Myrrha Bantock
Myrrha Bantock (1905-1995) is an author and director.
Contents
Biography
Born Myrrha Bantock early in the 20th century, the daughter of the composer Granville Bantock (1868-1946)[1], she later married and was known by her married name as Myrrha Hawkes, though she apparently continued writing under her maiden name. Some of her best known books are books of children's songs (e.g. Tales of Elfin Town, 1923 and My Book, with music by Dorothea Barcroft, 1926) and Granville Bantock: A Personal Portrait (J.M. Dent & Sons Ltd, London, 1972).
Contribution to SA theatre, film, media and/or performance
In the 1940s, when she and her husband were living in South Africa, she wrote and produced some children's plays, based on fairy-tales, including a musical production of The Snow Queen with a dramatized text and lyrics by Michael Martin-Harvey and music commissioned especially from her sister-in-law, Margaret More (26 June 1903 – 1966, a British composer, married to Raymond Bantock (fl.1900-1983)[2]). It was first performed during several Christmas seasons in Johannesburg in the late 1940s.
A musical play for children, entitled An Apple for the Princess is also ascribed to her.
She also wrote and co-directed (with Francesca Bantock) The Hundred Lies (1977).
Sources
http://composers-classical-music.com/b/BarcroftEmmaDorothea.htm
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Granville_Bantock
Greyvenstein, Walter 1988. The history and development of children's theatre in English in South Africa. Unpublished doctoral dissertation. Johannesburg: Rand Afrikaans University.
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