Phyllis Konya
Phyllis Konya (19*-) was an arts journalist, reviewer and theatre historian.
Contents
Biography
Born Phyllis Juby (or found as Phyllis Jubyh in some sources),
She met and married the architect Sandor Konya in Cape Town in 1928.
She began writing under her maiden name of Phyllis Juby, apparently working for The China Mail as journalist, and publishing some books based on their travels in the East, including Chinese Fairy Tales (Newspaper Enterprise, 1934), Chinese Poetry. With An Essay (J.L. van Schaik, Ltd, 1943),
When they later they moved to Pretoria she became a long time reviewer and later arts editor for the Pretoria News, writing under her married name.
Writing Back in South Africa she wrote Picaninny. South African Versions of Popular Nursery Rhymes (Cape Town: Primavera Press)
All Aboard The Good Ship QE2 (with Danny Howell as editor). An account by a resident of Warminster, Wiltshire, UK, of her holiday aboard the QE2 liner. Not for her a travelogue of geographical observations, but a more unusual slant of on-board life, including a domestically-dressed baboon in her cabin! First published in the Wylye Valley Life magazine, 5th October 1984.
Contribution to SA theatre, film, media and/or performance
In 1980s she was sponsored by DALRO to write the history of FATSSA and amateur theatre. While this was not ever published, there is a manuscript in the National Archives (former CESAT Holdings). NELM also holds a copy of this work (When the Amateurs Stole the Show: the story of FATSSA: the Federation of Amateur Theatrical Societies of Southern Africa [1938]). She did publish an article on FATSSA for a book in honour of P.P.B. Breytenbach (The Breytie Book, edited by Temple Hauptfleisch, 1985).
Sources
https://www.artefacts.co.za/main/Buildings/archframes.php?archid=910&countadd=1
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