Joanna Weinberg

Joanna Weinberg (1962-) is an actress, cabaret and revue artist, and a playwright.

Biography

She was born in London in 1962 and came to South Africa in 1970. After training an performing in South Africa, she moved to Australia in 1994 with her husband Lloyd, where she made a new career as performer and playwright.

Training

Studied drama at the University of Cape Town Drama Department and obtained her Performer's Diploma In Speech and Drama in 1983.

Career

She became a prominent actress for the Baxter Theatre, PACT and the Market Theatre.

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

Joanna had her first professional engagement as actress at the Baxter Theatre Centre, playing opposite Sean Taylor in The Collector and perhaps her most notable role in South Africa was as "Desdemona" opposite John Kani and Richard Haines in Janet Suzman’s Market Theatre production of Othello in September 1987.

Other performances include Tom Paine (UCT, 1981), Hamlet (Glass Theatre, 1982), Annie Barnes’s Odds and Ends (1983), Far Cry, Stormriders, West (1984), Pack of Lies (as “Julie”, 1985), "Sorel" in Noel Coward's Hayfever and “Trina” in March of the Falsettos (CAPAB 1990),

She also appeared in some of Janice Honeyman’s pantomimes, including Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1987) and The Sleeping Beauty (as "Prince Harry the Handsome”, 1990).

Besides plays and pantomimes, she went on to make a name for herself in cabaret, beginning at venues like No 58, Hillbrow, under the watchful eye of Barbara Thompson, among other things writing composing and performing her own cabarets, such as Strictempo, at Rumours and No 58.

She directed Silk Ties in 1997.

In 2018 she briefly returned to South Africa to perform her show Pandora's Bag at the Baxter Golden Arrow Studio.

She starred in Janice Honeyman’s Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, also directed by Honeyman at the Alexander Theatre in 1987 and played "Sorel" in Noel Coward's Hayfever. She played a role in Patchers at the Women's Festival at the Market Theatre.

Her output as playwright during her South African period includes The Piano Diaries and The Puppet Rock Picture Play, Nice People, the Joneses, the one-woman comedy Bellydancing (1995) and the cabaret Strictempo.

Television and film work over the years has included appearances in

The Master Builder (TV Movie, 1981), Hayfever (TV Movie, 1984), Playing with Fire (TV Movie, 1986), The Visual Bible: Acts (Video, 1994)

1993The Gospel According to Matthew

Mary

1993Tropical Heat (TV Series)

Jane - Poison Ivy (1993) ... Jane

1991Sweet 'n Short

Sandy Stewart

1991Trucking (TV Series)

Christine Toomey (1991)

1990Killer Instinct

Anne Davis

1990Absent Without Leave

Zoe van der Merwe

1989Othello (TV Movie)

Desdemona

1989Screen Two (TV Series)

Andrea - A Private Life (1989) ... Andrea

1988Quest for Love

Mabel

1988Mercenary Fighters

Nurse Ruth Warwick

1987Saturday Night at the Palace

Sally

Linda

Sorel Bliss

Wildside (TV Series) Stella Rutter - Episode #2.9 (1999) ... Stella Rutter

1995Mission Top Secret (TV Series)

Julie - Treasure at Elephant Ridge (1995) ... Julie

1995Tales of Mystery and Imagination (TV Series)

Theodora - Mr Valdemar (1995) ... Theodora

Fable for Video; Playing with Fire.

.

She wrote the play .

Awards, etc

Nominee 1991 Weinberg, Joanna in A Midsummer Night's Bean (After Dark Award for best performance in cabaret/revue). and was nominated for a Fleur du Cap for best supporting actress in West.

Sources

Pack of Lies programme notes in 1985, performed at the Market Theatre.

Tucker, 1997.

South African Jewish Report, Oct 18, 2018 [Joanna Weinberg returns to her roots to perform - Jewish Report (sajr.co.za)].

Amazwi Literary Awards database.

https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0918124/

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