Bie Engelen

Bie Engelen (1945-) is a trained actress, décor and costume designer and teacher of English.

Biography

Born in Ghent, Belgium, in 1945, and grew up there. In 1961 her family moved to Stellenbosch where her father, Fred Engelen, had been appointed a director for the Cape Regional branch of the National Theatre Organisation (NTO), and shortly thereafter was appointed as the first head of the newly established department of drama at the University of Stellenbosch. Her mother, the well-know actress Tine Balder, worked as a professional actress, and as a lecturer and costumier for the department as well.

Bie graduated from the Stellenbosch Drama Department in December 1967. She had married John Cartwright and they went to Canada in 1969 for further study. After their divorce, her husband returned to South Africa while she remained in Canada.

Her résumé includes stints at being a leatherworker and crafter, an actress and running her own garden maintenance business. Already fluent in Flemish, French, German and Afrikaans, she now mastered English, which she has gone on to teach as a second language around the world, from her base in Toronto.

Contribution to South African theatre, film, media and performance

While a student at the department of drama Bie was cast in two UTS productions, appearing in Exit the King (as "Queen Marguerite") and Die Erfgename (as "Catherine Sloper").

Early in 1969 she joined CAPAB's Afrikaans company, to be cast as "Queen Marie" in Die Koning Sterf, the Afrikaans version of Ionesco's play.

In 2022 she wrote and published Tine Balder. Een leven in het theater, a chronicle of her mother’s life in the theatre, including information on her South African period. Published in a limited edition of 20 copies. (The volume includes an English version of the biographical section.)