Sylvaine Strike is a South African actress, writer and

theatre director A theatre director or stage director is a professional in the theatre field who oversees and orchestrates the mounting of a theatre production such as a play, opera, dance, drama, musical theatre performance, etc. by unifying various endeavors a ...

based in

Cape Town Cape Town is the legislature, legislative capital city, capital of South Africa. It is the country's oldest city and the seat of the Parliament of South Africa. Cape Town is the country's List of municipalities in South Africa, second-largest ...

, South Africa. She is the co-founder of Fortune Cookie Theatre, and has won multiple

Naledi Theatre awards The Naledi Theatre Awards are annual South African national theatre awards held in Gauteng Gauteng ( , ; Sotho-Tswana languages, Sotho-Tswana for 'place of gold'; or ) is one of the nine provinces of South Africa. Situated on the Highve ...

for her acting and directing. In 2018 Strike was awarded the

Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres The Order of Arts and Letters () is an order of France established on 2 May 1957 by the Minister of Culture. Its supplementary status to the was confirmed by President Charles de Gaulle in 1963. Its purpose is the recognition of significant ...

Early life

Strike was born in

Pretoria Pretoria ( ; ) is the Capital of South Africa, administrative capital of South Africa, serving as the seat of the Executive (government), executive branch of government, and as the host to all foreign embassies to the country. Pretoria strad ...

to French-speaking parents, and grew up in Verwoerdburg. She studied at the

University of Cape Town The University of Cape Town (UCT) (, ) is a public university, public research university in Cape Town, South Africa. Established in 1829 as the South African College, it was granted full university status in 1918, making it the oldest univer ...

and graduated with a degree in drama in 1993. Strike studied further from 1998 to 2000 in Paris at Jacques LeCoq School where she completed a two-year diploma with a focus in

mime A mime artist, or simply mime (from Greek language, Greek , , "imitator, actor"), is a person who uses ''mime'' (also called ''pantomime'' outside of Britain), the acting out of a story through body motions without the use of speech, as a the ...

and clown.

Career

Theatre

Strike is the

artistic director An artistic director is the executive of an arts organization, particularly in a theatre company or dance company, who handles the organization's artistic direction. They are generally a producer and director, but not in the sense of a mogu ...

of Fortune Cookie Theatre, which she co-founded in 2000. With Fortune Cookie Theatre, Strike has directed such shows as

Molière Jean-Baptiste Poquelin (; 15 January 1622 (baptised) – 17 February 1673), known by his stage name Molière (, ; ), was a French playwright, actor, and poet, widely regarded as one of the great writers in the French language and world liter ...

's ''

The Miser ''The Miser'' (; ) is a five-act comedy in prose by the French playwright Molière. It was first performed on September 9, 1668, in the Théâtre du Palais-Royal (rue Saint-Honoré), theatre of the Palais-Royal in Paris. This is a character com ...

'' (2012) and ''

Tartuffe ''Tartuffe, or The Impostor, or The Hypocrite'' (; , ), first performed in 1664, is a theatrical comedy (or more specifically, a farce) by Molière. The characters of Tartuffe, Elmire, and Orgon are considered among the greatest classical theat ...

'' (2017) and the

Chekhov Anton Pavlovich Chekhov (; ; 29 January 1860 – 15 July 1904) was a Russian playwright and short-story writer, widely considered to be one of the greatest writers of all time. His career as a playwright produced four classics, and his b ...

-adaptation, ''Tobacco and the Harmful Effects Thereof'' (2016). In 2004, Strike co-created the show ''Black and Blue'' with other members of Fortune Cookie, which she also starred in. In 2015, Fortune Cookie remounted the production. Outside of Fortune Cookie Theatre, Strike has directed shows such as ''Miss Dietrich Regrets'' (2015), ''DOP'' (2019), and ''ECLIPSED'' (2019). Strike also assisted in adapting the story of

Snow White "Snow White" is a German fairy tale, first written down in the early 19th century. The Brothers Grimm published it in 1812 in the first edition of their collection ''Grimms' Fairy Tales'', numbered as Tale 53. The original title was ''Sneewittch ...

into ''Snow White - The Ballet'' for

Joburg Ballet Joburg Ballet is a ballet dance company based within the Joburg Theatre, Johannesburg, South Africa. Joburg Ballet was formerly known as the South African Ballet Theatre (SABT). The company was formed in 2001 by six dancers who were retrenched ...

