Hermien Dommisse

(****-****). Stage, radio, screen and television actress, director, academic author, cultural activist. Also published as H. (Hermien) McCaul-Dommisse.

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

Stage work

She worked as an actress and director with Volksteater, as a director with the Krugersdorp Municipal Dramatic and Operatic Society (KMDOS) during the Second World War, as an actor and director for NAPAC and as an actor for CAPAB.

As a professional actress she appeared in Netnou Hoor die Kinders, Dionusia and in Plekkie in die Son, . Since she had previously also worked with the Volksteater, she played a part in familiarising Anna Neethling-Pohl with the work being done by P.P.B. Breytenbach. **

Helshoogte ("Hell's Heights" - for André Huguenet's company in the 1940s), Die Koopman van Venesië (for Fred Engelen, Little Theatre Cape Town, 1960), *

Among her other directing projects over the years have been Bluebird (Maeterlinck) for Pta Girl’s High.

Her cultural role

She played a crucial role in the promotion of opera as an art form in South Africa,

Books

Over the year she published a number of articles on all aspects of the performing arts, plus two books: and Voetspore ("Footsteps"), an informal auto-biographical look at her role in the evolution of the performing arts in South Africa (1996),

[JH, TH]

Awards, etc

In 1999 she received the Fleur du Cap Lifetime Award for her contribution to the industry.

Sources

Du Toit, 1988

Inskip, 197*

SACD 1973; 1978/79; 1979/80;

Go to ESAT Bibliography

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