Gaerin Hauptfleisch (1971-) is an actor, voice artist, playwright, theatre director, stage-manager, set designer, set-builder, and publicist.

Biography

Born in Bloemfontein, the son of Karina Hauptfleisch and Temple Hauptfleisch, he grew up in Pretoria and Stellenbosch. Having begun his schooling at Silverton Primary School in Pretoria and completing it at the Hoërskool Stellenbosch ("Stellenbosch High School"[1]), he spent two years travelling and working in Europe and Israel before returning to study drama at the Drama Department of the University of Stellenbosch, specialising in directing and stage management. He later completed an M.Dram in Directing (1999).

He is married to the actress Stephanie Hough, and the couple have two sons, Nicholai and Luc.

Contribution to SA theatre, film, media and/or performance

Management and marketing

While a student he was the publicist for the Universiteit van Stellenbosch Drama Departement (1999-) and the librarian for the Centre for Theatre and Performance Studies at the same department.

He has been the chairman of the Libertas Theatre Club in Stellenbosch since 2000 and has edited Ad Lib, their newsletter, since 1998.

In 1998 he became a joint owner of the educational theatre company Spektrum Produksies (1998-2000), later taking over the company. In 2*** he also founded Stercus Produksies, and adult company, to perform his own plays.

As actor:

Played lead roles in the first few versions a series of prose and verse programmes called So is ek gebek (devised and directed by Juanita Swanepoel) , Chris Vorster’s hugely popular Jeims Blond series and Vorster's Why’t Burp, Saartjie Botha’s’s Spanner (2001-2) and David Kramer’s Die Ballade van Koos Sas (2001). He has on occasion acted in his own plays (see below), especially children's and schools productions for Spektrum Produksies (1998-2000).

As playwright/director

He wrote and directed the following plays with his own production company (Stercus Productions): Varknek (1999),Grensgeval (2000), Bees (2001), Bring Elvis Terug (2002), Manalleen (with Lindie Stander, 2003), Die Vaal Koestertjie (Woordfees, 2003, Trek (KKNK, 2006), Bloed (2012),

Some of his plays for schools have been published in collections used as educational setworks over the years.

As director/designer:

Directed Keith Bain’s Robin Hood (1999), Pieter Fourie’s Honour thy Mother, Fuck thy Father (Naelstring in Afrikaans version - 2001), Gideon van Eeden’s Boetman is Bedônit (KKNK and Aardklop, 2007)). Assistant director/stage manager on Pieter Fourie's Gert Garries – ‘n baaisiekel babelas (Marthinus Basson, 2002), Nommerpas in 2015, Mis (De Wet, 2016-2018), Die Roadtrip (2019).

As stage manager and technician

He worked on a number of plays as stage manager and/or technician, including Môre is ‘n Lang Dag (Innibos-fees, directed by Albert Maritz, 2008), Playland (2014), Nag van Legio (2017), .

As designer/set builder

This aspect of his work became enormously important for his career during the lean years for live theatre occasioned by world-wide COVID-19 pandemic[2] of 2019-2022.