Billy de la Querra

Billy de la Querra (1955-) is a theatre technician and stage manager, carpet salesman and professional photographer.

Biography

The son of Willem de la Querra and Catharina Gezina de la Querra, he was born on 6de February 1955, in Durbanville , one of five children, including Carin de la Querra.

He started out in theatre, working for CAPAB in the mid-1970s, but by 1980 he had entered the carpet business and become a professional photographer with his own company, JWC Productions.

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

Though he had no formal training, he learnt theatre skills from a young age while working as an assistant to his father, building and painting sets and so on.

In those years he was also cast as a page in a production of Antigone by Fred Engelen.

By late 1975 he had become part of John Birch's technical team for the CAPAB touring company of Faan se Trein (Fourie).

In January 1976 he obtained a permanent appointment with CAPAB, becoming an assistant stage manager, working under Martin Crous and Pieter de Swardt. In his first year he toured with 9 different productions, the first being Die Belofte ("The Promise"), which toured the Western and Eastern Cape region for three months.

In 1977 the was made stage manager for the national tour of Faan se Stasie (Fourie) going to Johannesburg, Pretoria, Bloemfontein and Mosselbay.

He is also credited as the lighting designer on the CAPAB production of Geleende Vere (1979).