Chris Weare

Being edited 10/3/2022

(Also billed as Christopher Weare, though most often referred to as "Chris".)

Chris Weare (19*-). Actor, director, theatre maker, teacher and administrator.

Biography

Born Christopher Weare.

Married to voice coach and director Liz Mills.

Training

He received his training at Rhodes University Drama Department, graduating in the early 1970s.

Career

Became a lecturer in the Department of Drama at University of Cape Town Drama Department in 19*, later became Associate Professor and Director of the Little Theatre in the same department. Made professor and director of Little Theatre (19*). He is also the founder of the Intimate Theatre, and a founding member of The Mechanicals Collective. He was one of the founders of the Arena Theatre Company in Cape Town in 1997 and he was on the first steering committee of the Cape Town Theatre Laboratory in 1998.

In 2025, he is teaching acting and acting theory at LAMTA.

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

Doctor Faustus as "Robin" 1968, Peer Gynt 1970, Richard Gush of Salem 1970, The Playboy of the Western World 1971, Macbeth 1979, The Crucible 1980, The Philanthropist 1980, The Silent Woman 1981

As actor, he played Hal in Kvetch and Graham Johnston in We All Fall Down (1988). He starred in Lena Farugia’s We and Them at the Leonard Rayne Theatre in 1989 and in 2010 he staged the play at The Theatre on the Square.

Ostrich palace/volstruispaleis 1996 KKNK Baxter, Rick Everett

African Star! – The Will Schreiner Story. 1999-2000

As actor

Film

Chris acted in the film That Englishwoman.

As director

He subsequently became known as a fine director, his work including:

1978: Skyvers (Rhodes University Drama Department)

1979: Absurd Person Singular (Rhodes University Drama Department)

The Business of Murder

1981: El Grande de Coca Cola

1984: Skyf

1990: East

1995: People are Living There (also playing “Shorty”)

1996: Elizabeth

1998: Pick Ups

2003: Bungee Writing Finals

2005: Noises Off

2006: The Incredible Beer Show

2006: Bonhoeffer

2007: Lawwe Geluide

2008: Buried Child

2008/2009: The Zoo Story (2008-2009)

2009: MacBeki - A Farce to the Reckoned With

2010: Decadence

2010: Raiders of the Lost Aardvark

2010: Spring Awakening

2011: Lovborg's Women

2011: The Real Inspector Hound

2012: House of Usher

2012: Tonight Neither Hamlet (2012)

2013: The Colonel Bird

2013: An Audience with Miss Hobhouse

2013: The Titanic Orchestra

2013: An Absolute Turkey

2013: Sexual Perversity in Chicago

2013: Vigil

2013: Same Time Next Year

2013: No, Seriously? (Alan Committie’s one-man show at the Montecasino Theatre.)

2014: Curl Up and Dye

2014: A Lie of the Mind

2018: Gertrude Stein and a Companion

Material held by NELM to be investigated: The Trojan Horse – Weare: Playscript [Typescript (photocopy)] NELM Location: [Collection: MANIM, Mannie]: 2005. 11. 1. 320; The Greeks – Weare: Theatre programme [Typescript] NELM Location: [Collection: MORRIS, Gay]: 2007. 13. 24. 1

Awards, etc

In 1979 he was awarded the first Leon Gluckman Memorial Scholarship, presented to him by Dr Henry Gluckman during the celebration of the 75th anniversary of the Rhodes University Drama Department.

He has won four Fleur du Cap Theatre Awards (as Best Supporting Actor for "Hal" in Berkoff's Kvetch (1988), as Best Director and the Rosalie van der Gucht Prize for New Directors for Berkoff's East (1990), the Fleur du Cap Theatre Award as Best Director for Elizabeth (1996) and **.

Nominated Fleur 2008 Chris Weare: Rosencrantz & Guildenstern are dead;

Fleur du Cap Lifetime Award, award year 2012.

Sources

We All Fall Down programme notes, 1988.

Tucker, 1997.

Theatre programmes, photographs and other material held by NELM in various locations.

South African Panorama, 31 December 1979.

Weare to direct 50th Fleur du Cap Theatre Awards - 15/03/2015 - Artslink.co.za News

https://alexanderbar.co.za/show/getrudesteinandacompanion/

Die Burger, 19 March 2012 (Lifetime Award, Fleur du Cap).

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