desk on phone. He hangs up when he is approached by Eric Walkwist? and shown box office figures. They smile and nod. Dissolve to next shot.

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LS down street in Melbourne University with parked cars and students. WS of the Union Theatre as curtain rises to reveal two stagehands looking at painted backdrop. WS of lighting director Desmond Connor in otherwise empty auditorium. VS of student rehearsal of Chekhov's "Seagull". Connor directs technicians over phone from front row. Includes CU of handwritten lighting plot and VS of technicians backstage. Main technician in booth wears headphones and flicks dimmer levers. Actors on stage rehearse part of act 1.

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WS exterior of University of WA building. VS of lecture theatre with students taking notes. Lecturer Jean Tweedy stands beside blackboard with floor plan for Elizabethan theatre. Includes CU of student's hands flipping through notebook. Dissolve to WS pan across university grounds to Sunken Garden outdoor theatre. VS of day and night performances of "A Midsummer Night's Dream". WS of audience applauding. Night performance includes Puck and arrival of Oberon and Titania and their train.

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CU playbills on Aust. Army Amenities Service noticeboard. WS exterior Area Theatre. VS Amenities Southern Command officers inspecting timetable for Victorian civilian concert parties. VS concert party in two old buses on country road and arriving at Puckapunyal army base, welcomed by female soldiers. VS show preparation - actress brushing hair, technicians, soldiers in audience. VS performance with female tap dancers in striped costumes, band with ukelele. CU various stills army mobile theatre stage frame on back of truck. VS entertainer Gracie Fields arriving in jeep at Kookaburra Amphitheatre. VS amphitheatre under construction and completed. CU Aust. Army Entertainment Unit sign and VS show preparation - unloading equipment, actors rehearsing including Peter Finch, pianist composing, set drawings, painter with backdrop of embracing couple, naked female statue and other props, makeshift wardrobe shed. WS over audience and band to chorus line with female impersonators.

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CU various programs for on J. C. Williamson's "The Kiwis" Revue Company including photographs of cast and director Terry Vaughan. Exterior Victorian Council of Adult Learning building (no sign) as man enters. VS two men in office looking at map of country Victoria. VS Victoria's Travelling Theatre arrival and performance at Koondrook Memorial Hall (with CU of sign). Theatregoers crowding entrance and arriving in school bus. VS of performance of J. B. Priestly's "Laburnum Grove". VS set props and equipment being packed up. VS Victoria's Travelling Theatre troupe in semitrailer leaving town, including tracking WS along street with waving country children and ramshackle picket fence. VS of performance of J. B. Priestly's "Laburnum Grove" continued. VS actors rehearsing lines in cabin of semitrailer (no audio) and semitrailer on the road. MS male drama student (seen previously) reading book ''Adult Education in Victoria" and beside mirror scratching chin.

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CU of book "Plays for Children". Hand opens it to reveal title page for play "Magpie Gully", then turns to "The Emperor's New Clothes". LS down city street to Sydney Harbour Bridge. Tram and pedestrians pass. Pan to hotel across street (possibly Ship Inn on Pitt Street). GS of city laneway. Pan to building corner with grimy sign "The Chalet Restaurant". VS of small-scale production of children's play "The Reluctant Dragon". Some shots taken from behind actors showing small audience of children reacting and applauding. VS of performance of Eleanor Whitcombe's play "Smugglers Beware" as staged by the Children's National Theatre, Sydney. Includes VS of large audience of children reacting, laughing, bouncing in seats and applauding.

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VS Fort Street Sydney primary school classroom. Teacher talks about upcoming play. Enthusiastic students put hands in air and stand to ask questions. Drama supervisor for NSW Department of Education writes notes on board. Girl standing and singing silly song while other children laugh. VS children being picked for teams by two students. Last girl to be chosen shuffles forward waving hand until someone finally calls her name. WS of two boys rehearsing in classroom. WS of final production of "The Enchanted Shirt" on school hall stage.

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CU Whitehall book of plays for school productions. CU Theatre Royal program for "Twelfth Night". VS high school students crowding into Sydney Theatre Royal foyer past box office and upstairs. VS actresses in dressing room doing hair, costume and makeup. VS Mayne Lynton production of "Twelfth Night" with Olivia and Malvolio. Includes VS large audience of high school children. Actress heading to dressing room for costume change. Stage manager in prompt corner peering through viewing hole. VS of performance continued with Sir Toby Belch engineering duel. VS audience laughing and applauding.

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MS male drama student (seen previously) reading book ''The Theatre Alive" and beside mirror practicing line "To be or not to be". CU of page of book with still portrait of Gregan McMahon. CUs of Sydney Repertory Theatre Society playbills for "The Dover Road", "The Circle" and "Pygmalion". CU of program for "Red Cross Entertainment Unit". CU of The Un-named Players program for "Madchen in Uniform" at Melbourne University Union Theatre. CU of Independent Theatre program for "Mourning Becomes Electra". CU of Independent Theatre and King's Theatre programs for "Rusty Bugles". VS of rehearsal of play "Rusty Bugles" at Independent Theatre, Sydney, first on bare stage, then full dress rehearsal. Includes shots of playwright Sumner Locke-Elliott and producer Doris Fitton watching and directing actors from front row.

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CUs various playbills and actor portraits including Queen's Theatre playbills for Amy Stone and Janauschek, still portraits of Sybil Thorndyke, Henry Irving, Laurence Olivier, Vivian Leigh, "The School for Scandal" playbill, Palace program for "The Two Mrs Carrolls". WS of "The Two Mrs Carrolls" rehearsal with Elizabeth Bergner and producer Dr. Paul Czinner. CU newspaper articles on actor Peter Finch with stills including Finch in cowboy costume. MS actor Earl Covert from "Annie Get Your Gun" in costume as cowboy. CU program with portrait Evie Hayes. VS Hayes in dressing room. She pulls shocked expression in character as Annie. Wardrobe mistress helps her remove boots. MS "Annie Get Your Gun" producer Carl Randall looking at call board outside theatre. VS backstage - stagehand steadying backdrop, HA from grid over actors performing in costume, stagehands chatting backstage. WS large cast lined up on stage with curtain rising to reveal backdrop "Buffalo Bills Wild West Show".

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VS booklet about Theatre Royal, Hobart, with paintings of exterior. CU Royal Victoria Theatre playbills for "Frederick of Prussia", "Henry Fourth", "Midas". CU National Theatre Movement of Australia playbills for "Pygmalion" and "Martha". CU NSW Arts Council flyer advertising free lunchtime theatre lectures at library and VS of lecture with audience of schoolgirls and elderly women. Lecturers include actor-manager John Alden, entrepreneur Sir Benjamin Fuller and arts council president Dorothy Helmrich (NB: no audio). VS theatre designer William Constable and plans for new national theatre incorporating television. CU article "Television dictates Shape of Theatres to Come". VS WA theatre council meeting with MP Leslie Haylen. Montage of VS repeated from earlier in program - children in audience and waving from side of road, theatre foyer. VS theatre audience. CU drawing of audience. CU Savoy Theatre booklet with "Pirates of Penzance" poster. CU various playbills for "The Mikado".

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VS of Mikado production as seen earlier, this time with performance of song "A More Humane Mikado". Includes WS pans across audience in stalls and dress circle and good MS of absorbed audience. CU of illuminated sign for "stage door, strictly private". Tilt down to door as actress and actor exit, seen off by older man. Quick WS pan across street as night with various neon theatre signs. GS of city street at night with super "The End".

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FILM AUSTRALIA COLLECTION

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