Stephanie Fauré

FAURÉ, Stephanie. (b. 09/09/1894 - d. 25/12/1961) Well known elocutionist, highly regarded actress and competent director of early Afrikaans theatre. Trained in Antwerp, Belgium with Prof E. De Lauwerijs, then returned to South Africa in 1924, to work with amateurs in Pretoria and Johannesburg, such as the TUK Toneelvereniging, with whom she directed a production of H.A. Fagan’s Lenie. In the 1920s she became a member of the management of the Afrikaanse Kultuurvereniging en Toneelskool established by Danie Smal. In this time she directed the first (amateur) production of C. Louis Leipoldt’s Die Heks (1925), with **. It was the year she met Paul de Groot, with whom she then did a number of speech recitals in Pretoria and Johannesburg, and performed in Die Heks (1925), Huis Toe (1925), Oorskotjie (1925), and other plays. The pivotal production of Huis Toe in July really launched professional theatre in Afrikaans. She initally served as De Groot’s speech coach in Afrikaans and his directing colleague, but by the end of 1925 she had left the company to work on her own, touring through the country with her speech recitals.

She did the first production of C. Louis Leipoldt’s Die Laaste Aand, which opened on in Pretoria on 26 May 1931.

Was appointed as lecturer in Afrikaans and English elocution Transvaal University College (later: University of Pretoria). Among her students were to feature such later luminaries as Wena Naudé, Hélèna Botha. Utilizing her students she helped to launch a number of new works by Afrikaans authors, such as Fagan, Leipoldt and Grosskopf. Also notable was her involvement in the dramatisation and production of Jochem van Bruggen’s seminal novel Ampie, which became a key success for André Huguenet as Ampie in 1930. Also was the co-director (with Joseph Albrecht) and star of the first Afrikaans sound film, Moedertjie (1931). (Binge, 1969)

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