Jo Gevers
Jo Gevers (1930-2016) was an actor, director, and lecturer of drama.
Contents
Biography
According to IMDb[ http://www.imdb.com/name/nm1018053/ J.J.C.G. (Jo) Gevers was born in Bree, Belgium, on 13 February in 1930 (though some sources have his date of birth as 1932).
He studied at the Rijksuniversiteit of Gent and in 1954 obtained the Licentiaat in Wijsbegeerte en Letteren, in 1955 the teachers diploma, Aggregaat van het Hoger Secundair Onderwijs. He also took a course in directing at the Old Vic in Bristol and would later also complete an M.Dram degree at the University of Stellenbosch in 1964. His thesis was entitled Verhouding van spel en literatuur in die Dramatiese Kuns ("the relationship between play and literature in dramatic art").
He had extensive practical theatre training and theatre experience in Europe while working at the Koninklike Konservatorium in Brussels, the Akademie van die Mozarteum in Salzburg and the Studio van die Nasionale Toneel in Antwerpen, working as an actor and director. Among the works directed were plays by Brecht, Molière, Shakespeare and Schiller, as well as Ag Vroue (R. Thomas), Scapino (Molière), Op Hoop van Seën (Heijermans), Iphigeneia (Euripides) and Once More (at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre).
In 1962 he came to South Africa to work with Fred Engelen and lecture at the Universiteit van Stellenbosch Drama Departement, from 1962-1964, and at the University of the Orange Free State from 1965 to the end of 1970.
Towards the end of 1965 he married the South African actress and movement lecturer Annatjie Vorster and in 1971 the couple returned to Belgium, to continue teaching and working in theatre there, inter alia at the Arkel Theater, Ghent.
He did some film work before and after his sojourn in South Africa, with roles in films such as De wrok van Achilleus (1962), Mira (1971) and José en de cup (1981).
Gevers passed away in Belgium in 2016.
Contribution to SA theatre, film, media and/or performance
When he came to South Africa in 1962, he worked as lecturer on the Universiteit van Stellenbosch Drama Departement till 1964, then moved to Bloemfontein where he was appointed a senior lecturer and founder of the University of the Orange Free State Drama Department, remaining in this position till 1970.
While in Bloemfontein, he not only directed university plays, but also did so for a variety of amateur and professional companies such as the UTB, the Shakespeare Circle and PACOFS. Among his most notable productions were Jakkalsstreke van Scapino (UTB 196*), Op Hoop van Seën by Heijermans, Richard III (196*, which he not only directed, but he and his wife starred), Maria Stuart (196*) and Die Dubbele Adelaar (1968),
He also directed Die Idioot (The Idiot) by Dostoyevsky, for CAPAB in 1969.
As an actor he also had a role in the PACOFS production of Die Soldateminnaars, 1965.
Awards
Received the André Huguenet Award in the Free State for his role in Richard III, 1967.
Sources
Die Volksblad, 7 October 1964.
Die Koning Sterf theatre programme, 1969.
Cape Times, 21 January 1969.
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm1018053/bio?ref_=nm_ov_bio_sm
"In Memoriam", Matieland October, 2016 (p. 37).
Die Burger, 7 December 2016
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