Frank de Jongh
Frank de Jongh ()[] was a Cape Town based impresario.
Contents
Biography
Contribution to South African theatre
As manager
He leased the Cape Town Opera House almost continuously from 1896-1937, initially in assocaiation with William Haviland.
There he housed his Gaiety Companies, consisting of well-known overseas performers and artistes, including Zena Dare, Matheson Lang, Sybil Thorndike, Lewis Casson, Irene Vanbrugh and Kate Vaughan in a variety of plays, operas and ballets between 1896 and 1937.
In 1899 he and Herbert Flemming brought the Arthur Rousbey Opera Company to South Africa to perform a season of operas in Cape Town's Opera House.
As performer
His many roles included "Svengali" in Trilby, the lead in Hamlet, "Matthias" in The Bells (1896)
Sources
D.C. Boonzaier, 1980. "My playgoing days – 30 years in the history of the Cape Town stage", in SA Review, 9 March and 24 August 1932. (Reprinted in Bosman 1980: pp. 374-439.)
F.C.L. Bosman, 1980. Drama en Toneel in Suid-Afrika, Deel II, 1856-1916. Pretoria: J.L. van Schaik: pp.
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