Janice Honeyman
(****-****). Actress and director. Performed in Kinkels innie Kabel, Man in the Moon Marigolds, Babbelkous en Bruidegom, Lovers, Richard III, Investigations into the Death of a Greek, Muzeeka, Home Fires, Woyzeck, Zoo Zoo Widdershins Zoo, Tartuffe, Story Theatre, Luv (at the Market Theatre), Hello and Goodbye (at the Market Theatre), Don Juan (at the Market Theatre) Directed Twelfth Night, Star Bright, Wam!, Madame De Sade, Hardy Folk (with the Young Market),Holy Moses and All That Jazz (at the Market Theatre), The Merchant of Venice (at the Market Theatre), An Arabian Night (at the Market Theatre). Also worked on Theatre-In-Education programs for PACT. (SACD 1973) (SACD 1974) (SACD 1977/78) (SACD 1979/80) (SACD 1980/81)
HONEYMAN, Janice. (1949-) Dynamic actress, highly respected director and author, particularly of children’s plays and pantomimes, arts administrator. Studied drama at the University of Cape Town. Joined The Space Theatre and worked for CAPAB’s youth group with Robin Malan?*. Later became head of the Youth Group at PACT, before becoming a freelance actress and director. One of the founding members of The Company she went on to work at, and eventually become a deputy director of, the Market Theatre. In 199* appointed Deputy Executive Director of the Johannesburg Civic Theatre, later becoming Executive Director. In 2001 she resigned to move back to the Cape Town on a freelance basis.
As a playwright particularly renowned for her children's work and her pantomimes, in which she developed an own style that combined entertainment, educational material and social issues in one event, an approach already introduced in her first play Cape Parade Adventure (19*) and continued in WAM (Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart), The Adventures of a Merry Madcap (Market Theatre, 1976), **, ** and **. Also the author of ****. Co-author of This is for Keeps (with Vanessa Cooke and Danny Keogh -1983) and ***.
Major acting roles include , Hester in The Company’s version of Hello and Goodbye in the seventies, multiple characters in An Arabian Night (197*)??**, ****, Gertrude Stein in The ** of Alice B. Toklas (198*), **** ,.
As director works include Hennie Aucamp's ground-breaking Afrikaans cabaret Met Permissie Gesê (198*), Hard Times (***, 19*), The Beauty Queen of Leenane (19*), Rootz (***, 19*), Kramer and Petersen's Poison (1992), Madiba Magic (***, 200*) **, **'s Vatmaar (Baxter Theatre, 2002), John Kani's Nothing But The Truth (Baxter Theatre, 2002) for which she received a Naledi award for Best Director, Cinderella (***, 200*), Die Fledermaus (ArtsCape, 200*), **, Oom Vanya/Uncle Vanya]] (Baxter, 2004 )***, Twaalfde Nag ("Twelfth Night" in Afrikaans) (Oude Libertas Theatre Stellenbosch, 2005), Athol Fugard’s Exits and Entrances (Baxter Theatre, 2005), Begeerte (Eugene O’Neill’s Desire under the Elms, Baxter Theatre and KKNK 2006), Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (Baxter Theatre, 2007), . In 200* she directed Hello and Goodbye with Antony Sher and Estelle Kohler and Julius Hay's Have in London. In 2004 she directed the Celebrate South Africa Festival in the Royal Festival Hall, London.
Winner of numerous awards, including the Five Roses Young Artists Award, the Breytenbach Epathlon, a number of Vita Awards and Fleur du Cap Awards, and the Johnnie Walker Achiever Award. Her TV work includes Bangalory Time, a hugely successful TV series for children (197*-198*??) which she both wrote and performed in, as well as many other children’s presentations.
HONEYMAN, Janice. Actress and director. She starred in Leonard Schach’s production of the Paul Zindel play The Effect of Gamma Rays on Man-in-the-moon Marigolds, for PACT in 1971. It also starred Marjorie Gordon. She formed part of Mannie Manim and Barney Simon’s The Company together with Vanessa Cooke, Leonie Hofmeyr, David Eppel, Judith Cornell, Aletta Bezuidenhout, Sue Kiel, Danny Keogh, Lindsay Reardon and John Oakley-Smith around 1974. The Company put on children’s matinees of her May Day Adventure at the Arena in 1974. She starred in Aubrey Berg’s Story Theatre together with Frantz Dobrowsky, Eckard Rabe, Paul Slabolepszy and Richard Haines for PACT in 1974. The children’s matinee show Adventures of a Merry Madcap, written and directed by Honeyman was staged at The Market Theatre in 1976. She starred in the Academy-Company production of Murray Schisgal’s Broadway comedy Luv, directed by Barney Simon. It also starred Wilson Dunster and James White and was staged at Upstairs at the Market in 1977. She devised a pop-musical called Holy Moses and all that Jazz at The Market in 1979. She starred in Kinkels in die Kabel by André P. Brink in the 1970’Sheldon: Her production of An Arabian Night, adapted from Sir Richard Burton’s translation of The Arabian Nights was staged at Upstairs at the Market and the Main Hall in 1980. Together with Barney Simon she directed Marico Moonshine and Mampoer, inspired by certain Herman Charles Bosman stories, at the Market in 1981.
