Mark Graham

Mark Graham (19**-). Actor, drama lecturer and award-winning director.

Biography

Born Mark Graham Wilson, he studied acting at the University of Cape Town, attaining an actor's diploma, before taking up a career as an actor and director with CAPAB (1984 to 1987) and then became a Resident Director for NAPAC's Loft Theatre and Drama Companies in Durban (in 1988-9).

He returned to Cape Town in 1990 and in 1991 took up a post as lecturer in the Stellenbosch Drama Department. For the next number of years he directed a number of acclaimed student productions, while also completing a B.Dram degree in the Department.

Towards the end of the 1990s he left academia to follow an enormously profitable professional career as director, working for CAPAB, Pieter Toerien Productions and a number of other companies on a free-lance basis. In the late 1990s he also turned to directing for television, and at one time was head of the television section of City Varsity in Cape Town.

Moving to Johannesburg he continued working for stage and television, inter alia working for Opdrag Productions, a company he and Jana Cilliers had founded, as well as running an Actors Studio from his home.

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

As actor

Acted for a variety of companies, e.g. for CAPAB in Measure for Measure, Maynardville (1987) and playing Bouller in Good (1990), Skylight, Indiscretions,

He manipulated puppets in Robert Hewett’s Gulls which Keith Grenville directed in 1987/1988.

As director

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Plays directed over the years include:

A Midsummer Night's Dream (199*), Sweeney Todd (1989*), Hamlet, The Winter's Tale, The Tempest, The Comedy of Errors, The Cherry Orchard, Rosencrantz and Guilderstern are Dead, Kvetch, Master Class, Burning Blue (1996), Children of the Wolf (1997), Taking Sides, Art, I Was King, Travels with my Aunt, Almost the Sound of Music, The Best of Friends, Simpatico, Love! Valour! Compassion!, HEllo and Goodbye, The Bloodknot, Kinkels innie Kabel, OPDRAG: Ingrid Jonker, All in the Timing, Fiela's Child - The Musical, Kinkels innie Kabel, Taking Sides, Opdrag: Ingrid Jonker, Karnaval (1995), Sleepvoet (1998), Mozart and Salieri (both play and opera, 2000). The American Popess (2001), Hello and Goodbye (Tesson Theatre and Baxter Theatre 2008)

He directed I Was King for Pieter Toerien at the Richard Haines Theatre in 1992. He directed Hugh Whitemore’s The Best of Friends in 1993. He directed Bob Randall’s The Fan in 1994. He directed Giles Havergal’s Travels with my Aunt at the Leonard Rayne Theatre in August 1994.

Since then he has directed many productions for various managements including The Lisbon Traviata and The Best of Friends for Pieter Toerien, Mozart and Salieri (both play and opera) for the Oude Libertas Amphitheatre (2000).

As resident director at NAPAC he was responsible for productions such as Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead (1989), Kvetch. He directed Almost the Sound of Music (CAPAB, 1994), and Master Class and Love! Valour! Compassion! in 1996.

He directed Master Class (1996), Burning Blue (1996), Children of the Wolf (1997).

Directed All in the Timing, Fiela's Child - The Musical, Kinkels innie Kabel, Taking Sides, Opdrag: Ingrid Jonker, Karnaval (1995), Sleepvoet (1998), Mozart and Salieri (both play and opera, 2000). The American Popess (2001), Hello and Goodbye (Tesson Theatre and Baxter Theatre 2008)

Directing opera

Operas directed include Don Pasquale, Die Engtführung aus dem Serail, Lost in the Stars, Mozart and Salieri

Awards

Starting with the Rosalie van der Gucht Prize for New Directors in 1991 he went on to win numerous Vita Awards and Fleur du Cap Theatre Awards as best director during the 90s.

Nominated Indiscretions, Skylight.

Sources

In the Summer of 1918 theatre programme notes, 1990.

National Arts Festival programmes, 1994 and 1996.

Various entries in the NELM catalogue.

Mozart and Salieri programme, Stellenbosch 2000.

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