Salme Reek (10 November 1907 â€" 9 June 1996) was an Estonian stage,
film, radio, and television actress and stage director whose career
spanned nearly seventy years; sixty-six of which were spent as an
actress at the Estonian Drama Theatre.Salme Helene Reek was the oldest
of three siblings born to paper pulp factory worker Juhan Reek and
housewife Julia Reek (née Erberg) in Pärnu. Her younger siblings
were Hilda (1911â€"1990), and Oskar (1922â€"1939) who died at age
seventeen. During Reek's early years, the family lived in near-poverty
in a one-room apartment on Suur-Kuke Street, later moving into a
two-room studio apartment. Both of Reek's parents were keenly
interested in music; her father Juhan played the piano and the
harmonium and her mother Julia sang as a first soprano in the family's
Lutheran church choir. Both parents were also theatre enthusiasts and
Reek often attended theatre productions at Pärnu's Endla Theatre
during her early childhood.Reek began her primary school studies in
Pärnu before the family relocated to Tallinn, then returning to
Pärnu approximately four years later. The family subsequently
returned once more to Tallinn, where Reek attended secondary school at
Tallinn 2nd Girls' Gymnasium (now, Tallinn Kristiine Gymnasium),
graduating in 1927. Reek performed well in history and language
classes and excelled in gymnastics.Just after graduation in 1927, Reek
enrolled in studies at the Drama Theatre Studio School in Tallinn,
founded in 1920 by actor and theatre pedagogue Paul Sepp, graduating
in 1930. From 1929 until 1933, Reek studied dance with Estonian
choreographer and dance teacher Gerd Neggo who, because of Reek's
difficult financial situation, taught Reek without charge.
film, radio, and television actress and stage director whose career
spanned nearly seventy years; sixty-six of which were spent as an
actress at the Estonian Drama Theatre.Salme Helene Reek was the oldest
of three siblings born to paper pulp factory worker Juhan Reek and
housewife Julia Reek (née Erberg) in Pärnu. Her younger siblings
were Hilda (1911â€"1990), and Oskar (1922â€"1939) who died at age
seventeen. During Reek's early years, the family lived in near-poverty
in a one-room apartment on Suur-Kuke Street, later moving into a
two-room studio apartment. Both of Reek's parents were keenly
interested in music; her father Juhan played the piano and the
harmonium and her mother Julia sang as a first soprano in the family's
Lutheran church choir. Both parents were also theatre enthusiasts and
Reek often attended theatre productions at Pärnu's Endla Theatre
during her early childhood.Reek began her primary school studies in
Pärnu before the family relocated to Tallinn, then returning to
Pärnu approximately four years later. The family subsequently
returned once more to Tallinn, where Reek attended secondary school at
Tallinn 2nd Girls' Gymnasium (now, Tallinn Kristiine Gymnasium),
graduating in 1927. Reek performed well in history and language
classes and excelled in gymnastics.Just after graduation in 1927, Reek
enrolled in studies at the Drama Theatre Studio School in Tallinn,
founded in 1920 by actor and theatre pedagogue Paul Sepp, graduating
in 1930. From 1929 until 1933, Reek studied dance with Estonian
choreographer and dance teacher Gerd Neggo who, because of Reek's
difficult financial situation, taught Reek without charge.
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