in 2017. In 2023 she worked with

Damon Galgut Damon Galgut (born 12 November 1963) is a South African novelist and playwright. He was awarded the 2021 Booker Prize for his novel '' The Promise'', having previously been shortlisted for the award in 2003 and 2010. Early life and education Ga ...

to adapt his novel, '' The Promise'' into a stage production. In 2024, Strike directed her first musical, ''Spring Awakening'', an adaptation of the 1891 German play ''

Frühlings Erwachen ''Spring Awakening'' () (also translated as ''Spring's Awakening'' and ''The Awakening of Spring'') is the German dramatist Frank Wedekind's first major play and a foundational work in the Twentieth-century theatre, modern history of theatre. I ...

,'' by

Frank Wedekind Benjamin Franklin Wedekind (July 24, 1864 – March 9, 1918) was a German playwright. His work, which often criticizes bourgeois attitudes (particularly towards sex), is considered to anticipate expressionism and was influential in the developme ...

Film and television

Strike has appeared in such films as ''

District 9 ''District 9'' is a 2009 science fiction action film directed by Neill Blomkamp in his feature film debut, written by Blomkamp and Terri Tatchell, and produced by Peter Jackson and Carolynne Cunningham. It is a co-production of New Zealand ...

'' (2009). Strike has had roles on television shows like ''

Those Who Can't ''Those Who Can't'' is an American sitcom that aired on truTV. The series revolves around a group of teachers at a fictional high school in Denver, Colorado. It premiered February 11, 2016, and ran for three seasons before being canceled on April ...

,'' '' Black Sails'', '' Mad Dogs'', and ''

The Hot Zone ''The Hot Zone: A Terrifying True Story'' is a best-selling 1994 nonfiction thriller by Richard Preston about the origins and incidents involving viral hemorrhagic fevers, particularly ebolaviruses and marburgviruses. The basis of the book ...

''.

Awards

Strike was awarded the Rosalie van den Gucht Best New Director in 2004. In 2006, Strike was awarded the Standard Bank Young Artist Award for Drama. In 2010, she was one of twenty-five nominees for the Rolex Mentor Protégé Arts Initiative. Strike won the Fleur du Cap Best Director Theatre Award for her acclaimed production of Samuel Beckett's Endgame for the Baxter Theatre Centre, Cape Town. Endgame was also awarded Best Production and Best Actor. As a performer Strike has won the Naledi Best Actress Award 2004 and 2006 for her roles in ''Black and Blue'' and ''Coupé''. She has further been nominated in the Best Director category at the Naledi, Fleur du Cap and Woordfees Awards 2016 for her direction of the critically acclaimed plays ''Tobacco'' and ''Dop''. ''The Miser'' won her the Naledi Best Director Award 2012 and Best Production of a Play 2012. ''Strike's

'' in 2018 was awarded best supporting actress for Khutjo Green, best ensemble award and best costume design in the Naledi awards. In 2011, Strike's production of ''Butcher Brothers'' was awarded the Naledi Award for Best-Cutting Edge Production. In 2014, Strike was recognized as the Featured Artist at the

National Arts Festival The National Arts Festival (NAF) is an annual festival of performing arts in Makhanda, South Africa. It is the largest arts festival on the African continent and one of the largest performing arts festivals in the world by visitor numbers. The ...

in South Africa. As featured artist, Strike worked with the arts festival committee to create a

retrospective A retrospective (from Latin ', "look back"), generally, is a look back at events that took place, or works that were produced, in the past. As a noun, ''retrospective'' has specific meanings in software development, popular culture, and the arts. ...

of her work. Strike was awarded a 2017 SAFTA in the category Best Supporting Actress - TV Comedy for her work on the show ''

''. Strike was nominated for a Kanna Award for her direction of ''DOP'' in 2017. Strike was awarded the

in 2018 for her contribution to the

performing arts The performing arts are arts such as music, dance, and drama which are performed for an audience. They are different from the visual arts, which involve the use of paint, canvas or various materials to create physical or static art objects. P ...

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Strike, Sylvaine Living people White South African people Year of birth missing (living people) South African actresses South African expatriates in France Artistic directors South African women theatre directors South African theatre directors Chevaliers of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres