Joanna Weinberg

Joanna Weinberg (1962-). Actress, cabaret and revue artist, playwright.

Biography

She was born in London in 1962 and came to South Africa in 1970. Moved to Australia in 1994 with her husband Lloyd, where she made a new career as performer and playwright.

Training

Studied drama at the University of Cape Town Drama Department and obtained her Performer's Diploma In Speech and Drama in 1983.

Career

She became a prominent actress for the Baxter Theatre, PACT and the Market Theatre.

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

Joanna had her first professional engagement at the Baxter Theatre Centre, playing opposite Sean Taylor in The Collector.

Perhaps her most notable role in South Africa was as Desdemona opposite John Kani and Richard Haines in Janet Suzman’s Market Theatre production of Othello in September 1987. However she also made a name for herself in cabaret. Began at venues like No 58, Hillbrow, under the watchful eye of Barbara Thompson.

She starred in Janice Honeyman’s Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, also directed by Honeyman at the Alexander Theatre in 1987 and played Sorel in Noel Coward's Hayfever. She played a role in Patchers at the Women's Festival at the Market Theatre.

Her plays include The Piano Diaries, The Puppet Rock Picture Play at the Market Theatre,

Television shows include Fable for Video; Playing with Fire.

She wrote, composed and performed in her own cabaret, Strictempo at Rumours and No 58.

Other performances include Tom Paine (UCT, 1981), Hamlet (Glass Theatre, 1982), Annie Barnes’s Odds and Ends (1983), Far Cry, Stormriders, West (1984), Pack of Lies (as “Julie”, 1985), Othello (“Desdemona”, 1986), March of the Falsettos (as “Trina”, CAPAB 1990), Janice Honeyman’s pantomime The Sleeping Beauty (as "Prince Harry the Handsome”, 1990).

She wrote the play Nice People, the Joneses and created the one-woman comedy Bellydancing (1995) a well as the cabaret Strictempo.

She directed Silk Ties in 1997.

She performed her show Pandora's Bag at the Baxter Golden Arrow Studio on a visit to South Africa in 2018.

Awards, etc

Nominee 1991 Weinberg, Joanna in A Midsummer Night's Bean (After Dark Award for best performance in cabaret/revue). and was nominated for a Fleur du Cap for best supporting actress in West.

Sources

Pack of Lies programme notes in 1985, performed at the Market Theatre.

Tucker, 1997.

South African Jewish Report, Oct 18, 2018 [Joanna Weinberg returns to her roots to perform - Jewish Report (sajr.co.za)].

Amazwi Literary Awards database.

Go to South African Theatre/Bibliography

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