Athol Fugard FRSL OIS (born 11 June 1932) is a South African
playwright, novelist, actor, and director widely regarded as South
Africa’s greatest playwright. He is best known for his political
plays opposing the system of apartheid and for the 2005 Oscar-winning
film of his novel Tsotsi, directed by Gavin Hood. Acclaimed as “the
greatest active playwright in the English-speaking world†by Time in
1985, Fugard continues to write and has published over thirty plays.
Fugard was an adjunct professor of playwriting, acting and directing
in the Department of Theatre and Dance at the University of
California, San Diego. He is the recipient of many awards, honours,
and honorary degrees, including the 2005 Order of Ikhamanga in Silver
"for his excellent contribution and achievements in the theatre" from
the government of South Africa. He is also an Honorary Fellow of the
Royal Society of Literature. He was honoured in Cape Town with the
opening of the Fugard Theatre in District Six in 2010, and received a
Tony Award for lifetime achievement in 2011.Fugard was born as Harold
Athol Lanigan Fugard, in Middelburg, Eastern Cape, South Africa, on 11
June 1932. His mother, Marrie (Potgieter), an Afrikaner, operated
first a general store and then a lodging house; his father, Harold
Fugard, was a disabled former jazz pianist of Irish, English and
French Huguenot descent. In 1935, his family moved to Port Elizabeth.
In 1938, he began attending primary school at Marist Brothers College.
After being awarded a scholarship, he enrolled at a local technical
college for secondary education and then studied Philosophy and Social
Anthropology at the University of Cape Town, but he dropped out of the
university in 1953, a few months before final examinations. He left
home, hitchhiked to North Africa with a friend, and then spent the
next two years working in east Asia on a steamer ship, the SS
Graigaur, where he began writing, an experience "celebrated" in his
1999 autobiographical play The Captain's Tiger: a memoir for the
stage.In September 1956, he married Sheila Meiring, a University of
Cape Town Drama School student whom he had met the previous year. Now
known as Sheila Fugard, she is a novelist and poet. The couple have
since divorced. Their daughter, Lisa Fugard, is also a novelist.
playwright, novelist, actor, and director widely regarded as South
Africa’s greatest playwright. He is best known for his political
plays opposing the system of apartheid and for the 2005 Oscar-winning
film of his novel Tsotsi, directed by Gavin Hood. Acclaimed as “the
greatest active playwright in the English-speaking world†by Time in
1985, Fugard continues to write and has published over thirty plays.
Fugard was an adjunct professor of playwriting, acting and directing
in the Department of Theatre and Dance at the University of
California, San Diego. He is the recipient of many awards, honours,
and honorary degrees, including the 2005 Order of Ikhamanga in Silver
"for his excellent contribution and achievements in the theatre" from
the government of South Africa. He is also an Honorary Fellow of the
Royal Society of Literature. He was honoured in Cape Town with the
opening of the Fugard Theatre in District Six in 2010, and received a
Tony Award for lifetime achievement in 2011.Fugard was born as Harold
Athol Lanigan Fugard, in Middelburg, Eastern Cape, South Africa, on 11
June 1932. His mother, Marrie (Potgieter), an Afrikaner, operated
first a general store and then a lodging house; his father, Harold
Fugard, was a disabled former jazz pianist of Irish, English and
French Huguenot descent. In 1935, his family moved to Port Elizabeth.
In 1938, he began attending primary school at Marist Brothers College.
After being awarded a scholarship, he enrolled at a local technical
college for secondary education and then studied Philosophy and Social
Anthropology at the University of Cape Town, but he dropped out of the
university in 1953, a few months before final examinations. He left
home, hitchhiked to North Africa with a friend, and then spent the
next two years working in east Asia on a steamer ship, the SS
Graigaur, where he began writing, an experience "celebrated" in his
1999 autobiographical play The Captain's Tiger: a memoir for the
stage.In September 1956, he married Sheila Meiring, a University of
Cape Town Drama School student whom he had met the previous year. Now
known as Sheila Fugard, she is a novelist and poet. The couple have
since divorced. Their daughter, Lisa Fugard, is also a novelist.
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