Gladys Thomas
Gladys Thomas (1944-) is an activist, poet, short-story writer, playwright and author of several children’s stories.
Contents
Biography
Born and grew up in the Cape Flats, in Cape Town.
Gladys first started writing after she her family and friends were evicted from their homes in Simon’s Town as a result of the infamous Group Areas Act of the Apartheid era.
Thomas’s literary career started in 1967 when she and James Matthews began working on the anthology, Cry Rage! (published by SPROCAS, 1972, and immediately banned by the Apartheid authorities. Her children's stories were published in Spotty Dog and other Township Children's Stories (Skotaville, 1989).
In recognition of her "outstanding contribution to poetry and short stories through which she exposed the political injustices and human suffering of the apartheid regime and for raising international consciousness about the ravages of apartheid", Thomas was awarded The Order of Ikhamanga in Silver.[1], and in 2000 Albert Thomas and Gladys Thomas, received a medal from the Cape Tercentenary Foundation for their contribution to cultural work in the Cape community.
Contribution to SA theatre, film, media and/or performance
In May of 1974, two plays - Now we are not alone anymore and David and Diana - were performed in a programme called From the townships 1.
In the late 1970s, during the time of the Soweto uprisings, Thomas submitted an (unnamed) play to the World Literary Competition and won first prize.
Passionate about drama and acting, she for a while spent time each week helping a friend produce the play Waiting for Godot at Pollsmoor Prison.
In 1990, she won the Betrams V.O. Literary Award for her full-length play, Avalon Court: Dramatic Scenes on the Cape Flats and the text was published by Skotaville Publishers in 1992.
In 1991 she wrote The Time is Now, a localized adaptation of Waiting for Lefty by Clifford Odetts, which was performed at a mini-festival linked to a Theatre Action Group (Cape Town) seminar in 1991, directed by her husband, Albert Thomas.
In 1993, Thomas and her husband began a theatre group, Getwize Players, for whom she wrote her plays. Their debut production was of The Time is Now, with which they toured in the Cape Peninsula and featured at the Grahamstown Arts Festival, always to excellent reviews.
She also ran a drama group for the children in Ocean View and in 2005 her play Sex can wait, Aids can't, a family drama with music and songs, was the first production of the Ocean View Players.
Sources
http://www.thepresidency.gov.za/national-orders/recipient/gladys-thomas-1944
Various entries in the NELM catalogue, including a programme for From the townships 1: two plays by Gladys Thomas: Now we are not alone anymore and David and Diana, with reviews of the plays from the Cape Times of 17.5.1974, The Argus of 21.5.1974 and The Fish Hoek Echo of June 1974
The Star, 8 Oct 1991
Michele King. 2011 "Gladys Thomas of Ocean View – esteemed poet", The Scenic South (November 25, 2011)[2]
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