SHIRLEY, GOODNESS AND MERCY
Who's Who
ZANE MEAS (Big Chris)
Zane has starred in hit television shows such as The Game, Molo Fish, Jo'burg Blues, which won him an Avanti Award for Best Supporting Actor, Isidingo and 7de Laan, and the internationally acclaimed South African feature film Forgiveness. He is also an accomplished writer, director, producer and champion of community causes. As founding and board member of the community arts movement CANWORK, Zane has written, directed and produced Miracle in Motion, Looking Back … Ahead and Knights of Dragonville. He has also directed productions for RAU, the Gauteng Department of Housing and Eskom. He was a board member of Youth for Christ, is currently a board member of Rainbow FM 90.7 and is part of the founding team developing an Actors' Guild to secure basic rights for performers. Zane heads up his own production company, African Gateway Communications.
CHRISTO DAVIDS (Young Chris)
Christo Davids has appeared in numerous and varied screen and stage productions. He recently appeared in Die Krismas van Map Jacobs at the Suidoosterfees in 2006. Previous stage appearances include Send for Dolly and Final Whistle. His television career can be traced back to 1994 when he starred in Onder Engele, and received an Artes Best Actor in a drama series nomination. In 1995 he performed in Meeulanders, and he was more recently seen in Interrogation Room in 2004. He was awarded Best Actor 2001 at the George Arts Festival and regional Best Actor 2000 at ATKV, both for the play Raka. Christo recently performed in the critically acclaimed world premiere of Athol Fugard's Booitjie and the Oubaas at the Baxter Theatre Centre.
CHAD ABRAHAMS
Chad Abrahams celebrates his 12th year in theatre, radio and television. His most recent theatre credits include Vatmaar and Cardboard Dreams, directed by Janice Honeyman, Ashraf Johaardien's Salaam Stories and Richard Rive's Buckingham Palace District Six. Chad has appeared in television productions like Going Up Again, Fishy Fêshuns, Madam & Eve and Mazinyo Dot Q. He was also the the project manager for the Department of Community Safety's anti-drug campaign Choose 2 Live. Chad also enjoys recording radio ads and dramas and recently recorded three stories for the African Radio Drama Festival on Bush Radio, directed by Nigel Vermaas. Chad is also the founder member and chairperson of Party with a Purpose Productions that hosts dialogue sessions and social events, and promotes community development through the arts. Chad was last seen on the Baxter's stage when he performed in the PlayGround performed reading of Shirley, Goodness and Mercy.
IVAN ABRAHAMS
Ivan Abrahams recently played the part of Maska in Daleen Matthee's Kringe in die Bos, which played at Artscape and the Klein Karoo Nasionale Kunstefees. His most recent Baxter Theatre Centre productions include Valley Song and Vatmaar. For these productions he received respectively a Best Actor and Best Supporting Actor nomination from the Fleur du Cap awards. He also completed six South African runs and two international runs of the critically acclaimed production Suip!, in which he played the lead character, Shaun. For this part he received a Vita and a Fleur du Cap nomination as Best Actor. He has been involved in community arts projects for a number of years and is the co-ordinator of Cape Heart: Community and Educational Theatre Company. His television roles have included Lenin in Generations and Koster in Soutmansland, and he has also been in Egoli. He has recently starred in the hit KYKNET television series Orion as Superintendent Davids. Ivan was last seen at the Baxter when he performed in the PlayGround performed reading of Shirley, Goodness and Mercy.
CELESTE MATTHEWS
Celeste Matthews is best known for her performance as Sophia in Suip!, for which she received a Fleur du Cap Award, and as Auntie Hester in District Six, the Musical. Her own play Sandra se Erfenis was performed with a student cast at the Grahamstown Festival and Sonne Skaamte was staged as a PlayGround performed reading three years ago. More recently Celeste has concentrated on acting for the big and small screens, with roles in seven movies and numerous television productions, the most recent of which is that of Mara Horing in the acclaimed 26-part drama series Known Gods. Celeste's last appearance at the Baxter was in the PlayGround performed reading of Shirley, Goodness and Mercy.
GRANT POWELL
Grant Powell was last seen in Angels Everywhere, which was directed by Oscar Petersen and staged at the Baxter Theatre Centre last year. He starred in Duimpie en Sy Maats Vat Vyf! at the KKNK 2003 and Voorbrandfees 2004. He has written and performed many children's productions under the direction of Fred Abrahamse, Keith Anderson and Craig Leo, to name a few. Grant's work as a stunt artist has taken him all over South Africa and beyond. He appeared in Tickey's Fantastic Circus Adventure at the Artscape Arena in 2005. Grant is a seasoned film stuntman, having worked in numerous films, including A Boy Called Twist, The Flyer, Dollars and White Pipe and Mama Jack. Grant, together with actor Vernon Willemse, manages an events company called Spyderparties which specialises in children's birthday parties and corporate occasions. He was last seen on the Baxter's stage when he performed in the PlayGround performed reading of Shirley, Goodness and Mercy.
ANDRÉ SAMUELS
André Samuels attended UCT and has established himself as a versatile actor in theatre, film, radio and television. His many theatre credits include Vatmaar, Kanna Hy Kô Hystoe, Tienuur Maak Die Deure Oop, Periandros van Korinthe and Green Man Flashing. He has taken part in various national school tours of Shakespearean works including King Lear, Macbeth, Hamlet and Othello. His television work includes roles in Sexy Girls, Beelde, Vuurtoring and Zap-Zap, and he has appeared in the German feature film Of Love and Death. André was last seen at the Baxter when he performed in the PlayGround performed reading of Shirley, Goodness and Mercy.
