Port Elizabeth Shakespearean Festival

History

Founded on May 10, 1960 by Helen Mann and Bruce Mann, inspired by speech made by André Huguenet after his performance of King Lear at the Port Elizabeth Opera House**.

FOR EARLIER HISTORY SEE Theatre Guild.

Productions

1961: The Lark and Tea and Sympathy.

1962: Five Finger Exercise, Rape of the Belt, Death of a Salesman.

1963: The Queen and the Rebels, Hamlet.

1964: The Taming of the Shrew, Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolff, (for the P E Civic Theatre Fund)

1965: Much Ado About Nothing.

1966 The Mikado, (with the Gilbert and Sullivan Society.)

1967: Oklahoma, (with the Gilbert and Sullivan Society.)

1967: Port Elizabeth Gilbert and Sullivan Society merge with the Theatre Guild.

1967: The King and I.

1968: Brigadoon.

1969: The Student Prince, Romeo and Juliet for the Port Elizabeth Gilbert and Sullivan Society.)

1970: The Desert Song (for 1820 Settlers for Shakespearean Festival.)

Port Elizabeth Shakespearean Festival - First outdoor theatre production.

1971: The Merchant of Venice (for the Port Elizabeth Gilbert and Sullivan Society.)

1971: Port Elizabeth Shakespearean Festival

1971: Oliver

1972: Everyman.

Mannville Open Air Theatre inaugurated February 1972.

1972: A Midsummer Night's Dream and Sound of Music.

**The Tempest with David Crichton as Ariel. (1974??)

The Mannville Open-air Theatre

The Organisation enlisted the help of the Port Elizabeth Municipalities' Parks Department to built the open-air amphitheatre in St George's Park, later named Mannville Open-air Theatre (after founders Helen Mann and Bruce Mann – but with obvious echoes of the Cape Town example of Maynardville Open-air Theatre). John Sheldon was responsible for constructing both of these open-air theatres.

See further Mannville Open-air Theatre

For more information

http://ivormarkman0.wixsite.com/mannville

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