Linda-Louise Swain

(NOTE: Site still under construction.)

Linda-Louise Swain (Date of birth: 29th November, 1959) is a "Swinger" actress (ie acts in both professional and amateur roles), and a drama teacher.

Biography

Linda-Louise Swain was born at the Port Elizabeth Provincial Hospital Sanford Maternity Ward, the daughter of George and Iris Lillian Swain (nee Page). Her father and his business partner, Egil Holm, created the well-known Port Elizabeth steel specialist firm, Metalman. Her mother was very active in community affairs and, amongst her other interests, was a founder member of the Animal Welfare Society. She was the third eldest child, having two older brothers, Rodney and Douglas and one younger sister, Susan. Linda-Louise was educated in Port Elizabeth at the Collegiate School for Girls, first at the Junior School and then at the Senior School. She was initially introduced to acting through things such as play competitions and play festivals, poetry competitions and choral verse competitions. In 1974, when she was in Std 5, the school staged a series of one-act plays during centenary celebrations marking the founding of the school in 1864. She was cast as the school's first headmistress, Miss Virginia Lavinia Isitt.

While she was in grade 11 in senior school, 16 year-old Linda-Louise acted in Table Top produced by the extramural teacher Dorothy Sutherland where she played the part of a Russian diplomat ("We have a proverb; When the heart is full, the head is often empty."). The production was entered in the inter schools one-act play competition for which she won the "Best Actress" award.

After matriculating she went to Marjorie Gilbey's studio where she studied and completed her Associate Trinity College of London certificate. That was followed by the Licentiate of Trinity College London (LTCL) at the end of which she was qualified to teach.

Afterwards she started teaching for Marjorie Gilbey.

As part of her plans to complete her fellowship at Trinity after ATCL and LTCL, she started researching Athol Fugard and his contribution to South African and Black theatre. She had completed her research and was getting ready to "put it together" when she received a call from Helen Mann.

"I have a little role I'd like you to do," said Helen. Linda-Louise never completed her fellowship but she wasn't bothered because she learned so much from Helen. That was the moment her career really started and from then on she never stopped performing. She acted in many more shows and became a member of PEMADS sometimes partaking in as many as six productions a year.

Linda-Louise Swain then started teaching at schools, moving from one to another. She volunteered to take impoverished pupils from the Missionvale School from Sub A to Matric to teach them drama (for free) thereby enabling them to choose a different outlet in life as living in Missionvale was so hard for them.

Sister Ethel at the Missionvale Care Centre generously allowed these kids to perform in the Centre's little hall.

From there Linda-Louise taught at various schools, including St George's College, Collegiate School for Girls, Hoërskool DF Malherbe and Victoria Park High School, teaching extra-mural drama and Trinity exams thus enabling scholars to earn their qualifications. She was very community conscious and did a lot of community theatre, touring to poorer rural areas, giving anti-drug, alcoholic awareness and Aids awareness in the early 1990s.

Working together with the Red Cross and Nacosa (Networking HIV and AIDS Community of Southern Africa) Linda-Louise devised an AIDS awareness programme showing how the disease spread and how to prevent infection. She taught rural communities, through her productions, for example, how to treat family members who had contracted the Aids virus, how to wash a sick person's body, to treat them with kindness and gentleness, while at the same time not exposing themselves to blood, but still being there for them. Initially there were some language barriers and to break down those barriers Linda-Louise based a lot of the work on drama work. The plays were conceived and produced using the Commedia dell'arte (literally, “comedy of professional artists”) theatrical style where actors were free to ad lib their roles specifically to suit the message they brought to their audiences and was a wonderful way to cross cultural and language barriers. The style is characterized by the use of improvised dialogue and a cast of colorful stock characters and was developed in Northern Italy in the 15th century. She attended a course held by a British organisation called Stagecraft during the annual Venice Festival in Italy. The course was attended by 15 people from all over the world and when she returned to South Africa she brought with her a whole batch of the special carnival masks which have proven to be an invaluable aid when teaching grade 10 scholars. Using this technique she took some of her senior students into the townships where they worked with the local inhabitants in towns such as Graaff-Reinet, Cradock, and Humansdorp.

After Linda-Louise started teaching at Pearson High School 2006-7 she was asked if she would start teaching drama as a subject. She agreed and started teaching drama as a subject to scholars between grade 10 and grade 12.

At the same time, Sharon Rather

As Director

15-26 January, 2013: Linda-Louise Swain directed Hamlet, Prince of Denmark for the Port Elizabeth Shakespearean Festival. Staged at the PEMADS Little Theatre, Athenaeum in Port Elizabeth.

Awards, etc

Under Construction

Sources

Original programme for Port Elizabeth Shakespearean Festival production of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, 15-26 January, 2013.

Ivor Markman: Personal interview with Linda-Louise Swain for ESAT, April, 2026.

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