Her role as Kate Thompson in The Gods Must Be Crazy
Sandra Prinsloo (born 15 September 1947), also known as Sandra Prinzlow, is a South African actress best known internationally for her role as Kate Thompson in the 1980 film The Gods Must Be Crazy. Prinsloo has also appeared in numerous South African television, film, and stage productions.
Prinsloo has stated that she never expected to become an actress.[1]
"I was a ballet dancer from a very early age and I remember that I occasionally ushered at the Breytenbach Theatre in Pretoria when I was in high school. That’s the first time I came into contact with professional stage acting, but I never thought I’d be an actress . . . . I think I was far too shy in those days to ever think I could be an actress. So it wasn’t like I had this great big burning passion to become an actress, not at all. I preferred an academic life, in a way. When I went to university, I thought that was going to be what I was going to do".[1]
Prinsloo matriculated from the Afrikaanse Hoër Meisieskool and then completed her B.A. honours in drama at the University of Pretoria.[1] Soon after, she became a member of the Performing Arts Council Transvaal acting company.[1] "One night we were performing and it was as if something absolutely magical happened. It was as if a golden net was cast down. Everything was magical that evening and everybody felt it in the cast ... It was something enchanting that happens in the exchange of the energy between the audience and the actors".[1]
Prinsloo has said that after that night, she realised that acting was her calling.[1]
Film career
In addition to her well-known role in The Gods Must Be Crazy, Prinsloo has had major roles in Target of an Assassin (1979), Quest for Love (1988), Die Prins van Pretoria (1992), Soweto Green (1995), 'n Paw Paw Vir My Darling (2015), Twee Grade van Moord (2016).[2]
Television career
Prinsloo was in the original cast of Egoli: Place of Gold, South Africa's first soap opera.[3] For many years, she hosted her own talk show, RaakPraat met Sandra, on South Africa television.[4][5] She has also conducted a series of interviews with personalities and celebrities for South African TV, Sandra Op 'n Drafstap.[6]
Prinsloo has acted in a number of South African television series and movies throughout her career, including Erfsondes (2012); Hartland (2011); Known Gods (2005); Saints, Sinners, and Settlers (1999); and Konings (1991) among others.[2]
Theatre career
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Prinsloo has performed in more than 100 different productions, often playing leading roles in works by South African and international dramatists.[1]
In 1985, Prinsloo and fellow actor John Kani caused a South African audience walk-out when performing the play Miss Julie by August Strindberg.[7] In the title role, Prinsloo played a white woman seducing a black man. The play marked the first on-stage occurrence of a black man kissing a white woman under the Apartheid regime.[8]
The play's producer, Bobby Heaney, speculated that the walk-out was "part of a well planned campaign by conservative whites".[7] Both Kani and Prinsloo had to be escorted into the parking lot after each performance of Miss Julie, as there was fear that the actors would be attacked by "enraged right-wingers".[9] Prinsloo reportedly received obscene hate mail and both received death threats.[9]
When interviewed in 2014 for the 21 Icons Project, a series of short films about South Africans "who have shaped the world around them",[10] Prinsloo commented that ""I thought [the play] would cause a stir, but I didn’t think it would cause a minor revolution. People were very small-minded and I suppose you live in a bit of a fool’s paradise when you’re an actor".[1]
The actors later performed the play at the Edinburgh Festival.[11] In 1986, Heaney directed a TV movie of the play for Swedish and Finnish television, which starred both Prinsloo and Kani.[9]
Prinsloo returned to the Edinburgh Festival in 2012 with The Sewing Machine, an English-language translation of the Afrikaans-language play, Die Naaimasjien.[6] In the 2000s, Prinsloo appeared on the South African stage in productions of Oskar en die Pienk Tannie; Janneman; Nag, Ma (Night Mother); and Liefde, Anna.[6]
In October 2015, Prinsloo portrayed South African journalist, Jani Allan in Jani at the Aardklop festival.[12]
Awards
In 2013, Prinsloo received the ACT Lifetime Achievement Award for Theatre.[13] The awards are offered annually by the Arts and Culture Trust (ACT) of South Africa in order to "honour arts professionals whose extraordinary careers have had a profound and lasting impact on arts, culture and heritage, and whose lifetime achievements have contributed significantly to the enrichment of cultural life in South Africa".[13]
In 2014, Prinsloo was the recipient of a national order by the South African government, the Order of Ikhamanga in silver, for those whose outstanding work has benefited South Africa.[14] National orders are bestowed on South Africa's Freedom Day. The orders celebrate human achievement in various fields, honouring men and women who have left definitive footprints in both the struggle for liberation and in building a better South Africa.[15]
In 2018, Prinsloo was the recipient of a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Naledi Theatre Awards.[16] The awards are offered annually by the Naledi Theatre Awards Committee.
