Louise Balfe

Louise Balfe was a singer and performer

Also found as Miss Balfe

Biography

She apparently went on the make a career in England and the USA. An 1880 photograph of her advertising a production at the Temple Theatre in Philadelphia refers to her as "The accomplished emotional actress, Louise Balfe"[1]. Similarly, she is called "The distinguished English actress Louise Balfe" in a publicity photograph for the play Dagmar (by John Harrison) in 1885.[2] and

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

She was part of a new contingent performers that joined the Disney Roebuck company in mid-August of 1876. She was considered the "playgoer's favourite" of the time, and described as being a fine and lively and a talented singer. Among her many roles, she appeared as the leading characters in such burlesques as Little Don Giovanni and A Young Rip van Winkle, a "bewitching" "Rosalie" in Nemesis and the "London Waif" in Under the Gaslight. She was often paired with Mr Elton in the lighter pieces.

It appears that she left the company while on tour in the Eastern Cape, when she and Disney Roebuck had a quarrel of some kind.

Sources

https://discover.hsp.org/Record/marc-167064

https://discover.hsp.org/Record/marc-166767/Details

F.C.L. Bosman. 1980. Drama en Toneel in Suid-Afrika, Deel II, 1856-1916. Pretoria: J.L. van Schaik: pp.347-351, 358

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