Sizwe Bansi Is Dead (Author Biography)

Author Biography

Fugard was born in Middleburg, Cape Province, South Africa, on June 11, 1932. When Fugard was three years old his family moved to the diverse city of Port Elizabeth. Growing up, Fugard was keenly aware of the racial divisions in the city and their economic and social consequences. Fugard attended the University of Cape Town on a scholarship, where he studied philosophy and social anthropology. In the middle of his senior year, he dropped out of college and became a sailor. Fugard was the only white crew member on the ship for two years, an experience that eliminated his racial prejudice.

When he returned to South Africa in 1956, he met and married Sheila Meiring, an actress. Fugard wanted to be a novelist — indeed he finished a manuscript — but watching his wife audition for plays, Fugard became interested in the theater too. They formed the Circle Players in Johannesburg.

In 1958 he took a job as a clerk with a local court to support his family. There, Fugard saw racial injustice firsthand. He also became friends with black people and saw their living conditions. This experience inspired his first play, No-Good Friday, which was performed privately for white audiences. In 1959 he and his wife went to London to gain more theatrical experience. Within a year, they returned to South Africa and he wrote the first of his so-called “Port Elizabeth plays,” The Blood Knot.

In 1962 five Xhosa tribesmen approached Fugard wanting to start a theater company. After some initial reluctance, Fugard formed the Serpent Company, which became the first successful nonwhite theater company in South Africa. On account of this success, several members of the company were arrested. In 1967 Fugard’s passport was withdrawn by the South African government (it was returned in 1971), yet he continued to write plays exploring the implications of apartheid in South Africa.

During this time period, Fugard wrote his most successful play, Boesman and Lena(1960). Performed both Off-Broadway and in London, the play garnered international praise. In the early 1970s Fugard experimented with developing scripts in improvisational theater format. The best-known result was Siswe Bansi is Dead(1972).

In the early 1980s Fugard became associated with the Yale School of Drama, which hosted the first production of Master Harold and the Boys. Widely acclaimed, this play was representative of Fugard’s autobiographical period, which continued into the 1990s. In 1999, Fugard wrote The Captain’s Tiger, which explores some of his early writing experiences. Today, he splits his time between the United States and South Africa.