Chris Pretorius

Chris Pretorius (born 1956). Director, playwright, radical theatre manager, filmmaker, designer and graphic artist.

Career

In 1981 he was co-founder of the Glasteater/Glass Theatre in Cape Town. He joined PACT in 1985 as director and designer. He later moved to the USA, where he started an interior design business with theatre director Jill Daly, who is also his wife.

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

In 1981 he was co-founder of the Glasteater/Glass Theatre in Cape Town with Tjaart Potgieter, John Nankin and Laurens Cilliers.

Chris Pretorius directed The House Under the Trees, The Seagull (1982),

He designed the set for Op Dees Aarde, Battle!.

He wrote Dark Continent, Bloed.

Wrote and directed Die Saai Lewe, More Mysteries of Love, Sunrise City, Don Juan or 'The Nightmare of Venus'.

The Tempest, Maynardville - dir: Ken Leach; Playing with fire (Strindberg) Dieter Reible. Exit the King, (Chris Pretorius’s production of The Duchess of Malfi (Sub-titled: The eclipse of Reason)

He made his directing debut with Johan van Wyk's Wieretuin at the Market Theatre in 1979. In the same year he wrote and directed Die Verlate Skoolmeisie at the Baxter. He followed with works including More Mysteries of Love, Die Saai Lewe and Don Juan or 'The Nightmare of Venus'. He co-founded the Glass Theatre in 1981. There he wrote, directed and designed numerous productions including Faust and More Mysteries of Love II. He spent two and a half years in residence at PACT, and was responsible for Amandla Mr Fassbinder, Kaspar in Kasablankah (which he co-wrote with Ben Kruger) and Via Castiglione. He did Weird Sex in Maputo before leaving for the USA, where he started an interior design business with theatre director Jill Daly, who is also his wife. After an absence of seven years, he returned to the performing world with Dark Continent at the National Arts Festival in 1999.

Oudisie om die einde van die aarde te verhoed written by Johan van Wyk, produced by Pretorius.

Galatea's Hands directed by Pretorius from 14 August to 5 Setember 1987 at the Nico Arena. (Die Burger, 28 March 2009)

In 1978 he made two short films, Angsst and Die Moord. Both were screened at the Cape Town Film Festival, 1979.

Sources

Bloed theatre programme, 1985.

National Arts Festival programme, 1999

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