Angelique Rockas | |
|---|---|
 Angelique Rockas in the role of Medea | |
| Education | University of the Witwatersrand, University of Cape Town |
| Occupation(s) | Actress: stage and film, theatre practitioner and founder of Internationalist Theatre |
| Years active | 1978–present |
Angelique Rockas is an actress, producer and activist. Rockas founded the theatre company Internationalist Theatre in the UK with her patron Athol Fugard. The theatre featured multi-racial casts in classical plays.
Rockas was born and raised in Boksburg, South Africa, to Greek parents who had emigrated from Greece with hopes of finding a better life. She had three siblings, followed Greek Orthodox Christian traditions, and was taught to honour her Greek cultural heritage. [1] She received her early education at St Dominic's Catholic School for Girls, Boksburg, [2] and later earned a bachelor's degree in English literature with a major in philosophy at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg. After earning her degree, Rockas went on to complete an acting course at the Drama School of the University of Cape Town under the direction of Robert Mohr. [3] [4]
A young activist, Rockas appeared on the June 1970 front page of the Star with a group of debutantes raising funds for Saheti School, a Greek school located in Germiston, South Africa. [5] She also participated in a 25 March Greek War of Independence Poetry Celebration with George Bizos. [6] Bizos nicknamed her " l'enfant terrible " for her resistance to the status quo, [7] and became her role model leading up to her founding of the Internationalist Theatre. [8]
Her activities as an anti-apartheid and feminist activist in “the then underdeveloped and extremely conservative” South Africa eventually motivated her move to the UK. [1] While residing in North London, she worked for Theatro Technis, a Greek Cypriot theatre company that focused on sociopolitical issues affecting Greek Cypriots, and also helped to promote Greek tragedies and comedies to London audiences. [1]
In London, Rockas began acting under the direction of George Eugeniou at Theatro Technis [9] where she participated in Greek classical productions.
Rockas also played Io in a production of Prometheus Bound . [10] [11] She also performed under the name of Angeliki in dual language productions (Greek/English) based on improvisations about issues that touched the Greek Cypriot community, and the tragedy of the Turkish invasion of Cyprus, Attilas '74 . [12] The plays included Dowry with Two White Doves, Afrodite Unbound, A Revolutionary Nicknamed Roosevelt, Ethnikos Aravonas. [13] [14] [15] In 1982, she played the lead role in the stage play Medea by Euripides, directed by George Eugeniou at Theatro Technis (Cypriot Community in London). [16]
Rockas performed Lady Macbeth in Shakespeare's Macbeth at the Tramshed Woolwich. [17] [18]
On film, Rockas has appeared in secondary roles: the Maintenance Woman in Peter Hyams's Outland, Henrietta in The Witches directed by Nicolas Roeg, [19] and as Nereida in Oh Babylon! directed by Costas Ferris. [20] [21]
In Greece she has played the lead role, Ms Ortiki in Thodoros Maragos's television series Emmones Idees [22] [23] with Vangelis Mourikis as Socratis.
In November 1980, Rockas set up the performance of 'Tis Pity She's a Whore [24] by John Ford in which she played the lead part of Annabella. She financed the production herself and enlisted the then unknown Declan Donnellan to direct the play to be performed at London's Half Moon Theatre and Theatre Space. The production was designed by Nick Ormerod. [25]
In April 1981, Rockas founded Internationalist Theatre to create a multi-racial and multi-national theatre company for actors living in London of any racial or national background, of any accent, performing drama classics as well as contemporary works not especially written for multi-racial and multi-national casts. [26] [27] It was first announced on 9 April 1981 in the Theatre News, page (2), by the editor of The Stage , describing the company's formation "to assert a multi-racial drama policy", [28] with their performance of the revival of The Balcony by Jean Genet.
Internationalist Theatre staged productions by dramatists including Pirandello, Genet, and Tennessee Williams who belong to "the continental, non-realistic, symbolically orientated drama of this century (20th) and..proved most uncongenial to the tunnel visioned repertoire builders" of British theatre of that period. [29]
Medea is an ancient Greek tragedy written by Euripides. It is based upon the myth of Jason and Medea and was first produced in 431 BC as part of a trilogy; the two other plays have not survived. The plot centers on the actions of Medea, a former princess of the kingdom of Colchis, and the wife of Jason; she finds her position in the Greek world threatened as Jason leaves her for a Greek princess of Corinth. Medea takes vengeance on Jason by murdering his new wife as well as her own two sons, after which she escapes to Athens to start a new life.
