African Consolidated Theatres

African Consolidated Theatres (ACT) was a national theatre and film organization active in the country for much of the 20th century.

Also found as African Consolidated Theatres Ltd, but colloquially referred to simply as African Theatres or by its acronym: ACT.

Beginnings with African Theatres Trust

The African Theatres Trust was founded in 1913 by I.W. Schlesinger and A.H. Stodel (Harry Stodel), with the intention of saving the ailing theatre industry by organizing it nationwide. They pooled their resources to gradually gain control of theatres and cinema halls across the country and set about bringing out dramatic, musical and pantomime companies to tour their circuit.

According to Groom (in Bosman, 1980: p. 435) the Trust first made its presence felt in the country in 1911, though Percy Tucker (1997: ) says it was only founded in 1913.

African Consolidated Theatres (ACT)

Eventually this empire grew to encompass the mighty cinema industry as well and was renamed African Consolidated Theatres (or simply ACT) in 19**. Soon the company became central to the development of professional theatre and film in the country. It appears it continued to produce theatre until 1969.

Between 1920 and 1960 virtually no-one could play the cities without the support and involvement of ACT, or at least utilizing their facilities. The company bought the wardrobe of the Graaff-Reinet Amateur Dramatic and Musical Society upon its disbandment for £2000. In 1932 they contracted the Johannesburg REPS for a production of Dangerous Corner in His Majesty’s Theatre and in 1933 for one of Shaw’s Arms and the Man. In 1941, when the outbreak of war had seriously curtailed professional theatre in South Africa, African Theatres once again invited the REPS to take over the Standard Theatre, and from then till the end of war in 1945, almost all of its work was ceded to the REPS. They later collaborated with NTO on a number of projects as well.

African Consolidated Theatres was later sold to 20th Century Fox in the 1950s after Schlesinger's death.

Hymie Udwin was an executive at ACT for many years.

Productions

1920: The Sleeping Beauty

1921: The Sleeping Beauty

1932: Dangerous Corner (Johannesburg Reps)

1933: Arms and the Man (Johannesburg Reps)

1940s: (date unknown) The Desert Song

1940: Night Must Fall, The Corn is Green

1941: Alice in Wonderland, Tosca (John Connell)

1942: The Sleeping Beauty was a pantomime produced at the Empire Theatre in 1942.

1945: The Peepshow of 1945, Tosca

1946: George Formby performed for ACT at the Colosseum Theatre in 1946.

1947: Imported Ivor Novello and his full company to tour his musical Perchance to Dream which appeared at His Majesty's Theatre.

1948: Oklahoma!

1949: They imported Irving Berlin’s musical, Annie Get Your Gun (Jimmy Mackenzie was responsible for publicity at this time); Present Laughter (Brian Brooke Company), No Room at the Inn (Brian Brooke Company), The Heiress (Brian Brooke Company)

1950: Brigadoon (Phil Levard's last production for ACT0, Cinderella

1952: Dick Whittington

1954: ACT booked Danny Kaye, a stand-up comedian to play in Johannesburg in 1954. ACT brought Maurice Schwartz and his Yiddish Art Theatre Company from New York to His Majesty’s Theatre in 1954.

1955: Taubie Kushlick celebrated her quarter-century in the theatre by directing two American plays in 1955 at His Majesty’s Theatre in association with ACT. The first was The Desperate Hours starring Bill Brewer and Sadie Festenstein, and the other, The Fifth Season, starring the American actor Joseph Buloff. ACT brought out Sir Edmund Hillary to give lectures at the Plaza Theatre in 1955.

1957: ACT presented Bernard Delfont’s London version of the Folies Bergère at His Majesty’s Theatre at the end of 1957.

1958: They presented the American musical, The Pajama Game in 1958. It marked the Broadway choreographic debut of Bob Fosse, and starred the young English actor, Michael McGovern, who stayed on to become one of our leading actors.

1959: Bo Jungle (in association with Bertha Egnos)

1962: My Fair Lady

1964: They imported Lilac Time from Tom Arnold as part of the Johannesburg Festival in 1964. This operetta starred Marion Studholme and Thomas Round. Anthony Farmer staged and designed the sets of the Moulin Rouge show from Paris for ACT at the Empire Theatre in 1964. They presented Zizi Jeanmaire at the Empire Theatre in a large-scale revue in 1964. They also presented British comedian Bruce Forsyth in 1964.

1966: They brought The Seekers to the Colosseum Theatre in 1966. Joan Brickhill and Louis Burke co-devised The Minstrel Scandals for ACT, which opened at the Alhambra in Cape Town before playing at the Empire Theatre in 1966. Frank Lazarus did the vocal arrangements, Boris Cohen was the musical director, and performers included Aubrey Ellis, Lynton Burns, Olive King, Michael Fisher, Stephanie Shiller, Beryl Ellis, Jeanette James, Ronnie Grainge and Charles Stodel with Joan Brickhill playing the lead girl.

1967: Together with Goerge and Alfred Black, they presented Michael Bentine, Joe Baker and Jane Fyffe in Let Yourself Go during the Christmas season of 1967.

1969: Fiddler on the Roof

Sources

D.C. Boonzaier. 1923. "My playgoing days – 30 years in the history of the Cape Town stage", in SA Review, 9 March and 24 August 1923. (Reprinted in Bosman 1980: pp. 374-439.)

F.C.L. Bosman. 1980. Drama en Toneel in Suid-Afrika, Deel II, 1856-1912. Pretoria: J.L. van Schaik.

Brian Brooke. 1978. My Own Personal Star: An Autobiography. Johannesburg: The Limelight Press.

P.J. du Toit. 1988. Amateurtoneel in Suid-Afrika. Pretoria: Academica

Jill Fletcher. 1994. The Story of Theatre in South Africa: A Guide to its History from 1780-1930. Cape Town: Vlaeberg.

Temple Hauptfleisch. 1997. Theatre and Society in South Africa: Reflections in a Fractured Mirror. Pretoria: Van Schaik[1].

Loren Kruger 1999. The Drama of South Africa: Plays, Pageants and Publics Since 1910. London: Routledge.

Olga Racster. 1951. Curtain up! The story of Cape Theatre. Cape Town: Juta.

South African History Online "A History of the South African Film Industry timeline" 1895-2003, [2]

Stodel, Jack 1962. The Audience Is Waiting. Cape Town: Howard Timmins.

Percy Tucker. 1997. Just the Ticket. My 50 Years in Show Business. Johannesburg: Witwatersrand University Press.

https://johannesburg1912.com/2013/07/29/theatres-in-early-johannesburg/

(For the plays done or supported by ACT, see Part 3, Sections 4a and 4b)

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