Mannie Manim

1941-) Lighting designer and theatre administrator.

TO BE EXPANDED AND EDITED

Biography

Born Manuel Manim in Cape Town, he began in theatre as an usher in the Brian Brooke Theatre at 15, went into stage management with Leonard Schach at the Hofmeyr in Cape Town, then managed the Playhouse for Leonard Rayne and returned to the Brooke Theatre as stage director.

Theatre Management

After working for a few other companies in Johannesburg, including Theatre International, he joined PACT at the age of 26, as the technical organizer for drama at of the state funded Performing Arts Council of the Transvaal (PACT), went on to become production manager and ultimately manager of drama, with Francois Swart as Artistic Director. Did a brilliant job in a period still considered the golden era of Afrikaans theatre and one of the best periods in the history of the Performing Arts Councils.

A dynamic yet meticulous planner, with a visionary view of South African theatre, he in 1973 joined with Barney Simon to found The Company and in 1976 they opened the Market Theatre. He was also one of the Trustees of the Market Theatre Foundation. Manim effectively ran the Market Theatre from then till he left in 1991 to found his own company (Mannie Manim Productions) (1991-) and to take up the post of Director Performing Arts Administration at the University of the Witwatersrand, effectively running the Wits Theatre Complex (1991-2000). In 2000 he became CEO and Director of the Baxter Theatre in Cape Town and also the Chairman of the Standard Bank National Arts Festival Board. He retired from this position in 2009, to be replaced by Lara Foot-Newton. Then appointed Executive Director of the new Fugard Theatre in Harrington Street (2010-2012).

He was also a co-founder and board member of the South African Institute for Theatre Technology (SAITT) in 1969 and the South African Association of Theatre Managements (SAATM)?*, ***.

Lighting design and stage management

Throughout his career he did freelance work (usually as lighting designer), e.g. lighting the first production staged at The Space in 1972, namely Athol Fugard’s Statements After an Arrest Under the Immorality Act. In fact, beginning at the Alexander Theatre in the 1970s, he has lit every one of Athol Fugard’s plays produced in South Africa for the past three decades. And, despite the many management positions, Manim remained a prolific and higly regarded lighting designer in South Africa and elsewhere, working all over South Africa and in places like Los Angeles, New York, Toronto, London and Stockholm over the years.

He was production and company manager for Stephen Sondheim’s musical A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, which was staged at the Civic in 1964 by Theatre International, who’s general manager was Aubrey Louw. Christopher Hewett directed this play starring Jack Harrold, Joseph Corby, William Le Messena, Fran Stevens and Emory Bass. Together with Barney Simon as artistic director he formed The Company as administrative director within the Arena Theatre. It had a core company of actors – Aletta Bezuidenhout, Vanessa Cooke, Leonie Hofmeyr, David Eppel, Judith Cornell, Janice Honeyman, Sue Kiel, Danny Keogh, Lindsay Reardon and John Oakley-Smith.

Together with John Hussey he co-directed The Company’s production of Alan Ayckbourn’s Absurd Person Singular, designed by Anthony Farmer and starring Diane Appleby, Graham Armitage, Naomi Buch, Wilson Dunster, Kerry Jordan and Gay Lambert at the Market Theatre in November 1977. He staged Larry Gelbart’s Sly Fox for The Company at the Market in 1979. It was directed by Pieter-Dirk Uys and starred Patrick Mynhardt, Graham Armitage and Peter J. Elliott. He resigned from the Market in March 1991 to become the director of the Performing Arts Administration at Wits University. In 200*. Death of a Salesman, Arthur Miller, Director: Bobby Heaney ,2001. Bill Flynn, Frantz Dubrowsky, Dale Cutts, Martin le Maitre, Gideon Emery, Langley Kirkwood, Michelle Maxwell, Joda Silva, Justin Strydom, Nathalie G’Mure & Leona Loseby. Lighting design: Mannie Manim. Music: Janine Neethling, Set design: Stan Knight. Baxter Theatre. Sorrows and Rejoicings, Athol Fugard, Baxter, 2001. Marius Weyers, Denise Newman, Jennifer Steyn & Amrain Ismail-Essop. Mederegie saam met Athol Fugard, Susan Hilferty. Lighting: Mannie Manim. Die Laaste Karretjiegraf (2013).

Awards

His numerous national and international awards over the years for his lighting designs and his management skills. The South African awards include the Shirley Moss Award (1980), the SATI Award (1981), 10 Vita Awards for lighting, numerous Fleur du Cap Awards, the Akademie vir Wetenskap en Kuns Goue Medalje ("Gold medal", 1996) and the Naledi Award of the SA Association of Theatre Managers (2004). International awards include In 1990 the French Government conferred the Chevalier des Artes et Lettres on him.

Sources

Programme, Die Laaste Karretjiegraf (2013)

http://www.sahistory.org.za/people/mannie-manim

http://www.theatrearchive.co.za/interviews_theatre_lighting_archive.php

Tucker, 1997

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