Kyriaki Papadopoulou, known by her stage name Marinella, is a Greek singer whose career has spanned several decades. She has sung professionally since 1957. Since the beginning of her career, she has released 66 solo albums and has been featured on albums by other musicians. She still sings today and stands out for the range of her voice
Peter Polycarpou is an English-Cypriot actor, best known for playing Chris Theodopolopodous in the television comedy series Birds of a Feather and Louis Charalambos in The Lost Honour of Christopher Jefferies.
'Tis Pity She's a Whore is a tragedy written by John Ford. It was first performed c. 1626 or between 1629 and 1633, by Queen Henrietta's Men at the Cockpit Theatre. The play was first published in 1633, in a quarto printed by Nicholas Okes for the bookseller Richard Collins. Ford dedicated the play to John Mordaunt, 1st Earl of Peterborough and Baron of Turvey.
Alexis Stamatis is a Greek novelist, playwright, and poet. Amongst other work, he has published sixteen novels, six books of poetry, and a number of plays. As of, he teaches creative writing at the Hellenic American Academic Foundation.
Emmones Idees is the thirteenth studio album by Greek artist, Katy Garbi. It was released on 15 October 2003 by Sony Music Greece and certified gold in a week, but after a month received platinum certification, selling over 50,000 units*. The first single "Na Pernas" and precursor to the album was released over one month prior to the release of the album, which itself was initially scheduled to be released in September, but it was delayed to October, containing many of her most successful songs like "Na Pernas", "Antres", "Esena Mono" and "Poso Tha 'Thela". "Ilios I Vrohi" is a cover of Youm Wara Youm, previously recorded and performed as a duet by Samira Said and Cheb Mami. It was available in two different versions: a standard 16-track version, and a "Limited Edition" packaged with a bonus DVD including Mia Kardia's music videos along with biography, discography and photos. Giannis Doulamis with Dewar's whiskey, a main sponsor of the album, organized a big celebration for the presentation of Katy's new gold album as well as the multi-platinum award for her previous albums.
Zeta Makrypoulia is a Greek actress, TV hostess and former model.
Nina Rapi is a Greek playwright. She also writes short stories and essays.
St Dominic's Catholic School for Girls is a South African, private Roman Catholic day school located in Boksburg (Ekurhuleni), Gauteng.
Greek South Africans are South Africans of Greek ancestry from Greece and Cyprus.
In the Bar of a Tokyo Hotel is a one-act play in two scenes, written in 1968–69 by Tennessee Williams.
Griselda Gambaro is an Argentine writer, whose novels, plays, short stories, story tales, essays and novels for teenagers often concern the political violence in her home country that would develop into the Dirty War. One recurring theme is the desaparecidos and the attempts to recover their bodies and memorialize them. Her novel Ganarse la muerte was banned by the government because of the obvious political message.
Hilda Fay is an Irish actor. She was nominated for an IFTA for best supporting actress for her role in whistleblower in 2009.
Dimitra Papadea, known professionally as Demy, is a Greek singer. She is signed with the Greek independent label Panik Records. She has released two studio albums, "#1" in 2012, which became platinum and "Rodino Oniro" in 2014, which became gold. In 2017, she released "Demy", a collection of all of her English songs and later she released the album "Kontra" including two new songs and older songs and collaborations that had not been included in an album up to that time. Demy has achieved 8 No.1 songs and 2 No.1 EPs at the Greek charts so far. She also combined music and acting by having taken part in 5 musicals from 2012 to 2017.
George Eugeniou is a Cypriot actor, director and writer. He is the founder and artistic director of Theatro Technis in London, England, which was established in 1957.
Angeliki Papoulia is a Greek actress and theatre director. In film, she is most notable for her roles in Dogtooth, Alps and The Lobster by Yorgos Lanthimos, and A Blast and The Miracle of the Sargasso Sea by Syllas Tzoumerkas. For her part in Dogtooth she was awarded with a Heart of Sarajevo for Best Actress.
Internationalist Theatre is a London theatre company founded by South African Greek actress Angelique Rockas in September 1980. The company was originally named New Internationalist Theatre, with an intention to pursue an internationalist approach in its choice of plays as well as "a multi-racial drama policy, with an even mix of performers drawn from different cultural groups", The Stage, April 1981.
Rina Katselli was a writer and politician from Cyprus. She is considered one of the most important contemporary Cypriot playwrights and prose writers. In 1981, she became the first Greek Cypriot woman to serve in Cyprus' House of Representatives.
Theatro Technis is an independent multi-cultural arts centre with a 120 -seat theatre located in the heart of London Borough of Camden. It contributes in general and specific ways to the cultural and social life of the people of London.
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