Michele Maxwell

(19**-) Actress, singer, musical director.

Career

Her career began at the Space Theatre in 1974, after which she relocated to Johannesburg where she was very active in the early days of the Market Theatre. In 1978 she was a member of the Baxter Theatre Company. She was out of the country for most of the 1980s and returned to South Africa in 1989.

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

Worked at The Space in the 1970s, acting in Don't walk about with Nothing On, Dusa, Fish, Stas and Vi, Gameplay,Muzeeka, Outcry (1974), Pity About People (Pieter-Dirk Uys 1974) God's Forgotten (Pieter-Dirk Uys, 1976), Strike up the Banned (Pieter-Dirk Uys, 1976) and Three's Company. Musical director for A Touch of 1900s.

Merry Madcap (for Janice Honeyman), Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club, The Fantastical History of a Useless Man, The Cherry Orchard (as “Varia”), Absurd Person Singular (as “Eva”), Bodies (as “Helen”) Send for Dolly (as “Dolly”),

Was Assistant Musical Director for Marat Sade and Boogie Woogie, Bubble and Squeak and the Musical Director for The Me Nobody Knows, Call Me Woman, Tales of Beatrix Potter. Also performed at the Market Theatre, i.a. as a member of the women’s cabaret trio, Skirted Issue, she did i.a. Boogie Woogie, Bubble and Squeak (at the Edinburgh Festival). She starred in Frank Shelley’s production of Shaw’s Major Barbara together with Dorothy-Ann Gould for PACT in January 1975. She also starred in Barney Simon’s production of Arthur Miller’s The Crucible for PACT together with Marius Weyers, Patrick Mynhardt, Michael McCabe and Aletta Bezuidenhout in 1975. She starred in Malcolm Purkey’s production of Tom Stoppard’s Jumpers(as “Dorothy”), together with Nicholas Ellenbogen and Ron Smerczak at the Market Theatre in 1980.

Guys and Dolls, Baxter 1990 Nunsense, 1990s Steel Magnolias (Baxter 1990).

She starred in James Sherman’s Beau Jest as the Jewish Mother in 1993. Seen as the Incidental Woman in ‘’The Fan’’, 1994. Gorgeous Teitelbaum in The Sisters Rosensweig (1995). Full Gallop (1997). Ben Elton’s Popcorn (1998).

Death of a Salesman, Arthur Miller, Director: Bobby Heaney, 2001. Lighting design: Mannie Manim. Music: Janine Neethling, Set design: Stan Knight. Baxter Theatre.

Sources

SACD 1977/78; 1978/79; 1980/81.

Astbury, 1979; Schwartz, 1988, Tucker, 1997.

Go to South African Theatre/Bibliography

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