Theatre Benevolent Fund

BACKGROUND INFORMATION
1962-2001

Director, Leonard Sachs's humanitarian gesture in 1962 in donating a performance of his production, "Beyond the Fringe" at The Playhouse for cancer sufferer Cape Town actor, David Beattie, was the humble beginnings of a trust for performers to be named Actors Benevolent Fund.

Although growing slowly under the Chairmanship of today's Deputy Editor of the Financial Mail, Michael Coulson and renowned lover of the arts, the late Breytie Breytenbach, the fund was through the 60's and 70's still able to support in crisis times performers who needed help.

The decision by the board in the 80's to produce a block of flats in Berea for R40 000,00 and sell ten years later for R300 000,00, was the financial hindsight of Chairman Eghard van der Hoven. A second major windfall in the 90's to substantially boost the fund was from a supporter of the performers of the arts in the form of an inheritance of a house in Pretoria that sold for R330 000,00.

Under the chairmanship of Carel Trichardt and its longest serving and current Chairman, Eghard van der Hoven, the fund has managed to survive and grow. This in an industry which by its own acknowledgement is not only suffering badly but has a workforce earning less annually and gradually decreasing in numbers.

Performers who have served the public proudly over the years deserve better, so input and innovative thoughts from T.M.S.A. members and producers and support from the entertainment loving public, is not only critical to its survival, but equally reflects a show of support for the artists long after the applause and encores have faded away into a distant memory.

For more information on the Theatre Benevolent Fund:

Chairman: L van Niekerk - lovn@mweb.co.za - cell: 082 555 4645
Vice Chairman: B Snow - kapok@worldonline.co.za - cell: 082 875 8349
Financial: H v d Hoven - hendrik7@live.co.za - cell: 082 855 4355
Secretary: Jeanette Bradley - wisegals@mailbox.co.za - cell: 082 346 9552

Background Members Financial Support

Apart from medical, funeral, grocery and general expenses covered by the Fund as per letters of request, Theatre Benevolent Fund on a monthly basis looks after approximately fourteen people.

There is no financial disparity between the various recipients who are paid between R600 to R1000,00 each, which in some cases, is all they are receiving to pay rent, groceries, medicine and sundry items.



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