Angelique Rockas Explained

Angelique Rockas
Occupation:Actress: stage and film, theatre practitioner and founder of Internationalist Theatre
Education:University of the Witwatersrand, University of Cape Town
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.

Early life

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]

Acting career

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]

Film and television

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.

New Theatre

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]

Internationalist Theatre

See main article: Internationalist Theatre. 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]

Archives

External links

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Angelique Rockas: Strong, Bold and Unafraid . Greek Reporter Europe . 2012-05-21 . 2018-10-17 . 7 October 2019 . https://web.archive.org/web/20191007134147/https://eu.greekreporter.com/2012/05/21/angelique-rockas-strong-bold-and-unafraid/ . live .
  2. News: Angelique Rockas: bold theatre pioneer. https://archive.today/20160606160808/http://www.thesouthafrican.com/angelique-rockas-bold-theatre-pioneer/. dead. 6 June 2016. 10 August 2011. Heather Walker. The South African.
  3. Web site: Robert Mohr. University of Stellenbosch. esat.sun.ac.za. 10 March 2017. 7 October 2019. https://web.archive.org/web/20191007134209/https://esat.sun.ac.za/index.php/Robert_Mohr. live.
  4. Web site: Programme of Die Effek van Gamma Strale directed by Robert Mohr, Reza De Wet in cast. Little Theatre, Univ of Cape Town. 1976. Die Effek van Gamma Strale. Internet Archive.
  5. Web site: Debutantes for SAHETI. 5 June 1970. The Star. Internet Archive.
  6. Web site: BBC World Service Interview Archive:George Bizos. 29 July 2003. BBC World Service. 3 June 2016. 7 October 2019. https://web.archive.org/web/20191007134202/https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p03js1g3. live.
  7. Web site: Angelique Rockas: bold theatre pioneer . The South African . 2011-08-10 . https://archive.today/20160606160808/http://www.thesouthafrican.com/angelique-rockas-bold-theatre-pioneer/ . dead . 2016-06-06 . 2018-10-18.
  8. Web site: Interview with Angelique Rockas. Evangelos Kordakis. hellenism.net. 19 April 2016. https://web.archive.org/web/20150211054344/http://www.hellenism.net/interview_angelique-rockas.html. 11 February 2015. dead.
  9. Web site: Angelique Rockas a Theatreo Technis Prometheus. Petsalas, Anastassios. Etudes Helleniques Vol 16 Issue 2-page 107. 2008.
  10. Web site: Theatro, Technis, London, Prometheus, Bound, Aeschyllus, Time Out. Internet Archive.
  11. Web site: Angelique Rockas/Angeliki Rockas a Theatro Technis. APGRD CLassics Centre Univ of Oxford. 20 October 2017. 21 October 2017. https://web.archive.org/web/20171021005515/http://www.apgrd.ox.ac.uk/productions/people/3272. live.
  12. Web site: Michael Caccoyiannis documentary Attilas '74: The Rape of Cyprus . Michael Caccoyiannis . Documentary about the Turkish Invasion of Cyprus and subsequent illegal occupation of Northern Cyprus . Vimeo . 4 March 2017 . 5 March 2017 . https://web.archive.org/web/20170305042200/https://vimeo.com/72538143 . live .
  13. Web site: Brochure Celebrating 25th Anniversary of Theatro Technis. 1982 . Theatro Technis. Internet Archive.
  14. Web site: Songs sung at Ethnikos Aravonas, Theatro, Technis. YouTube. 6 December 2016. 8 March 2022. https://web.archive.org/web/20220308151259/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cJK-3eZISic. live.
  15. Web site: Angeliki Rockas: Anagnorisi tou Polipleurou Talentou tis. Parakiaki Haravgi. Christina Aresti . 21 August 1980. Internet Archive.
  16. Web site: Medea (1982) . APGRD . 1982-01-01 . 2018-10-19 . 11 October 2016 . https://web.archive.org/web/20161011000028/http://www.apgrd.ox.ac.uk/productions/production/3038 . live .
  17. Web site: Macbeth. 1978 . Lady Macbeth. Internet Archive.
  18. Web site: Tramshed History. Glypt. Glypt. 2018. glypt.co.uk. 7 August 2018. 7 August 2018. https://web.archive.org/web/20180807220857/http://www.glypt.co.uk/tramshedhistory/. live.
  19. Web site: The Witches . Rotten Tomatoes . 2018-10-17 . 2018-10-19 . 2 July 2020 . https://web.archive.org/web/20200702005732/https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/1029830-witches . live .
  20. Book: Riazzoli, M. . Cronologia del Cinema - Tomo 2 1961-1990 . Youcanprint . 2016 . 978-88-926-2007-0 . es . 2018-10-18 . 600.
  21. Web site: Angelique Rockas film roles. BFI. bfi.org.uk. 19 April 2016. 15 September 2019. https://web.archive.org/web/20190915174836/https://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-people/4ce2bb0051629. dead.
  22. Web site: Greek TV debut for Angelique. September 1989. Greek Review. Internet Archive.
  23. Web site: Greek TV Emmones Idees. October 1989. Emmones Idees. youtube.com. 9 April 2018. 15 September 2019. https://web.archive.org/web/20190915174823/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DjU5MuGDNpw&feature=youtu.be. live.
  24. Web site: Screenshot British Newspaper Archives THE STAGE full page no 1. The Stage. September 1980. britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk.
  25. Web site: Reviews of 'Tis Pity. New Theatre 'Tis Pity She's a Whore. November 1980 . Internet Archive.
  26. Web site: BBC Latin American The Camp Multi Racial And Multi National . 1981. Griselda Gambaro The Camp . Ann Morey . Internet Archive.
  27. Web site: BBC Latin American The Camp Multi Racial And Multi National. Ann Morey. 26 October 1981. BBC Latin American Service page 2. Internet Archive.
  28. Web site: British Newspaper Archive Screenshot The Stage Second show by Genet multi-racial No 3 . 9 April 1981. britishnewspaperarchive.uk.
  29. Web site: LIOLA . Nicolas de Jongh . 28 July 1982. The Guardian . Internet Archive.