Reinet Maasdorp

Reinet Maasdorp (b. Harare, 17/03/1940) was a South African actress.

Biography
Reinet Maasdorp was born in Salisbury in what was then Rhodesia and is a graduate of the University of Cape Town. She made an early appearance in the Ben Travers farce Rookery Nook (1960), directed by Nigel Hawthorne and Aubrey Louw for the Cockpit Players at the Hofmeyr Theatre in Cape Town, but achieved her first critical success early the following year when she played Helen Keller in The Miracle Worker (with Fiona Fraser as Annie Sullivan), directed by Leonard Schach for the same company. Over the next few years she took parts in a number of major productions, from Ophelia in Hamlet (opposite Francois Swart as Hamlet) to the title role in Peter Pan, and was generally regarded as one of the bright young stars of the South African theatre. However, her known theatrical career was relatively short and though she also appeared in a number of films, none of them seemed worthy of her talents. In 1979 she married Michael Forrester Brooke, the son of Brian Brooke and Petrina Fry, but the marriage didn’t last.

Credits
Theatre

1960 – Rookery Nook (Directed by Nigel Hawthorne and Aubrey Louw for the Cockpit Players), 1961 – The Miracle Worker (Directed by Leonard Schach for the Cockpit Players), 1961 – Lady Barker’s Last Appearance (Directed by Leonard Schach for the Cockpit Players, 1962 – Don’t Tell Father (Directed by Victor Melleney and Brian Brooke for The Brian Brooke Company), 1963 – Romeo and Jeanette (Produced by Richard Daneel for PACT), 1963 – The Playboy of the Western World (Directed by Victor Melleney for PACT), 1964 – Hamlet (Directed by Margaret Inglis for PACT), 1965 – The Lower Depths (Directed by Robert Aden for CAPAB), 1965 – The Big Knife (Directed by Robert Aden for CAPAB), 1967 – Peter Pan (Directed by Victor Melleney for CAPAB), 1968 – Ghosts (Directed by Frank Shelley for NAPAC).

Film

1964 – The Foster Gang (Director: Percival Rubens), 1966 – All the Way to Paris/After You, Comrade (Director: Jamie Uys), 1967 – Die Professor en die Prikkelpop / The Professor and the Beauty Queen (Director: Jamie Uys), 1968 – Dr Kalie (Director: Ivan Hall), 1968 – Majuba: Heuwel van Duiwe / Majuba: Hill of Doves (Director: David Millin), 1969 – Vrolike Vrydag 13de (Director: Richard Daneel).

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