Geoffrey Hyland

Geoffrey Hyland (19**-) Cape Town based actor, director/designer and lecturer.

Also billed as Geoff Hyland.

Biography

Training

Went to school at Grey College, Bloemfontein and also studied there (BA UOVS), studied at the University of Cape Town (BA Hons) and later became a teacher (HDE) and Associate Professor there. Also studied at York University Toronto (MFA York).

Career

He became a teacher and Associate Professor at UCT. Hyland directs theatre, opera and dance professionally, and teaches across a range of courses with particular interest in directing, acting for stage and camera, and design. his special focus: the staging of gender and sexual politics in theatrical productions and directing Shakespeare.

He is an Associate Teacher: Professional Actors Lab, Toronto, Canada. He has taught in Canada, the UK, New Zealand and the USA. His work has also been seen in Ireland, Germany and Peru.

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

As actor

He has appeared on stage in The Glass Menagerie.

As director

Won the Rosalie van der Gucht Prize for New Directors in 1989 and went on to become a successful director of student and professional work in Cape Town.

He has directed well over 100 theatre productions in his career.

Productions as director include:

1987: Madame de Sade

1989: The Ghost Sonata, Habeas Corpus (UCT)

199?: The House of Bernarda Alba (UCT)

1990: Agamemnon

1992: Deathwatch

1995: French Gray

1997: Madame de Sade

1998: Old Wicked Songs, Barrymore (Pieter Toerien)

1999: The Blue Room, Madman, The Yellow Wallpaper, Strangers on a Train

2000: The Trojan Women, Via Dolorosa (Pieter Toerien)

2003: A Night in November

2004: Macbeth

2005: Blood Wedding, Masque

2006: Twelfth Night

2007: Women Beware Women, Kissed by Brel

2009: As You Like It

2010: Opera 5:20 (Out of Time, Saartjie, Words from a Broken String)

2012: Sacred Elephant (also co-writer)

2013: Between

2014: Titus Andronicus

2018: A Lie of the Mind, Yerma

2020: Blood Wedding (cancelled due to Covid-19 restrictions)

Other productions (dates unknown) include: Les Liaisons Dangereuses, Wounds to the Face, Slowly, Othello, Hamlet, King Lear, Romeo and Juliet, All’s Well That Ends Well. He was also involved with Miss Margarida's Way,

Décor and costume A Doll House, designed The Rimers of Eldritch.

He is one of the judges for the awarding of the Brett Goldin Bursary.

Awards, etc

Won the Rosalie van der Gucht Prize for New Directors in 1989.

He was the Young Artist Award winner for drama in 1997.

Other awards include: Kanna Awards for Best Dance Production and Best Technical. Fleur du Cap Award, Vita Award and Kanna Award nominations for Best Director.

Sources

Madame de Sade programme notes, 1997.

Hilde Roos. 2010. 'Opera Production in the Western Cape: Strategies in Search of Indigenisation'. Unpublished PhD thesis. Stellenbosch University.

https://ibali.uct.ac.za/s/ctdps/item/6692

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