Angelique Rockas

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Angelique Rockas is a stage and film actress, practitioner and producer.

She has also performed under the names Angeliki and Anjelique Rockas.


Biography

Born and raised in Boksburg, South Africa, to immigrant Greek parents, she had her early education at St Dominic's Catholic School for Girls in Boksburg, Transvaal, where the activist and later ANC cabinet minister, Barbara Hogan was one of her contemporaries. Her own activist beliefs began at school and were originally inspired by the prejudice shown her brother, who had been born misformed, while her participation in school plays and local eistedfords etc. sparked an interest in the theatre.

She and Hogan would get to know each other when they both went on to study at the University of the Witwatersrand, where Angelique did a BA, beginning with a focus on politics, but later taking Philosophy as her major. She continued her studies there with an Honours degree in English Literature, while doing drama in an extra curricular course. and also completing a BA honours degree. She now became more actively involved with various political causes.

She then went to the University of Cape Town to complete a Performers Diploma at the Drama Department, under the direction of Robert Mohr. Among her contemporaries there was the South African actress and playwright Reza de Wet.

On completion of the course however, she soon realised that there was no place for her given her belief in a just non-racial society and the equality for women. So she moved to London with a letter of introduction from CAPAB actor Cobus Rossouw, and initially worked there for a marxist Greek Cypriot theatre company called Theatro Technis in North London, before branching out on her own. She has lived and worked there since.

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

Besides appearances in school plays, activist performances at Wits, and some student work at UCT, the only professional South African production she appeared in was Die Effek van Gammastrale op Goudgeel Afrikaners, an Afrikaans version of The Effect of Gamma Rays on Man-in-the-moon Marigolds (Zindel), produced by CAPAB and under the direction of Robert Mohr and performed in the Little Theatre, Cape Town, and the H.B. Thom Theatre, Stellenbosch, in April 1973. In the production Angelique and Reza de Wet shared the role of "Nenna", performing on alternate nights - De Wet performing in Afrikaans, Rockas performing in English.

Later career in theatre, film and TV

As noted above, her London career began with performances for Theatro Technis, before she took her first tentative efforts in creating her own kind of new theatre company by mounting John Ford's 'Tis Pity She's a Whore, which had inspired her during her Honours studies in South Africa.

Thus it came about that Angelique founded the Internationalist Theatre[1] (initially known as New Theatre ) in London in September 1980, with Athol Fugard as one of its patrons. It aimed at pursuing an internationalist approach in its choice of plays and a multi-racial policy, seeking an even mix of performers drawn from different cultural groups. In November 1980, Rockas produced and financed a performance of 'Tis Pity She's a Whore by John Ford, performing the lead part of "Annabella" herself. She would thereafter perform in several productions by Internationalist Theatre in London from 1981 to 1985, among them "Carmen" in The Balcony (Genet), "Yvette" in Brecht`s Mother Courage and Her Children and "Tatiana" in Gorky`s Enemies, Medea (1982), "Miriam" in the London premiere of Tennessee Williams`s In the Bar of a Tokyo Hotel and "Julie" in Strindberg`s Miss Julie (1984).

In 1986 the theatre received charity status in England and it continued into the 1990s.

She has since worked internationally on stage, film and TV (e.g. Emmones Idees, the 1989 Greek language TV Series) and has own film company called Contemtptus Mundi Films, with which she develops film projects.

Sources

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Angelique_Rockas

https://af.wikipedia.org/wiki/Angelique_Rockas#cite_note-14

https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0734214/bio

https://www.flickr.com/photos/angelique_rockas/albums/72157673394034113]

https://www.flickr.com/photos/angelique_rockas/albums

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internationalist_Theatre

Personal correspondence from Sonia Hopkins (9-10 February, 2019)

Personal correspondence with Angelique Rockas(17 February, 2019)

The Complete Unpublished Extract Of Angelique Rockas` South African Journey, Used As Basis For Interview With The South African , Internet Archive[2]

https://eu.greekreporter.com/2012/05/21/angelique-rockas-strong-bold-and-unafraid/

https://www.thesouthafrican.com/angelique-rockas-bold-theatre-pioneer/


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