Angelique Rockas facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Angelique Rockas
Angelique Rockas in the role of Medea
Education	University of the Witwatersrand, University of Cape Town
Occupation	Actress: stage and film, theatre practitioner and founder of Internationalist Theatre
Years active	1978–present

Rockas as Miss Julie, and Garry Cooper as Jean in Strindberg's Miss Julie, Internationalist Theatre

Angelique Rockas is a talented actress, a producer, and an activist. She is well-known for starting her own theatre company called Internationalist Theatre in the UK. She created this company with the help of Athol Fugard. Her theatre was special because it featured actors from many different backgrounds and races in classic plays.

Early Life and Activism

Angelique Rockas was born and grew up in Boksburg, South Africa. Her parents were from Greece and moved to South Africa to find a better life. She had three siblings and followed the traditions of the Greek Orthodox Church. Her family taught her to be proud of her Greek heritage.

She went to school at St Dominic's Catholic School for Girls, Boksburg. Later, she studied English literature and philosophy at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg. After that, she took acting classes at the University of Cape Town.

Even when she was young, Angelique was an activist. In 1970, she was on the front page of Star newspaper. She was with a group raising money for a Greek school called Saheti School. She also took part in a poetry event for the Greek War of Independence with George Bizos. Bizos called her "l'enfant terrible" (which means "terrible child" in a playful way) because she didn't like things to stay the same. He became a role model for her.

Angelique was against apartheid (a system of racial separation in South Africa) and supported women's rights. South Africa at that time was very traditional. Her activism led her to move to the UK. In London, she worked with Theatro Technis, a Greek Cypriot theatre company. This company focused on social issues affecting Greek Cypriots and also performed classic Greek plays.

Acting Career

In London, Angelique Rockas began acting at Theatro Technis. She performed in many Greek classical plays.

She played Io in a play called Prometheus Bound. She also performed under the name Angeliki in plays that used both Greek and English. These plays were about issues important to the Greek Cypriot community, including the sad events of the Turkish invasion of Cyprus, called Attilas '74. Some of these plays were Dowry with Two White Doves and Afrodite Unbound.

In 1982, she played the main role in Medea by Euripides. This play was also at Theatro Technis. Angelique also performed as Lady Macbeth in Shakespeare's famous play Macbeth at the Tramshed in Woolwich.

Film and Television Roles

Angelique Rockas has also appeared in movies. She played the Maintenance Woman in Peter Hyams's film Outland. She was Henrietta in The Witches, directed by Nicolas Roeg. She also played Nereida in Oh Babylon! by Costas Ferris.

In Greece, she had a lead role as Ms Ortiki in the TV series Emmones Idees.

Internationalist Theatre

Rockas as Miriam, In the Bar of a Tokyo Hotel

In April 1981, Angelique Rockas started Internationalist Theatre. Her goal was to create a theatre company where actors from any race or country, and with any accent, could perform. They would perform classic plays and new plays that weren't specifically written for diverse casts.

The company's creation was announced in The Stage newspaper on April 9, 1981. It said the company was formed "to assert a multi-racial drama policy." Their first performance was The Balcony by Jean Genet.

Internationalist Theatre performed plays by writers like Pirandello, Genet, and Tennessee Williams. These writers were known for their unique, symbolic plays. This was different from many British theatres at the time.

Archives

Records of Angelique Rockas's work as an actress and the founder of Internationalist Theatre are kept in important archives. These include the British Library, the Scottish Theatre Archive, and the British Film Institute BFI. These archives hold her correspondence with famous people like Joan Littlewood, Athol Fugard, and film directors such as Elia Kazan.

See also

In Spanish: Angelique Rockas para niños