Draft:Bloemfontein Repertory Society

The REPS Bloemfontein Repertory Society was established in 1935 as an amateur dramatics society. The founders included .... ... A very active participant to the entertainment scene of the twentieth century The REPS produced numerous plays each year. The membership touched 1600 in the 1960s. Productions ran every 12 weeks. With the introduction of the Performing Arts Councils and specifically PACOFS in Bloemfontein during the mid 1960s a professional side to the local theatre where actors were paid, added a new dimension to local theatre. The REPS like the Bloemfontein Shakespeare Circle, and the Bloemfontein Teater Groep would collaborate with the state funded Performing Arts Councils who had access to far better funding. As time progressed the society produced a number of musicals as well as one act plays.

Productions

An number of plays were produces over the years and included The School for Wives (Moliere), Our Town, (Wilder), Hayfever (Coward) and The Effect of Gamma Rays on Man-in-the-moon Marigolds (Paul Zindell), Move Over Mrs. Markham (Cooney and Chapman), The Late Edwina Black ( Dinnie and Murum), Children of the Wolf (Peacock), and Dusa, Fish, Stas and Vi, Hay Fever (Coward), The Pajama Game (Abbott and Bissell), The Enquiry (Hastings), Busybody Popplewell), The Shadow Box (Cristofer), Ghosts (Ibsen),

Directors

Plays were produced by members and included Marlene Kotzen, David Tanton, Braam Muller, George Prosser, Freda Levin and Ann-Louise Tanton.

Occasionally professional directors were used. Leontine Sagan, Victor Melleney, John Boulter, Robert del Kyrke, Ricky Arden, Desmond Hughes, and Geoffrey Hyland

Productions required willing and competent backstage staff who also were procured from the membership. The following were regular contributors and some were recognised for their contributions at the a=Annual General Meeting AGM. Included are Annette Dubovsky, Kathleen Marquard, Dawie Marquard, Hudson Earp, Nico Schoeman, Temple Hauptfleisch, Val Lamont-Smith, Gisele Rice, Otto Bohlmann, Paul Tanton, Pamela Gardner, Mags Moore and hsuband ??? Moore

(Welman/TH)

Rehearsal and Production Venues

Rehearsals were held in the Jewish Communal Hall and productions in the Bloemfontein Civic Theatre. Once the Observatory on Naval Hill was converted into a Theatre this became a more cost effective and intimate was environment with the declining theatre goers. Many one act plays were produced as double bills (two one act plays). This provided a platform for new actors and kept the amateur theatre culture alive until 2001.

References

Minutes of the Society 1935 - 1990 https://esat.sun.ac.za/index.php/Bloemfontein_Repertory_Society