Leontine Sagan

Leontine Sagan. (1889/90-1974) Actress, theatre and film director.

Biography

She was married to Dr Victor Fleischer.

In May 1947 Sagan returned to South Africa with her husband for good. He passed away in 1950.

Her autobiography (Light and Shadows), edited by Loren Kruger, was published by University of the Witwatersrand Press in 1996.

Youth

Born as Leontine Schlesinger in Budapest, Hungary. She came to South Africa in 1899 with her family to join her father. Initially educated at the German School in Johannesburg. In August 1902 she travelled to Europe with her mother. They settled in Vienna with relatives, where Leontine was furhter educated. Two years later they returned to Johannesburg. Leontine worked at the Austro-Hungarian Consulate as a secretary since she was about sixteen. When she turned twenty-one money became avialable ans she was able to return to Vienna and from there to Berlin. After an audition with Dr Legband, director of the Reinhardt school, she was allowed as a pupil.

Training

She studied at the Reinhardt school in Berlin for a year until July 2011 and left because her teachers advised her to get practical experience. She spent two seasons in Teplitz and then received a contract for the Albert Theatre in Dresden.

Career

After a notable stage career in Germany, she directed the German film Mädchen in Uniform in 1932 (later Children in Uniform produced for stage and film in both English and German). This won her international acclaim, but having made one more film, she devoted the rest of her life to theatre. Directed a number of Ivor Novello musicals, the only woman ever to direct musicals at the Drury Lane Theatre.

She returned to South Africa in 1939 at the instigation of Prof. D.P. Inskip and worked with the Cape Town Repertory Theatre Society and other amateur dramatic societies across South Africa. She directed a successful production of Shaw’s The Doctor's Dilemma, at the Little Theatre for example. Swiftly becoming a legend in the theatre here, working as a fine director with all the notable performers amateur and professional, including the Krugersdorp Municipal Dramatic and Operatic Society (KMDOS) in 1942, the Johannesburg REPS , the East Rand Theatre Club, the Bloemfontein Repertory Society.

In May 1943 she returned to London until 1946 when she and her husband settled in South Africa.

She became an artistic advisor to the National Theatre Organisation in 1947, touring the country with André Huguenet and Anna Neethling-Pohl to address meetings and audition players.

Involved in the establishment of the National Theatre Organisation (NTO), she was appointed to the first board in 1948.

Contribution to SA theatre, film, media and/or performance

She toured South Africa for three months in 1933 on contract with African Consolidated Theatres with the plays Children in Uniform and Nine Till Six (Stuart).

In 1939 she was invited by Prof Donald Inskip to South Africa to produce plays for the Little Theatre and for the Johannesburg Repertory Players. Toured with The Corn is Green in 1940, Sagan herself in the role of Miss Moffat.

The intention was to stay for three months but, because of the outbreak of war, she could return to Britain only in May 1943. During her prolongend stay in South Africa she joined the Jan H. Hofmeyr School of Social Work in Johannesburg and taught the students dramatic art. Among the graduates of the college are Gibson Kente and Evelyn Caluza.

Plays produced during this period were inter alia Night Must Fall and The Corn is Green starring André Huguenet under the aegis of African Consolidated Theatres in 1940, They Walk Alone (1940), The Man Who Came to Dinner (1941), Six Characters in Search of an Author (1941) and Clare Booth’s The Women (1942) for the Johannesburg REPS , ** for the Bloemfontein Repertory Society. Puppets' Party (1941), Passport to Limbo (1941), Candida, How He Lied to her Husband, Amphitryon 38 (Standard Theatre).

In the year of her return to South Africa (1947) she became director of the English-language section of the newly-established National Theatre.

She directed Mrs Warren's Profession, starring Lydia Lindeque. It was performed in 1947 by the REPS.

In February 1948 she directed the NTO's first English production Dear Brutus by J.M. Barrie, followed by An Inspector Calls. Molnar’s The Guardsman, was directed by Leontine Sagan in 1949 for the National Theatre. Directed In Theatre Street for the East Rand Theatre Club in 1950.

Sources

See Binge, 19**; Kruger, 1996; Du Toit, 1988; [TH, JH]

Tucker, 1997.

An Inspector Calls programme notes, 1948.

Kruger, Loren (ed.) 1996. Lights and Shadows: The Autobiography of Leontine Sagan. Witwatersrand University Press.

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