Chris Weare
Chris Weare (19*-). Actor, director, theatre maker, teacher and administrator.
(Also billed as Christopher Weare, though most often referred to as "Chris".)
Contents
Biography
Born Christopher Weare.
Married to voice coach and director Liz Mills.
Training
He received his training at Rhodes University Drama Department, graduating in the early 1970s.
Career
Became a lecturer in the Department of Drama at University of Cape Town Drama Department in 19*, later became Associate Professor then Professor and Director of the Little Theatre in the same department. He was one of the founders of the Arena Theatre Company in Cape Town (1997) and he was on the first steering committee of the Cape Town Theatre Laboratory (1998). He is the founder of the Intimate Theatre (2002), and a founding member of The Mechanicals Collective (2008). In 2025, he is teaching acting and acting theory at LAMTA.
Contribution to SA theatre, film, media and/or performance
He was involved in the following productions (role unknown) Ostrich palace/Volstruispaleis 1996 KKNK Baxter, Rick Everett
As actor
Stage
He appeared in a number of plays, including Doctor Faustus as "Robin" (1968), The Silent Woman (1969), Peer Gynt (1970), Richard Gush of Salem (1970), The Playboy of the Western World (1971), Macbeth (1979), The Crucible (1980), The Philanthropist (1980), Hal in Kvetch (1988), Graham Johnston in We All Fall Down (1988).
Film
Chris acted in the film That Englishwoman (1990).
As director
He subsequently became known as a fine director, his work including:
1978: Skyvers (Rhodes University Drama Department)
1979: Absurd Person Singular (Rhodes University Drama Department)
1981: El Grande de Coca Cola
1984: Skyf
1988: The Business of Murder
1989: We and Them
1990: East
1995: People are Living There (also playing “Shorty”)
1996: Elizabeth
1998: Pick Ups
1999: African Star! - The Will Schreiner Story
2003: Bungee Writing Finals
2005: Noises Off
2006: The Incredible Beer Show
2006: Bonhoeffer
2007: Lawwe Geluide
2008: Buried Child
2008/2009: The Zoo Story (2008-2009)
2009: MacBeki - A Farce to the Reckoned With
2010: Decadence
2010: Raiders of the Lost Aardvark
2010: Spring Awakening
2010: We and Them
2010: Mephisto
2011: Lovborg's Women
2011: The Real Inspector Hound
2012: House of Usher
2012: Tonight Neither Hamlet (2012)
2013: The Colonel Bird
2013: An Audience with Miss Hobhouse
2013: The Titanic Orchestra
2013: An Absolute Turkey
2013: Sexual Perversity in Chicago
2013: Vigil
2013: Same Time Next Year
2013: No, Seriously? (Alan Committie’s one-man show at the Montecasino Theatre.)
2014: Mephisto
2014: Curl Up and Dye
2014: A Lie of the Mind
2018: Gertrude Stein and a Companion
2022: The Seagull and Stupid Fucking Bird (LAMTA)
2025: A Streetcar Named Desire (LAMTA)
Material held by NELM to be investigated: The Trojan Horse – Weare: Playscript [Typescript (photocopy)] NELM Location: [Collection: MANIM, Mannie]: 2005. 11. 1. 320; The Greeks – Weare: Theatre programme [Typescript] NELM Location: [Collection: MORRIS, Gay]: 2007. 13. 24. 1
Awards, etc
In 1979 he was awarded the first Leon Gluckman Memorial Scholarship, presented to him by Dr Henry Gluckman during the celebration of the 75th anniversary of the Rhodes University Drama Department.
He has won four Fleur du Cap Theatre Awards (as Best Supporting Actor for "Hal" in Berkoff's Kvetch (1988), as Best Director and the Rosalie van der Gucht Prize for New Directors for Berkoff's East (1990), the Fleur du Cap Theatre Award as Best Director for Elizabeth (1996) and **.
Nominated Fleur 2008 Chris Weare: Rosencrantz & Guildenstern are dead;
Fleur du Cap Lifetime Award, award year 2012.
Sources
We All Fall Down programme notes, 1988.
Tucker, 1997.
Theatre programmes, photographs and other material held by NELM in various locations.
South African Panorama, 31 December 1979.
Weare to direct 50th Fleur du Cap Theatre Awards - 15/03/2015 - Artslink.co.za News
https://alexanderbar.co.za/show/getrudesteinandacompanion/
Die Burger, 19 March 2012 (Lifetime Award, Fleur du Cap).
Go to ESAT Bibliography
Return to
Return to ESAT Personalities W
Return to South African Theatre Personalities
Return to The ESAT Entries
Return to Main Page
