Ou Presidensie-teater
The Ou Presidensie-teater was an experimental theatre venue installed in the ball-room of the Old Presidency in Old Presidency
The building
The Old Presidency or Ou Presidensie (Afrikaans) is so named because it was the residence of the Presidents of the Republic of the Orange Free State from 1886 until 1899, the British occupation of Bloemfontein on 13 March 1900 when the building served as the headquarters of Field-Marshal Lord Roberts during the Second Anglo-Boer War.
Construction had started on 22 May 1885, when the foundation stone was laid, and the building was completed in 1886 with President Brand taking up quarters until his death in 1888. Presidents F.W. Reitz (1888–95) and M.T. Steyn (1896-1900) also resided in the building.
After the British captured Bloemfontein on 13 March 1900, the building became known as the Government House and was occupied by Lord Roberts and his officers. Later also by Sir Hamilton J Goold-Adams (1901-1910), then the Lieutenant-Governor of the Orange River Colony, a period in which the architect Sir Herbert Baker made some additions to the Presidency and also added the stables to the back of the house.
Over the ensuing years , the Presidency served as an annexe for Eunice Girls School, the headquarters for the Orange Free State Command, a hostel for Normal College students, offices for Free State Library Services and in the late 1960s and early 1970s as the administrative building for the Performing Arts Council of the Orange Free State (PACOFS).
