Ada Ward
Also billed as Ada L. Ward on some occasions.
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Biography
Ada Ward was an English actress and singer, who first appeared on the London stage in the mid-1870s. She went to tour the colonies and become a popular star in Australia in the 1887. She later also worked in the United States. Over the course of a career of 20 years, she played many emotional parts, though her best role was generally believed to be that of "Lady Isabel", in East Lynne.
She caused a sensation on the 27th February, 1897, by announcing that she was leaving the stage after a performance of The Forger's Wife at the Prince's Theatre, Portsmouth, to join the Salvation Army as a preacher and going on to work in the slums of London.
Ward was twice married, divorcing one husband and outliving the second.
Contribution to SA theatre, film, media and/or performance
She performed in South Africa in the period July to November 1878, working with a few visiting companies, including performances in the Athenaeum Hall for the Egerton and Case Company and the Theatre Royal , Cape Town, with Henry Smith and Richard Thatcher (the Smith and Thatcher Company).
Sources
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ada_Ward
http://www.19thcenturyphotos.com/Ada-Ward-125548.htm
D.C. Boonzaier, 1923. "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: p.372.
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