Sarah Sylvia
Sarah Sylvia (real name Serke Goldstein) (1890–1976). Actress and producer, she was born in London and came to South Africa as a young child.
Contribution to SA theatre, film, media and/or performance
Sarah Sylvia was the acknowledged leading Jewish actress and producer in South Africa.
In 1912, in London, she played opposite Maurice Moscovitch in his Yiddish production of The Merchant of Venice.
Later, in the same year she starred in the lead role in Goldfaden’s Shulamis.
Under the auspices of African Theatres Ltd, she presented a week of different plays in the Yiddish language each night at the Opera House in Port Elizabeth during the first week in March 1921. These included comedies, operas, and tragedies. She staged Madame X, a four-act play by A. Beson.
She acted in Leon Kobrin's Minkie and the Cook, a comedy with musical numbers and dancing, at the Opera House in March 1921. Starring Sarah Sylvia (Minkie) and her Jewish Players.
She also acted in Joseph Schwartzberg's Home Sweet Home, a comedy with musical numbers and dancing, at the Opera House in March 1921. Starring Sarah Sylvia (Stella) and her Jewish Players, Z Libin's Blind Love, an emotional drama, at the Opera House in March 1921. Starring Sarah Sylvia and her Jewish Players, Jacob Cloreea's (spelling?) The Orphan, a standard drama, at the Opera House in March 1921. Money, Love & Shame, a drama of modern times at the Opera House in March 1921.
She was a star of the Jewish theatre, who brought a company to South Africa to produce a season of theatre at the Standard Theatre in Johannesburg in the 1940s, followed by seasons at the Colosseum and His Majesty's Theatre over the years. Her company also did the first production of Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman (1951). (See also the Sarah Sylvia Company in Section 3.)
She went on to make various appearances as actress in South Africa over the years, including The Same Sky (1952, with Leon Gluckman), Death of a Salesman (in English) with Ben-Ami, The World of Shalom Aleichem (in 1957 [in 1960?] with David Kossof and Joyce Grant, directed by Cecil Williams), Romanoff and Juliet (1958), A Majority of One (in 1960 with Frank Wise, directed by Leonard Schach) and Come Blow Your Horn (in 1962, with Fyvel Zygelbaum and local performers Gordon Mulholland, Clive Parnell and Jane Fenn.), Barmy Days (1966).
Her son was the promoter and musical impresario Alfred Herbert (Alf).
Film roles include The Professor and the Beauty Queen (1967), Stadig oor die Klippe (1969) and Hans en die Rooinek (1961).
Sources
Tucker, 1997.
IMDb [1].
Material held by NELM.
Encylopaedia Judaica (Second Edition), vol 19, Macmillan Reference USA in association with Keter Publishing House Ltd, Jerusalem.
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