Education
Prinsloo matriculated from the Afrikaanse Hoër Meisieskool.[1] She holds the degree B.A. (Honours) from the University of Pretoria.[17]
Pretoria is South Africa's administrative capital, serving as the seat of the executive branch of government, and as the host to all foreign embassies to South Africa.
Bonisile John Kani, OIS, is a South African actor, author, director and playwright. He is known for portraying T'Chaka in the Marvel Cinematic Universe films Captain America: Civil War (2016) and Black Panther (2018), Rafiki in the 2019 remake of The Lion King and Colonel Ulenga in the Netflix film Murder Mystery (2019).
The Market Theatre, based in the downtown bohemian suburb of Newtown in Johannesburg, South Africa, was opened in 1976, operating as an independent, anti-racist theatre during the country's apartheid regime. It was named after a fruit and vegetable market that was previously located there. It was also known as the Old Indian Market or the Newtown Market, which closed after 60 years. The Market Theatre was renamed John Kani Theatre in 2014 after the renowned South African stage actor John Kani.
Afrikaanse Hoër Meisieskool Pretoria is a public, Afrikaans medium high school for girls in the suburb of Clydesdale in Pretoria in the Gauteng province of South Africa. It is the sister school of the Afrikaanse Hoër Seunskool.
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Wilhelm van der Walt, is a South African actor particularly dominated South African theatre. He is best known for the roles in the films Stuur groete aan Mannetjies Roux, Il console italiano, Projek Dina and villain role "Ty Prinsloo" in the soapie 7de Laan.
The Naledi Theatre Awards are annual South African national theatre awards held in Gauteng launched in 2004 by Dawn Lindberg after the Vita Awards ended. Productions staged throughout the previous year are eligible, and the candidates are evaluated by the Naledi panel of judges.
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1 2 "Walkout over Black-White Love Scene". Courier-Mail (Australia). 8 March 1985. Retrieved 2 September 2014 from Lexis-Nexis database.
↑ O'Brien, Kerry. "The 7:30 Report: Kani explores a post-apartheid world on stage." Australian Broadcasting Corporation, 11 May 2005. Retrieved 1 September 2014.
↑ Andreae, Christopher. "Black/white version of 'Miss Julie' puts a spin on Strindberg's 1888 drama." Christian Science Monitor, 5 September 1985. Retrieved 1 September 2014.
↑ Malan, Mariana (23 July 2015). "Eenmanstuk oor Jani Allan se lewe"[One-man play about Jani Allan's life Prinsloo is 'perfect narrator'] (in Afrikaans). Beeld. Archived from the original on 6 August 2015.
↑ "Zuma presents National Orders in Pretoria." The Citizen, 28 April 2014. Retrieved 1 September 2014.
↑ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 24 September 2015. Retrieved 1 September 2014.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link) Diphoko, Montlenyane. "Zuma bestows 53 luminaries with National Orders." SABC News, 27 April 2014. Retrieved 1 September 2014.
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