Athol Harold Lannigan Fugard was born June 11, 1932 in Middleburg South Africa. He then grew up in the southern coastal town of Port Elizabeth, raised by an Afrikaner mother (descended from white settlers) and an Irish father. At the University of Cape Town he studied Philosophy and Social Anthropology but dropped out to travel across Africa and work on a steamer ship until returning to Port Elizabeth in 1956 and marryingying  the actress Seila Meirning. Fugard wrote Klaas and the Devil for the Circle Theater, a group they founded together. Moving to Johannesburg, Athol worked for the Native Commissioner’s court, which dealt with alleged violations of Pass Laws for black persons and witnessed firsthand the injustices committed by European judges. He then worked as a stage manager for South Africa’s National Theatre Organization where he wrote Blood Knot in 1961 which earned him international recognition. It also earned the withdraw of his passport for 4 years. His support for the Anti Apartheid Movement’s Boycott of segregated theater audiences earned even more restricted movement and surveillance of his theater company by the secret police. Taking their name from their first venue, a former snake pit, the Serpent Players were Fugard’s second theater company. This one featured all black actors who all held regular jobs in addition to working on stage. Fugard has been regularly produced in western theater and in 1972 was allowed to fly to England to direct Boseman and Lena which he wrote in 1969. In the Early 90’s Apartheid was abolished and his plays became less political and more personal. In 1992 he directed his first movie The Road to Mecca which was an adaptation of his play written in 1984. IN 2010 the Fugard theatre in Cape Town was established in his honor. Fugard won a Lifetime Tony in 2011 and The Japan Art Association’s Premium Imperial Prize for Theatre/film, as well as many other awards and honors. 

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DESCRIPTION

 Athol Fugard is, if nothing else, provocative and outspoken. The Government of South Africa regarded him with suspicion. They would have treaded him much more harshly had he not been white. Due to his whiteness, he might not have had the true capacity to fully understand the daily realities of his black countrymen, but he did bear firsthand witness to the oppressiveness of his government.  Richard Ouzounian describes him as “compact, wiry with grizzled hair and beard cropped close. But the eyes still smolder, and the face is creased with a lifetime of feeling things deeply, then expressing them openly.” He says that Fugard is one to race through background facts quickly as he is not self important or pretentious. “’I’m not frightened of the word entertainment. I don't think anybody ever puts their bum down in a theatre seat unless they want to be entertained’” (Fugard qtd. in Ouzounian). He put his art above all else and thus believes himself to have lived selfishly, yet he loves his country deeply and believes in the best version of what his countrymen can be. "What kept me alive all these years in South Africa was being able to witness the magnificent powers of survival of the human spirit. "That is what I celebrate" (Fugard qtd. in Ouzounian).

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