Don Hughes
Don Hughes. (19*-) was a theatre producer and impresario,
Active in all facets of the entertainment, from legitimate theatre tours, through casino and theme park entertainment to television and feature films.
Biography
Born in Johannesburg, he became an apprentice printers engineer, studying at the Durban University of Technology for Printers Engineer (1950 – 1957), then working as an Assistant Chief Engineer for API Industries (April 1956 – January 1957).
After a brief stint as a pianist, he founded and became president of President his own company, Don Hughes Consolidated Holdings Ltd (1960 – April 1977), overseeing a Theatrical Agency, 14 discotheques, 3 theatres, a music publishing company, a record production company and hotel reservation company, all owned and operated by the Don Hughes Consolidated Holdings. . Dates EmployedFeb Employment Durationbefore moving on to his extensive work in the theatre in South Africa, in the US, and internationally, with some of the biggest name stars from the late 50’s to the present day.
Retired December 2016 and died August 7, 2017 in Pismo Beach, California.
Contribution to SA theatre, film, media and/or performance
Director of Don Hughes Organisation and Don Hughes Productions.
He staged a Dinner Theatre production, You'll Come To Love Your Sperm Test, at the Langham Hotel in 1967.
Together with Taubie Kushlick he presented Stephen Sondheim’s A Little Night Music, based on Ingmar Bergman’s film, Smiles of a Summer’s Night. Kushlick directed Maggie Fitzgibbon, Eric Flynn, Hal Watters, Erica Rogers and herself in this play which opened late October 1975 at His Majesty's Theatre.
Also did Joe Orton's farce What the Butler Saw at the President Theatre, Plein street, Johannesburg, directed by Aubrey Berg ? (Year unknown).
Sources
https://www.marshallspoosunsetfuneralchapel.com/notices/Don-Hughes
https://www.linkedin.com/in/don-hughes-8487864/?locale=de_DE
Tucker, 1997. 225, 311, 327.
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