Frank de Jongh
Frank de Jongh ()[] was a Cape Town based impresario.
Contents
Biography
Contribution to South African theatre
As manager
He leased the Cape Town Opera House almost continuously from 1896-1937, initially in association with William Haviland.
There he housed his Gaiety Companies, consisting of well-known overseas performers and artistes, including Zena Dare, Matheson Lang, Sybil Thorndike, Lewis Casson, Irene Vanbrugh and Kate Vaughan in a variety of plays, operas and ballets between 1896 and 1937.
In 1899 he and Herbert Flemming brought the Arthur Rousbey Opera Company to South Africa to perform a season of operas in Cape Town's Opera House.
In 1910, he and Stephen Black organized the De Jongh-Black Company, to perform a the Tivoli Theatre,
As performer
His many roles included "Svengali" in Trilby, the lead in Hamlet, "Matthias" in The Bells (1896)
Sources
D.C. Boonzaier, 1980. "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: pp.
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