Helen Mann

Helen Mann (19*-) Actress and director.

At school, she learned to take her Shakespeare calmly and though her tutors regarded him with proper awe and reverence, the bits of Shakespeare's plays they rammed down her throat, at the rate of one per year, stuck in her throat for life.

Hers was a purely literary approach and “there was none of this modern nonsense about considering Shakespeare's plays as dramas to be acted on the stage”.

Starting in 1949, she was always at the forefront of theatre in Port Elizabeth as an actress, producer, designer and decor artist, seamstress and costume designer and back stager.

A member of the Port Elizabeth Theatre Guild, she helped found and manage the Port Elizabeth Shakespearean Festival on May 10, 1960.

Although her acting parts were widely varied, she preferred the classics, particularly Shakespearean productions. She appeared in Will Jamieson's first post-war Shakespearean production of Twelfth Night.

Contributions to South African Theatre

1952: Played the role of Dynemone in A Phoenix Too Frequent.

1952: Portrayed Lady Precious Stream in Lady Precious Stream.

1953: Played Amanda in Private Lives.

1954: Portrayed a Hypochondriac in Sorry, Wrong Number.

1954: She played the part of a Naughty Girl in Hit The Deck.

1955: Helen Mann produced Home and Beauty and The Snow Goose.

1956: She played the part of Miranda in Miranda.

1957: Portrayed Piggy in Hands Across the Sea.

1957: Played the Good Fairy in Cindrella.

1958: Played Arum Lily in Sleeping Beauty.

1959: Played Audrey in Autumn Crocus.

1959: She was Miss Hybrid Mealie in Aladdin.

1959: She portrayed Esmeralda in Dead On Nine.

1960: Played Goneril in King Lear alongside Andre Huguenet.

1960: Played Emily in Our Town.

1960: Portrayed a Young Wife in Flare Path.

1961: Portrayed St Joan in The Lark.

1961: Played Laura in Tea and Sympathy.

1962: Portrayed Linda in Death of a Salesman.

1962: Played Hippolyte (Antiphone??) in Rape of the Belt.

1963: Played Argia in Queen of the Rebels.

1963: Produced the opera, Carmen, for the Port Elizabeth Male Voice Choir.

1964: Katherina in The Taming of the Shrew.

1965: Played Beatrice in Much Ado About Nothing.

1965: Played Sally Thomas in Signpost to Murder.

1966: Produced The Mikado.

1966: Produced Cubarama.

1967: Produced Oklahoma.

1967: Produced The King and I.

1968: Produced Brigadoon for the Port Elizabeth Gilbert & Sullivan Society.

1968: Produced Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves.

1969: Produced The Student Prince.

1969: Produced Romeo and Juliet.

1970: Portrayed Viola in Twelfth Night.

1970: Produced: The Desert Song.

1971: Portrayed Portia in The Merchant of Venice.

1971: Produced Oliver for the Grey Junior School.

1972: Played Helena in A Midsummer Night's Dream.

She has appeared on stage in The Heiress (1974), King Lear (as Goneril) with André Huguenet, 1985.

She directed Children of the Wolf, Port Elizabeth Shakespearean Festival 1975, The Crucible (1978), No, No, Nanette (1975), Othello, 1978 for Port Elizabeth Shakespearean Festival, Mannville. Other productions include A Voyage Round My Father, As You Like It, Shrivings, Twelfth Night, Bosoms and Neglect, The Gingerbread Lady. Tinker's Curse, to name a few.

1991: Produced M. Butterfly for the Port Elizabeth Shakespearean Festival at the Port Elizabeth Opera House.

Mannville Open-air Theatre, Port Elizabeth Shakespearean Festival, Port Elizabeth Gilbert and Sullivan Society.

Sources

Various entries in the NELM catalogue.

Romeo and Juliet theatre programme, 1969.

The Sound of Music theatre programme, 1972.

M. Butterfly theatre programme, 1991.

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