Jo Gevers

Jo Gevers (1930-2016) was an actor, director, and lecturer of drama.

Biography

According to IMDb[ http://www.imdb.com/name/nm1018053/ J.J.C.G. (Jo) Gevers was born in Bree, Belgium, on 13 February in 1930 (though some sources have his date of birth as 1932).

He studied at the Rijksuniversiteit of Gent and in 1954 obtained the Licentiaat in Wijsbegeerte en Letteren, in 1955 the teachers diploma, Aggregaat van het Hoger Secundair Onderwijs. He also took a course in directing at the Old Vic in Bristol and would later also complete an M.Dram degree at the University of Stellenbosch in 1964. His thesis was entitled Verhouding van spel en literatuur in die Dramatiese Kuns ("the relationship between play and literature in dramatic art").

He had extensive practical theatre training and theatre experience in Europe while working at the Koninklike Konservatorium in Brussels, the Akademie van die Mozarteum in Salzburg and the Studio van die Nasionale Toneel in Antwerpen, working as an actor and director. Among the works directed were plays by Brecht, Molière, Shakespeare and Schiller, as well as Ag Vroue (R. Thomas), Scapino (Molière), Op Hoop van Seën (Heijermans), Iphigeneia (Euripides) and Once More (at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre). His film work before and after his sojourn in South Africa include roles in De wrok van Achilleus (1962), Mira (1971) and [[José en de cup (1981).

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

He came to South Africa in 1962 to work with Fred Engelen and lecture at the University of Stellenbosch, from 1962-1964.

In 1965 he moved to Bloemfontein and became a senior lecturer and founder of the University of the Orange Free State Drama Department, remaining in this position till 1970. In this period he married the South African actress and movement lecturer Annatjie Vorster towards the end of 1965.

Gevers and his wife returned to Belgium in 1971 to continue teaching and working in theatre there, inter alia at the Arkel Theater, Ghent.

While in Bloemfontein, he not only directed university plays, but also did so for a variety of amateur and professional companies such as the UTB, the Shakespeare Circle and PACOFS. Among his most notable productions were Jakkalsstreke van Scapino (UTB 196*), Op Hoop van Seën by Heijermans, Iphigeneia by Euripides, Richard III (196*, in which he and his South African born wife Annatjie Vorster starred and he directed), Maria Stuart (196*) and Die Dubbele Adelaar (1968), Die Idioot .

As an actor he also had a role in the PACOFS production of Die Soldateminnaars, 1965.

The Idiot by Dostoyevsky, directed by Jo Gevers for CAPAB 1969. As a director he also directed Once More at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre.

Awards

Received the André Huguenet Award in the Free State for his role in Richard III, 1967.

Sources

Die Volksblad, 7 October 1964.

Die Koning Sterf theatre programme, 1969.

Cape Times, 21 January 1969.

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm1018053/bio?ref_=nm_ov_bio_sm

"In Memoriam", Matieland October, 2016 (p. 37).

Die Burger, 7 December 2016

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