Maralin Vanrenen (19**-). Actress, director.

Being edited

Biography

She was born in Kenilworth, Cape Town.

Youth

Training

She studied for a Performer's Diploma in Speech and Drama at the University of Cape Town Drama Department, graduating in 1971.

Career

She worked for The Space since 1972 and in 1975 moved Johannesburg appearing in productions for Barney Simon and Brickhill/Burke before touring Europe and the USA to see, experience and take part in theatre.

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

She has appeared in Uproar in the House, The Bedwinner (at the Hofmeyr Theatre).

At The Space she performed in Dracula, The Exception and the Rule, Fragments, Futz, Gameplay, God’s Forgotten, The Happy Prince, Kennedy's Children, Kitsch, Lesson in Blood and Roses, Line/It's Called the Sugar Plum, A Man Hanging, Muzeeka, Slag, The Sport of My Mad Mother, Superman, Sweet Eros, Three's Company, 'Tis a Pity She's a Whore, A Touch of 1900s and What the Butler Saw.

She devised and performed in Flashing Trash in 1980.

She starred in PACT's The Comedy of Errors (1985) and in Tobie Cronjé’s production of Nunsense at the Alhambra Theatre in 1988. as well as in Richard Harris’s The Maintenance Man at the Leonard Rayne in 1990.

She made her directing debut at The Space with The Maids and directed Lunatic and Lover at the People's Space in February 1982. For CAPAB she directed Joggers (Aron) and Groucho at Large at the Baxter Theatre and National Arts Festival in 1981 and Aladdin and his wonderful lamp in 1984 and designed and directed Seduced (Baxter Theatre 1982). She directed Gcina Mhlope’s Have You Seen Zandile? starring Gcina Mhlope and Thembi Mtshali at the Laager in February 1986.

Other productions directed by Maralin were A Trinity of Two (1989), Nunsense (a revival, 1990s), Dangerous Obsession (N.J. Crisp) (1990), PACT’s annual pantomime Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs at the Alexander Theatre in 1991, Janice Honeyman’s Jack and the Beanstalk at the Market Theatre in 1993, Jack and the Beanstalk (1993-1994), My Plunge to Fame at the Civic Theatre in 1994, Murder in Green Meadows (Douglas Post) Richard Haines Theatre (1994), The Rain Queen and the Baobab Tree (1994), In Praise of Love (1995), Family Secrets (1995-1996), Love, Julie (1996), I do! I do! (1997). She directed and starred in The Sum of Us 1992.

Co-directed Visiting Mr. Green (1999 and 2001), directed Killing Time (2000), The Graduate (2001), Menopause - The Musical (2007), Mile High (2007).

She wrote and directed Up 'n Atom 1983 and adapted and directed I Have Life: Alison's Journey, (2014, 2015).

Maralin adapted Seven days at the Silbersteins for the stage, entitled Henry.

She has done television work locally and overseas.

Awards, etc

Nominee 1991 Vanrenen, Maralin in The Sleeping Beauty (Gallo Award for best performance in a musical).

She was nominated for a Three Leaf Award twice.

She received the Mbokodo Award (theatre category) in 2015. The award recognises the contribution of women in arts.

Nominated DALRO Award Vanrenen, Maralin in `The Sleeping Beauty' (Gallo Award for best performance in a musical) 1991, Fleur du Cap 1996 for In Praise of Love.