Nicholas Ellenbogen (19**-) is an actor, director, manager, author and playwright.

Biography

He was born in Bulawayo in Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe),

His training included drama at the University of Cape Town Drama Department, as well as courses at the London School of Economics and the National Film School.

He is married to Liz Ellenbogen (néé Liz Szymczak), an actress and teacher. They have three children, including theatre-maker Luke Ellenbogen.

Career

He joined NAPAC, where he became the artistic director and founded the Loft Theatre Company in 1985. At this stage he began exploring the specific style of improvisatory and mimetic theatre with Ellis Pearson, Brendan Grealy and others. In 1989 he and his wife Liz Szymczak founded Theatre for Africa, to use improvisational and mimetic principles in a theatre aimed at eco-issues. They travelled extensively with productions focused on conservation, inter alia giving private performances for the British Royal Family in Balmoral Castle and for the US State Department.

He founded the Amstel Playwright of the Year Award in 198*, managing it for 18 years.

In 19* he moved to Cape Town to open a series of theatre venues. He first set up a tiny bucket-seat theatre at the Olympia Bakery Theatre (aka Olympia Café) in Kalk Bay, Cape Town, followed by the Kalk Bay Theatre which he and and Liz Ellenbogen created, in association with Simon Cooper and Helen Cooper, by transforming an old church building into a two-level restaurant and performance venue. Next was the Post Box Theatre in Muizenberg, a conversion of the old Muizenberg post office near Cape Town into an 84-seat amphitheatre. The most recent is The Rosebank Theatre in Cape Town, opened in 2013 and funded by his life-long friend, Alexander McCall-Smith[1].

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

One of the leading exponents of the improvisational method in South Africa, Ellenbogen has over the years developed a specific style of improvisatory and mimetic theatre and became a driving figure behind the establishment of the Fringe at the Grahamstown Festival.

His environmental work with plays such as Elephant of Africa, Horn of Sorrow and Guardians of Eden has had a particularly significant impact on the international regulation of the ivory trade.

In addition to this, he has simultaneously managed to capitalize on the popular success of his entertaining physical style of satiric comedy, particularly in the series of Raiders plays, which he performed at the Grahamstown Festival for a record breaking 30 years and more.

As performer

He was an active formal actor in the 1970s and early 1980s, appearing in works such as Pygmalion (CAPAB 1975), The Playboy of the Western World (CAPAB, 1976), Tom Stoppard’s Travesties (1978), A Murder is Announced (1978), Michael Frayn’s Clouds (1979), The Unvarnished Truth (1979), Jumpers (1980), Jimmy Righteous (1981), Zeyda, or A Pedlar's Progress (1981), Precious Remnants (1983).

He gradually also developed a knack for improvisational theatremaking, inter alia helping to devise and perform A Touch of 1900s (The Space ,197*) and An Arabian Night (Market Theatre 197*), before founding and beginning his renowned work with the Loft Theatre Company (1985) and Theatre for Africa (1989).

As actor he appeared in many of the works, and most notably wrote, directed and performed leading roles in most of his Raiders plays (see below).

He returned to formal acting with an award-winning performance in Twelfth Night at Maynardville in 2006. Other plays include The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time (2018).

As director

He tended to direct most of his own plays himself. However, as well as those plays, he also directed works by other authors for various companies. Among them are Aggie's Pitch (NAPAC 1986), The Royal Hunt of the Sun (1988), Richard III (1988), Cinderella for Theatre for Africa at the Wits University Theatre in 1991.

As playwright

He is an incredibly prolific playwright and playmaker, often working with others or improvising work with the cast.

A number of the influential plays written/developed by Nicholas Ellenbogen and Theatre for Africa were published by Theatre for Africa as The Complete Works of Nicholas Ellenbogen and Theatre for Africa, a collection in four volumes, collated by Ellenbogen and his wife Liz Szymczak. The volumes also contain information on his theories about theatre and his working process. (See the entry on the collection for a listing of the plays.

Another collection of two plays published by Theatre for Africa, Nicholas Ellenbogen's Horn of Sorrow and Elephant of Africa, also published by Theatre for Africa, contains a full listing of his plays up to 2003, as well as a biography of Ellenbogen, a history of Theatre for Africa, commentaries by colleagues and diverse other educational notes and tools. (See the entry.)

Some of his works have also been included in volumes of South African plays, e.g. Drama for a New South Africa, edited by David Graver (1999).

The plays

Ellenbogen and various colleagues and casts actually created far more works than those listed in the Complete Works publication. In 2003 schools collection Ellenbogen and Szymczak provide a more comprehensive listing, grouping the work into five broad categories and then listing them there alphabetically within each category.

We use approximately the same categorization below, though adding some plays from the Complete Works that, for some reason, are not listed by Ellenbogen and Szymczak.

