Yvonne Bryceland
| Yvonne Bryceland | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Born |
Yvonne Heilbuth 18 November 1925 Cape Town, South Africa |
| Died | 13 January 1992 (aged 66) London, United Kingdom |
| Occupation | Actress |
| Spouse(s) | Danny Bryceland, Brian Astbury |
| Children | Mavourneen, Colleen, Melanie |
Yvonne Bryceland (18 November 1925 – 13 January 1992) was a South African stage actress. Some of her best-known work was in the plays of Athol Fugard.
She was born Yvonne Heilbuth in Cape Town, South Africa, the daughter of Adolphus Walter Heilbluth, a railway foreman, and Clara Ethel (née Sanderson). She was educated at St. Mary's Convent, Hope St., Cape Town.
Bryceland worked as a newspaper librarian for the Cape Argus before her professional theatrical début in Stage Door in 1947, becoming an actress with the Cape Performing Arts Board in 1964. Prior to her professional career, she had performed as an amateur at the Barn Theatre in Constantia which had been founded by David Bloomberg who later became the mayor of Cape Town. Having had no formal training prior to becoming a professional actress, Bryceland took private lessons with acting teacher Rita Maas (RADA, LAMDA), who with her husband, Morris Phillips, a ballroom dancer, founded the Maas-Phillips School of Dance, Speech and Drama, in Cape Town in the 1950s.
Yvonne's first husband was an immigrant from England named Danny Bryceland, a real-estate salesman. The relationship became abusive and, although a devout Roman Catholic, after urgent consultations with her priest, they were divorced in 1960. They had three children – daughters Colleen, Melanie, and Mavourneen, the latter also having a brief but well-received career as an actress.
In 1969, Bryceland performed in the première of Athol Fugard's play Boesman and Lena and repeated the role in the 1974 film version.
Described as the first lady of South African theatre, Bryceland was a committed artist who, in 1972, defied racial segregation by co-founding, with her second husband, Brian Astbury, South Africa's first non-racial theatre, the Space Theatre in Cape Town.
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