Shirley Firth

Shirley Firth (b. Boksburg, 03/03/1934 - d. Johannesburg, **/11/2019) was an actress and producer.

Biography

She was born in Johannesburg on 3 March 1934.

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

As actress

She was kept in steady employment by PACT until 1966.

As an actress she appeared in Dodie Smith’s I Capture the Castle at the YMCA in 1955, Kushlick-Gluckman’s revival of Clare Boothe’s The Women (1961), Pyjama Tops (Brian Brooke Company at the Playhouse, 1963). She appeared in The Secretary Bird in 1969, for the first and last time in a play for which she was also the management.

As Manager/Producer

The Stage Company

Towards the end of 1966 she ventured into management, joining forces with actor-director Angus Neill, calling themselves The Stage Company. They took a long lease on the Intimate Theatre, where their first production was a revival of The Little Hut.

The Stage Company did only three productions in two years. She staged the comedy The Little Hut at the Intimate Theatre, 1966. In 1967 The Stage Company put on The Creeper and their final production Caste, renamed True Hearts are more than Coronets, 1968.

Toerien-Rubin-Firth (1969-1970)

Shirley held onto the lease of the Intimate Theatre and this led to her association with Pieter Toerien and Basil Rubin. Together with Toerien and Rubin she stepped forward as new management of the Intimate in 1969. The first of their few co-productions was The Secretary Bird which was directed by Kerry Jordan and starred Jeremy Hawk, Shelagh Holliday, Ivan Berold and Firth herself. They also presented Sleuth (1970).

For more information, see Toerien-Rubin-Firth.

The Toerien-Firth Company (1971-1982)

Firth worked in partnership with Pieter Toerien from 1971 - 1982. The Toerien-Firth Company presented many productions, starting with Who Killed Santa Claus? in 1971. Their last joint production at the Intimate Theatre was in 1982, namely the Baxter Theatre production of Robert Kirby’s It's a Boy!.

For more information, see Toerien-Firth Company.

As an independent producer

Firth produced Neil Simon’s Brighton Beach Memoirs directed by Louis Burke at the André Huguenet Theatre in February 1986.

She returned briefly to the management scene when she presented Barry Creyton’s Double Act at the Windybrow Theatre in 1988.

As writer

Shirley did freelance writing on various topics for, inter alia, Business Day in the 1990s.

Sources

Tucker, 1997.

Various entries in the NELM catalogue.

Go to ESAT Bibliography

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