Gill Brewis
Gill Brewis (Date of birth/death?) was an amateur Port Elizabeth stage director and actress.
Contents
Biography
Gill Brewis first became interested in the theatre during her school days at Victoria Park High School, Port Elizabeth. She made her stage debut in the PEMADS production of Harlequinade in 1963.
Career
She gained backstage and onstage experience in musicals and straight plays in Queenstown and King William's Town before returning to Port Elizabeth in 1982. She was noticed for the first time in the same year when she acted in Noel Morgan's presentation of The Man Who Came to Dinner and was nominated for a PEMADS acting award.
In 1984 she tried directing for the first time and won the Salters One Act Play Festival with the allegorical Cage Birds. Her entire eight-member female cast took the "Best Actress" award.
Also in 1984 she appeared in the Agatha Christie thriller, Murder at the Vicarage and was once again nominated for an award.
In 1985, PEMADS offered her the chance to direct a full-length play for the first time, Shock.
Gill Brewis dis not leave the acting side and straight after Shock she played the role of Helen Stott, a cripple English girl in Keith Grenville's production of British playwright C P Taylor's 1977 bitter-sweet comedy, And a Nightingale Sang . . . .
In 1987 she once again took the Salters One Act Play Festival, for (?) with an all-female cast who were all jointly honoured with the "Best Actress" award.
In 1988 she was awarded the Phyllis Davidson Memorial Trophy for her direction of the PEMADS production of Rattle of a Simple Man. In addition, her female lead in the play, Linda-Louise Swain, won the "Best Actress" award.
Contribution to SA theatre, film, media and/or performance
1984: Starred in Agatha Christie's thriller, Murder at the Vicarage, at the Ford Little Theatre in Port Elizabeth.
1985: Directed Shock at the Ford Little Theatre in Port Elizabeth.
1985: Starred as Helen Stott, a cripple English girl in Keith Grenville's production of British playwright C P Taylor's 1977 bitter-sweet comedy, And a Nightingale Sang . . . at the Ford Little Theatre in Port Elizabeth.
1988: Directed the PEMADS production of Rattle of a Simple Man at the Ford Little Theatre in Port Elizabeth.
March 1 - 11, 1988 or 1989: Directed Tribute at the Ford Little Theatre in Port Elizabeth.
Awards, etc
1988: Awarded the Phyllis Davidson Memorial Trophy for her direction of the PEMADS production of Rattle of a Simple Man
Sources
Original programme for Tribute.
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