Schalk Jacobsz

(19*-) Afrikaans actor and director. **Trained as an architect. * As a young man worked for for the National Theatre Organisation, i.a. in Nie vir geleerdes (N.P. van Wyk Louw) 1960, Die Vonkel in haar oë! (Beukes, 1960),* Went to the University of the Free Orange State to train as an architect, but drawn back into theatre in the late 1960’s. Joining PACT, he did **, **. Perhaps one of his greatest roles was that of “Charley” in P.G. du Plessis’s powerful drama Nag van Legio (196*). According to the author the role of “Jakes” in Du Plessis’s 1971 Siener in die Suburbs was originally written specifically for Jacobsz, but that he was unavailable and that plum role went to Marius Weyers. He starred in Leonard Schach’s production of Lang Dagreis na die Nag in 1970. Also did a number of films, including **, **. A strong (though controversial) Afrikaner nationalist, he struggled for to found a professional Afrikaans company in Johannesburg (Die Bywoners*?). From 1980 Jacobs and Potgieter . He and his wife, Elma Potgieter, aimed at producing independent , indigenous works and so did a number of Afrikaans versions of Athol Fugard’s plays, including Hello en Koebaai (Athol Fugard's Hello and Goodbye, directed by Jan Engelen and also starring Elna Potgieter, Upstairs at the Market, 1981); and later Boesman en Lena. Other works include Die Eensame Vlug, Darling Blossom, etc. In 1976 he also put in a tender for the old Newtown Market for this purpose, but did not get the building as his tender for an Afrikaans theatre was seen as to limited. (The building went to The Company, and would become The Market Theatre.) In the 1980s he became a supporter of and the very successful speech coach for the former politceman-playwright and right-wing politician Eugene Terreblanché, famous for his rousing and inflamatory oratorical gifts.