Don Maclennan
Don Maclennan (9 December 1929 - 9 February 2009). Academic, poet, short-story writer, dramatist and actor.
Contents
Biography
Born in London but his parents immigrated to South Africa in 1938.
Training
He was educated at the University of the Witwatersrand and read Philosophy at Edinburgh University.
Career
He lectured in Philosophy and English at Wits University and University of Cape Town. He was later Senior Lecturer in English at Rhodes University.
Contribution to SA theatre, film, media and/or performance
He has indicated that his close interest in theatre is a direct result of his association with Athol Fugard. Founder and close associate of the Ikhwezi Players and the author of eight plays, all of which have been performed, including the one-act plays Job Mava (co-written with Ikhwezi Players, perf 1972/3, pub 1980/81) and Celebration (perf. Rhodes University 1966). He wrote a one-act play The Third Degree (1967), A Winter Vacation, directed by Francois Swart for PACT at the Arena in 1970, The Voyage of the Santiago. In 1970 he also wrote In the Dawn Wind.
Other plays include In Memoriam Oskar Wolberheim, The Great Wall of China, The Wake, An Enquiry into the Voyage of the Santiago, performed by the survivors and Job Mava.
He adapted Maxim Gorky's My Childhood for the stage.
He directed and acted in The Mind Mirror staged i.a. at** and The Space, (1975)
Awards, etc
Sources
Gosher, 1988.
A Winter Vacation programme notes, 1970.
Tucker, 1997.
Obituary by Peter Vale, Sunday Times, 22 February 2009.
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