Fred Abrahamse
(19**-) Actor and Director. Studied drama at UCT.
Began work for the Troupe Theatre Company, The Space Theatre in the 1970s and CAPAB, For a while in the late 1980s and early 1990s he was a resident director at the Baxter Theatre and in 2008 he became co-founder and Artistic Director of the NewSpace Theatre in Long Street.
As actor
He started out as actor, with roles in Candaules Commissioner, Decadence (1984), Dolls (directed by Richard Grant and Michael O’Brien), First Monday in October (with CAPAB), Guineafowl (with Troupe Theatre Company), Claw, Street Theatre , Agamemnon and A Midsummer Night's Dream (Baxter Theatre 1988).
As director
Soon he turned to directing, establishing himself as one of the leading new directors in the Cape from the the 1990s onward.
His directing credits include A Midsummer Night’s Dream (the Market Theatre, 1989), District Six – The Musica (1987, Fleur du Cap Best Director), Steel Magnolias (1990), Steven Berkoff’s Decadence (1993), Tony Kushner’s Angels in America: Millennium Approaches (1994), Beautiful Thing (1995, Fleur du Cap Best Director), Steven Berkoff’s Greek (1996), Stephen Sondheim’s Assassins (2008), Rafiek Mammon’s Seashells (2012).
Has directed some of the most successful and accessible productions of Shakespeare in South Africa. These include: the Handspring Puppet Company production of A Midsummer Night's Dream, and the 2002 Maynardville production of Dream, Much Ado about Nothing (Maynardville, 2005), and Romeo and Juliet ( Maynardville), The Tragedy of Richard III (Grahamstown Festival, 2010), Shakespeare's R&J (2011) and A Midsummer Night's Dream (2012) [TH]
As writer director
Co-writer (with Marcel Meyer) of two musicals, Bangbroek Mountain - The Musical About Camping (2006) and In Briefs - A Queer Little Musical (2007), both of which he also directed.
Sources
Limelight 1981/82, 1982/83
http://markettheatre.co.za/shows/watch/the-tragedy-of-richard-lll
Artscape, media Release, 19 June 2012
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