Angelique Rockas facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Angelique Rockas
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Angelique Rockas in the role of Medea
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| 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 |
Angelique Rockas is a talented actress, producer, and activist. She is known for starting a special theatre company called Internationalist Theatre in the UK. She created this company with the help of Athol Fugard. This theatre was unique because it brought together actors from many different backgrounds and races to perform classic plays. People have called her work "a historic example of theatre work addressing representation in the most valuable manner." As an actress, Angelique Rockas is known for her "strong interpretation of roles."
Contents
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 hoping for a better life. She had three brothers and sisters. Her family followed Greek Orthodox Christian traditions and taught her to respect her Greek culture.
She went to St Dominic's Catholic School for Girls, Boksburg for her early schooling. Later, she earned a degree in English literature and philosophy from the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg. After that, she studied acting at the Drama School of the University of Cape Town.
From a young age, Angelique was an activist, meaning she worked to bring about change. In 1970, she was on the front page of Star newspaper. She was with a group raising money for a Greek school called Saheti. She also took part in a poetry event for the Greek War of Independence with George Bizos. Bizos, a famous human rights lawyer, called her "l'enfant terrible" (a French phrase meaning a mischievous or rebellious person) because she often challenged the way things were. He became a role model for her.
Her work as an activist against apartheid (a system of racial segregation in South Africa) and for women's rights in South Africa led her to move to the UK. In London, she worked with Theatro Technis, a Greek Cypriot theatre group. This group focused on social and political issues affecting Greek Cypriots. She also helped introduce Greek tragedies and comedies to audiences in London.
Acting Career Highlights
In London, Angelique Rockas started acting with George Eugeniou 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 based on real issues affecting the Greek Cypriot community, especially the sad events of the Turkish invasion of Cyprus in 1974, called Attilas '74. Some of these plays included Dowry with Two White Doves and Afrodite Unbound.
In 1982, she played the main character in Medea by Euripides. She played Medea as a barefoot refugee, directed by George Eugeniou at Theatro Technis.
Angelique also played Lady Macbeth in Shakespeare's famous play Macbeth at the Tramshed Woolwich. She also appeared as the Nurse in The F and H Play at the Traverse Theatre in Edinburgh.
From 1981 to 1985, Angelique Rockas performed in several plays with her own company, Internationalist Theatre, in London:
- She played Carmen in The Balcony.
- She was Yvette in Brecht's Mother Courage and Her Children.
- She played Tatiana in Gorky's Enemies (play).
- In 1981, Rockas played Emma, a concentration camp victim, in the Argentinian play The Camp (1967 play) by Griselda Gambaro. A reviewer from Spare Rib magazine said, "Angelique Rockas's Emma is electric."
- She was Miriam in the first London performance of Tennessee Williams's In the Bar of a Tokyo Hotel at the New End Theatre.
- In 1984, she took on the role of the aristocratic Miss Julie in Strindberg's play. This was seen as a challenge to typical casting choices because she was described as a "short, Latin-looking actress" playing a role often given to different types of actors.
Film and Television Roles
Angelique Rockas has also acted 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! directed by Costas Ferris.
In Greece, she had the main role as Ms. Ortiki in Thodoros Maragos's television series Emmones Idees.
Internationalist Theatre: A New Vision
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In April 1981, Angelique Rockas started Internationalist Theatre. Her goal was to create a theatre company where actors from any race, country, or accent living in London could perform together. They would perform classic plays and new works, even if those plays weren't originally written for diverse casts. This new company was announced in The Stage newspaper on April 9, 1981. The newspaper said the company was formed "to assert a multi-racial drama policy" with their first play, The Balcony by Jean Genet.
Internationalist Theatre put on plays by famous writers like Pirandello, Genet, and Tennessee Williams. These writers were known for their "non-realistic" and "symbolic" plays, which were not always popular in British theatre at that time.
Important Archives
Records of Angelique Rockas's work as an actress and as the founder of Internationalist Theatre are kept in important places.
- Her paper records, including letters with famous people like Joan Littlewood, Athol Fugard, and George Bizos, are stored at the British Library.
- Digital records of her work are also kept at the British Library.
- Her letters with film directors such as Elia Kazan, Derek Jarman, and Lindsay Anderson, and with actress Julie Christie, are held at the BFI (British Film Institute) and The National Archives (United Kingdom).
- Information about Angelique Rockas and Internationalist Theatre is also available at the Bertolt-Brecht-Archiv Akademie der Künste.
- The National Library of South Africa also holds records related to her.
See also
In Spanish: Angelique Rockas para niños
