Sophie Mgcina

(1938-2005) Filmmaker, musician, teacher and award-winning actress. As a performer Sophie Mgcina's stage credits include Petal in the London production of the seminal jazz opera King Kong, Mama Belle in Phiri, a role in There's No Sugar Left, and The Lion and the Lamb. She has contributed to several productions as composer, musical director and vocal coach. Her crowning achievement in this regard was The Long Journey of Poppie Nongena, the play adapted from Elsa Joubert's famed book Die Swerfjare van Poppie Nongena, first staged in English at the Market Theatre and restaged in New York in which she played two leading roles and she composed and directed the music. The production went to the Edinburgh Festival which was followed by a world tour in 1984. In New York, Mgcina was honoured with an Obie Award for best achievement, and was nominated for the Laurence Olivier Award for best supporting actress. Mgcina also wrote music for Dingaka, one of the first South African films to achieve international recognition, and various other foreign and local radio, television and theatre productions. She participated in several television productions and films, including A Dry White Season, Cry Freedom and Amandla. Was a teacher at the Federated Union of Black Artists Academy, (FUBA) and was appointed creative director and head of the Department of Music and Voice in 1986. In 1994 she was given the task of establishing the National School for the Performing Arts at Dorkay House. In 2005, shortly before her death, she received ACT Lifetime Achievement Award.

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