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Behind the Scenes

Director

Lesley Barnard.

Lesley Barnard has been active in Port Elizabeth Theatre since she was 17 years old and has won many awards both as an Actress and Director.  She has worked for Pemads as a Committee member since her early 20's and been Chairman of the Society for many years.  She has also been on the PE Shakespearian Festival committee for a number of years.  Starting out as an actress she progressed to directing and some of her most notable roles include both Olivia and Viola in Twelfth Night, Rosalind in As you Like it and Queen Margaret in Richard  111 - all for PE Shakespearian Festival.  For Pemads she has played leads in both comedy and drama. Notable performances include Belinda in Noises Off, Lady Bracknell in The Importance of Being Ernest, Miss Hannigan in Annie and Steel Magnolias to name but a few.

As a Director she has enjoyed success in productions such as A Bedfull of Foreigners, Darling Mr London, Don’t Dress for Dinner, Woman In Black, Calendar Girls and most recently Macbeth. 

Twelfth Night is a special production as she played Olivia for Helen Mann in her last production and Viola for Linda-Louise Swain in the last production of this Shakespeare favourite.  

Producer

Rocky Mann

Being the son of Helen and Bruce Mann, after whome Mannville is named, it was only natural for Rocky Mann (54) to follow in his parent's footsteps.

Rocky completed his matric in 1979 at the Grey High School.

"I was born into a fabulous lifestyle home and worked on numerous theatre productions with my family and various local societies - mostly techinical - setbuilding, lighting & sound," said Rocky.

He has had a varied career, working as a orthotist & prosthetist and a painting company supervisor.

Joined Cape Admistration Performing Arts Board and worked at the Opera House starting at the bottom as a techinician and progressing up to Stage Manager.

Over the years he has worked  on a variety of professional shows during which he was responsible for stage management, lighting and sound.

 

When the newly opened Guild Theatre opened he moved to East London where he ran the technical side of productions for a few years.

His next post was at the 1820 Settler's Monument Theatre in Grahamstown where he ran the entire complex es technical facilities, productions, conferences and events.

While there he took up the position of technical touring manager of the South African Schools Festival and he then 

got the top job of Technical Co-Ordinator for the National Arts Festival;

responsible for hiring all the techinical equipment equipment and setting it up in all the venues

and hiring all the staff for venues and then overseeing the running of the festival.

Rockt then attempted to break into theatre overseas and worked on the National Festival in Scotland.

However South Africans were not popular during that period and he found it dificult to obtain a steady job so he returned to South Africa.

On his return to Port Elizabeth he was appointed manager of the SPCA, married and started a family. 

Some years later started a retail company "Party Adventures" in Walmer Park and during this period he worked occasionally with the Shakespeare SA, touring provinces in the country with a professional team of actors and crew - but presenting two different shows at each venue.

During this period he was constantly involved in amateur theatre in the Eastern Cape.

Stage Manager

Mark Shelton

Being the son of the late, well-known, Parks Department head, John Shelton, it's only natural for Mark Shelton to have kept up his ties with the Port Elizabeth Shakespearian Festival and other theatrical productions. He has been involved in theatrical productions for as long as he can remember.

Production Assistant

Prompt

Schools Liaison

Front of House Co-Ordination

Helen Wilkins

Choreographer

Bennie Gerber

Please click on "Cast" to see Bennie's experience.

Wardrobe Mistress & Catering Manager

Brigitte Mann

Since being married into the Mann family at the age of 21 Brigitte Mann has become a fixture at Mannville, catering for shows, selling coffees, serving on the committee and finally taking on the mammoth task of running the wardrobe department.

She has done countless shows and says being back in the park after four years is the jewel in the crown of their achievements.

Brigitte received the costume award for Hamlet and Showtime 2014.

Technical & Set Construction

Manny Fokos

Although Manny Fokos was born in Johannesburg he has been in Port Elizabeth since 1966. He has been an amateur sound engineer since joining the Port Elizabeth Sakespearian Festival in 1975. In the days when he started doing sound there were no courses, as with many other professions, to teach newcomers their chosen careers and so he had to learn by doing things "hands-on"!

Manny estimates he has been responsible for the sound in at least 40 productions.

 

Sound Operator

Bryce Lloyd

Bryce Lloyd (17) is currently in Grade 11 at Pearson High School and was persuaded by Linda-Louise Swain to join Showtime. He has learnt about sound through hand-on experience.

Twelth Night is his first open air theatre production.

Set Painter

Mia Schoemaker

Please click on "Cast" to see Mia's experience.

Make-up Artist

Jamie Reynolds

Jamie Reynolds (20) came to Port Elizabeth 10 years ago from Harare, Zimbabwe and has been involved in local theatre sine 2005. Since matriculating at Pearson in 2012 she has been studying teaching at Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University. Although she is responsible for doing the make-up in Twelfth Night she is also an actress in her own light and has participated in one musical and five Shakespearian productions.

Backstage Crew

Rebecca Iverson

Rebecca Iverson (17) is currently a Grade 12 scholar at Alexander Road High School. She has been involved in theatre for four years and Twlfth Nigh is her 17th show.

She was involved with productions such as Hairspary, Noise's Off and Shrek and has worked with Lesley Barnard previously in Macbeth.

She intends taking a year to off after matriculating to travel overseas and then returning to study drama.

Backstage Crew

George Pretorius

 

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