PAUL SAVAGE
Paul Savage studied drama at UCT Drama School and the Community Arts Project. He worked as an actor, most notably as Nines (the lead) in District Six the Musical, by David Kramer and Taliep Petersen, which toured all over South Africa and then played at the Edinburgh Festival, and Trevor in Just Like Home by Pieter-Dirk Uys, which also went to the Edinburgh Festival, after which he stayed in England following the production's transfer to London. He worked in England for 18 years as an actor and director, during which time he joined the cast of Kat and the Kings for their run in the West End. He received a bursary to complete an Arts Council of England directing course attached to the Midlands Arts Centre in Birmingham and the New Vic Theatre, Stoke on Trent, in October 2000. The bursary was extended to include the production of The Ramayana at the Birmingham Rep and the National Theatre, ending in 2001. In 2004 he was awarded the Esmee Fairbain Foundation / Arts Council of England Directing Award at Nottingham Playhouse, where he directed Othello. He returned to the Baxter Theatre Centre in 2004 to perform in Adam Small's Kanna Hy Kô Hystoe and last year worked on a new production, Truth in Translation, with American director Michael Lessac. Paul can also be seen in Leon Schuster's Mama Jack, directed by Grey Hofmeyr.
BRONWYN VAN GRAAN
After graduating from UCT, Bronwyn van Graan worked with African Repertory Performance Programme (Arepp), travelling to schools around the country. She then spent two years working as a project supervisor on a youth and media exchange programme in Canada and South Africa with youth from Botswana, South Africa and Canada via Bush Radio and Canada World Youth. She was recently seen in Angels Everywhere and Stoutgatpassie (KKNK, Mac International Festival, Suidoosterfees and recently at the Baxter Sanlam Studio). Bronwyn has performed in two Baxter PlayGround Performed Readings, namely Echoes – based on the book Echoes of Slavery by Jackie Loos – and Shirley, Goodness and Mercy. Other Baxter productions include Goldilocks, Snow White and Rose Red, Jack and the Beanstalk, and Alice in Christmas Wonderland. She participated in the Choose to Live Roadshow 2006, with Fusionworx, Black Noise and the Department of Community Safety. Bronwyn serves as treasurer on the board of Party with a Purpose Productions.
LEE-ANN VAN ROOI
Lee-Ann van Rooi is a 1994 UCT graduate with a BA Performer's Diploma in Speech and Drama. Her career in the arts spans the medium of theatre, television, film and radio. She received the Avanti Award in 2000 for Best Supporting Actress in a TV Sitcom for Fishy Fêshuns and has starred in the TV series Interrogation Room and This Life. Work to date includes Andre P. Brink's Kinkels innie Kabel, directed by Mark Graham, Shakespeare's Twelfth Night, directed by Clare Stopford, and Die Van Aardes van Grootoor by Pieter-Dirk Uys for the KKNK and Suidoosterfees. Lee-Ann is passionate about education, development and training, and is part of the Live Performance Drama department at AFDA film school in Cape Town. She can currently be heard every Monday to Friday afternoon in the RSG radio drama Soekers, written by George Weidemann and directed by Margot Luyt. Lee-Ann last performed at the Baxter in the PlayGround performed reading of Shirley, Goodness and Mercy.
CHRIS VAN WYK – Author of the Book
Chris van Wyk was born in Baragwanath Hospital, Soweto, and lived his early years in Newclare. At the tender age of five he told his parents that he wanted to be a writer, and since then he has had a love affair with words. Van Wyk has written over 20 books, including poetry collections and children's books. His book of poems It's Time to Go Home won the Olive Schreiner Award in 1979, and individual poems have been published in Europe, Turkey, the US and Canada. From 1980 to 1985 he edited the South African literary magazine Staffrider. In 1998 he received the Sanlam Prize for the best South African short story, Magic. Five years later he published a series of biographies for children and young teens. Under the series title Freedom Fighters, the 10 biographies comprise Nelson Mandela, Oliver Tambo, Thabo Mbeki, Winnie Madikizela-Mandela, Helen Joseph, Desmond Tutu, Chris Hani, Sol Plaatje, Albert Luthuli and Steve Biko. This series is used extensively in schools in most of the nine provinces. He has written a novel, The Year of the Tapeworm, and a biography, Now Listen Here: The Life and Times of Bill Jardine, commissioned by the Jardine family. It is the story of Bill Jardine, an ANC sports activist who, together with Makhenkesi Stofile, Ngconde Balfour, Steve Tshwete Trevor Manuel and Mohammed Valli Moosa, among others, fought racism in apartheid sport, which in turn contributed to a free, democratic South Africa. In 2005, Shirley, Goodness and Mercy was short-listed for the Alan Paton award.
JANICE HONEYMAN – Adapter and Director
Janice Honeyman has had a prolific and successful career as a director. In 2002 she was nominated for the Best Director Award in the Fleur du Cap Theatre awards and won an FNB Vita award in the same category for The Beauty Queen of Leenane. A year later, she won the Fleur du Cap award for Best Director for Nothing but the Truth and Vatmaar. Janice has directed Athol Fugard's Hello and Goodbye with Antony Sher and Estelle Kohler for the Royal Shakespeare Company, and Madiba Magic at the Baxter Theatre Centre. She also directed Freedom Too, a Gala Concert at the Royal Festival Hall, as part of the Celebrate South Africa Festival. Janice was awarded the 2005 Fleur du Cap Award for Best Director for Oom Wanja/Uncle Vanya. In 2005 she directed Twaalfde Nag and Exits and Entrances. Janice had a very busy 2006 – she directed the world premiere of Athol Fugard's latest play, Booitjie and the Oubaas, which was praised by audiences and media alike, as well as the Baxter PlayGround performed reading of Shirley, Goodness and Mercy. More recent work includes Aladdin, Starbrite and Cantata.
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