She directed Ain’t We Got Fun at the Market Theatre in 1981. She directed Romeo and Juliet with Robert Whitehead and Vanessa Cooke at the Market in 1982. She starred in Brickhill-Burke’s production of Jerome Lawrence’s Mame, an adaptation of Auntie Mame, at the Civic Theatre in November 1982. It also starred Joan Brickhill, Jean Dell and Mark Richardson. She directed an adaptation of Fielding’s Tom Jones at the Arena in February 1983. She directed And Green And Golden, based on the childhood memories of Dylan Thomas, at the Market in 1982/83. She directed Danny Keogh and Vanessa Cooke in a play they had written called This is for Keeps at the Laager in May 1983 before playing at Upstairs in August. She starred in Barney Simon’s production of Marsha Norman’s Night Mother together with Julie Follansbee at the Laager in September 1983.
Her production, Forbidden Fruits, starring Vanessa Cooke, Jeremy Crutchley, Mike Huff, Danny Keogh, Amanda Strydom and Annelisa Weiland was staged at Upstairs at the Market in 1983/84. She directed William M. Hoffman’s As Is in 1986. She directed the opening production for the Warehouse called Black and White Follies in 1987. She wrote and directed PACT’s first pantomime Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs at the Alexander Theatre in 1987. She wrote and directed Amabali – It’s Storytime which was staged at the Market in 1988. She wrote and directed PACT’s pantomime Aladdin in 1988. She directed Alfred Uhry’s Driving Miss Daisy in 1989. She adapted and directed Charles Dickens’s Hard Times for PACT at the Windybrow in 1989. She directed Leonard Bernstein’s Candide as part of The Trilogy in 1989. She directed PACT’s annual pantomime Jack and the Beanstalk in 1989.
She directed Pieter-Dirk Uys in A Kiss on Your Koeksister at the Warehouse in 1990. PACT’s annual pantomime was her The Sleeping Beauty at the Alexander Theatre in 1990. She directed A.R. Gurney’s Love Letters which was staged at the Richard Haines Theatre in September 1991. She directed William Nicholson’s Shadowlands at the Market Theatre in 1991. Her production of Sinbad’s African Adventures was staged at the Civic Theatre in 1992. Her pantomime Jack and the Beanstalk was staged at the Market in 1993. Her production of Hair was staged at the Civic Theatre in 1994. * Shirley, Goodness and Mercy (Baxter Theatre, 2007)* (See Astbury, 1979; Schwartz, 1988; Tucker, 1997)
HONEYMAN, JANICE(1949*) Snoopy!!! – Schulz, Pierre Knoesen , Janice; dir: William Egan, musical dir: Noel Stockton; Sand Du Plessis Theatre, 1985. Janice Honeyman has had a prolific and successful career as a director. In 2002 she was nominated for the Best Director Award in the Fleur du Cap Theatre Awards and won an FNB Vita Award in the same category for The Beauty Queen of Leenane. A year later, she won the Fleur du Cap award for Best Director for Nothing but the Truth and Vatmaar. Janice has directed Athol Fugard's Hello and Goodbye with Antony Sher and Estelle Kohler for the Royal Shakespeare Company, and Madiba Magic at the Baxter Theatre Centre. She also directed Freedom Too, a Gala Concert at the Royal Festival Hall, as part of the Celebrate South Africa Festival Janice was awarded the 2005 Fleur du Cap Award for Best Director for Oom Wanja/Uncle Vanya. In 2005 she directed Twaalfde Nag and Exits and Entrances. Janice had a very busy 2006 – she directed the world premiere of Athol Fugard's latest play, Booitjie and the Oubaas, which was praised by audiences and media alike, as well as the Baxter PlayGround performed reading of Shirley, Goodness and Mercy. More recent work includes Aladdin (PACT, 1988), Starbrite (Artscape 2006-7) and Cantata. A Kiss on Your Koeksister (Pieter-Dirk Uys, 1990)
Quoted from the programme of Pieter Toerien's Isn't It Romantic in 1985: 'Born and educated in Cape Town, Janice graduated with a BA and Performer's Diploma in Speech and Drama and joined PACT in 1970 as an actress. She performed in many productions including Kinkels in die Kabel, Hotel Paradiso, The Effect of Gamma Rays on Man-in-the-Moon Marigolds and Tartuffe. She then became a founder member of The Company at the Market Theatre, performed in Lysistrata (their first production) and then wrote and directed the Company's first children's production May Day Adventure Play. She the re-joined PACT, directing Twelfth Night and was appointed Assistant Artistic Director to PACT's Playwork, directing schools' programmes and children's theatre. Later productions for The Company include Arabian Night, The Crucible, The Merchant of Venice, Romeo and Juliet, Forbidden Fruits (which she wrote and directed) and And Green and Golden which she adapted from the works of Dylan Thomas. She then co-scripted and directed This is for Keeps and directed Torch Song Trilogy. Her musicals included Oh, What a Lovely War, Fantasticks and Mame for which she won the Gallo Award for Best Performance in a Musical. She has also been awarded the Ernest Oppenheimer Award for her work during her appointment as Resident Director at The Market, the Five Roses Award and the SA Young Artists Award. For SABC TV she was the popular presenter of Bangalory Time and Hobbies, appeared in The Diggers, Die Lewe is... (a four part Afrikaans cabaret series) and was the director of In Broad Daylight. This is Janet's first engagement with Pieter Toerien Productions.'
Return to ESAT Personalities H
Return to South African Theatre Personalities
Return to Main Page