For details about the individual works, the author(s)/theatremakers and production record, click on the title to see the individual entry

The Nature group

Awakenings

Beef for Buffalo (with Luke Ellenbogen and Nhlanhla Mavundla) Has also been referred to as A Beef for Buffalo

Bird

Coelacanth Project

Eagle

Elephant of Africa

Gathering of the Beasts

Guardians of Eden

Hippo

Horn of Sorrow

Kloof Eagle (with Madoda Ncayiyana)

Kukweta (with Raymond Kasawaya)

Kwamanzi

Mountain People

Spirit of the Lake

The Stork's Promise (with Nhlanhla Mavundla

Trophy Hunters

Turtle Project

Valley of the Elephants (with Luke Ellenbogen and Nhlanhla Mavundla)

Working for Water (with Nhlanhla Mavundla and Renier Keyser)

The Raiders Series

Raiders of the Lost Aardvark (with Ellis Pearson)

Raiders II (with Ellis Pearson)

The Return of the Son of the Lost aardvark (with Andrew Buckland and Ellis Pearson)

Not the Raiders, but The Temple of Boom (with Stephen Jennings)

Raiders V (with James Ngcobo)

Raiders of the Lost Count (with Tex Texeira, Patrick Mofokeng and Nhlanhla Mavundla)

Raiders of the Broken Heart (with Matthew Roberts and Raymond Kasawaya)

Raiders of the Scarlet Pimpernel (with Andrew Brent)

Raiders of the Freudian Slip (with Luke Ellenbogen and Andrew Brent)

Raiders of Queenie Solomon's Mines (with Andrew Brent)

Raiders of Potty Harry (with Liz Szymczak and Nhlanhla Mavundla)

Raiders of the Last Stand (with Jody Abrahams)

Raiders - Lord of the Dings

A Midsummer Night’s Raiders (with Andrew Brent and Luke Ellenbogen)

The Nuka Moya Group

A Nativity (sometimes referred to simply as Nativity)

Cinderella

Gone by the Wind

Sommer Cinderella

Other plays

The Adventures of Wingnut (with James Ngcobo)

Aggie's Pitch

Be Beachwise

Calitzdorp Passion (with Renier Keyser)

The Captain, the Corporal and the Courtesan

The Diaries of Diesel du Toit I

The Diaries of Diesel du Toit II

Drive in Movie Picture Show

Duets

Far from Heaven

Ghosts of the Castle

Gifts

Growing up in Gravelotte

Hamba Kahle (with Ellis Pearson and Andrew Buckland)

The Invisible Enemy

Live with Ivy

Manne (or The Manne)

Melody Brothers (aka iChristmans Box)

Mike

Mistakes of an African Knight

Mujaji

Muribuangi Sala Kahle

Nick Goes Native

Obie in Review (with Godfrey Johnson)

Precious Remnants

President Khaya Afrikha

Scrums

Sin

Slips

Super Bike

We Care

Musical collages

African Songbirds (with Nhlanhla Mavundla)

Heart of Africa (with Neill Solomon)

Late Night Live at Olympia (with Du Preez Strauss)

Of Birds and Beasts (compiled by Rowan Mentis)

Spirit of the Lake (with Toby Gough)

Other writing

He has written a short story called The Colt of Gamkaskloof and in 2022 Footprint Press published Ellenbogen's first novel, A Vet, Three Mares and a hound called Max (Footprint Press), the story of the harrowing journey and dramatic relocation of pure-bred Arab mares from war-torn Poland to a safe haven, in what was then Rhodesia. The story describes the experiences of the vet who leads the operation and his bush encounters while training the horses and their offspring for their eventual return to participate in events in Europe.

Film and TV

He adapted his play A Nativity for film, calling it The Angel, the Bicycle and the Chinaman's Finger. The script was written by Nicholas Ellenbogen with John Cundill and P.G. du Plessis, and the film directed by Nicholas Ellenbogen and Koos Roets. Released in theatres in 1992 and on DVD in 2009. (For details see the entry on the film.)

As an actor he has appeared as "Colin Broderick" in the made for TV film The Wind Blew Her Away (1980), as "Left of Zondo" in The Angel, the Bicycle and the Chinaman's Finger (1992), "Mr Soames" in the made for TV film Felix (2013), as "Blount" in two episodes of the TV series Around the World in 80 Days (La Une, 2021),

Awards, etc

Besides his personal awards for acting, Nicholas Ellenbogen and Theatre for Africa have received numerous forms of recognition over the years, including Command Performances for royalty and international leaders and performances at conferences and similar events. (See entries on individual plays as well as the entry on Theatre for Africa.)

Among the most prominent awards have been:

1990: An AA Life Vita Award for Horn of Sorrow

1991: A Nativity nominated for the Dawie Malan Award for best South African Play; Horn of Sorrow and Kloof Eagle awarded the Edinburgh Scotsman Fringe First Award; Ellenbogen receives an award from the World Wildlife Fund (WWF)[2] for his exceptional contribution to environmental conservation.

1995: Theatre for Africa receives the WWF's Award for Innovative Environmental Education

1996: Guardians of Eden receives the Herald Angel Award, the Edinburgh Scotsman Fringe First Award and The Secretary's Open Forum Certificate of Appreciation (on behalf of the USA State Department).

2006: Ellenbogen received a Fleur du Cap Award for best supporting actor for his role in Twelfth Night at Maynardville.

2014: Ellenbogen honoured with the Fleur de Cap Lifetime Achievement Award.