Renos Spanoudes is an internationally acclaimed actor, director, playwright, radio presenter, voice-over artist, and television presenter and has been the head of the dramatic arts department at King David Victory Park since 2003.
He recently performed in a solo performance at the Market Theatre titled Strange Lands which tells the story about the man who assassinated Prime Minister Hendrik Verwoerd in 1966.
Spanoudes holds a bachelor of arts in education, a bachelor of arts with honours and a master’s degree from Wits University. “I have been teaching at King David Victory Park since 2002. I started teaching the English, mathematics and geography subject. I started teaching dramatic arts in 2003 and now head subject, I am proud that we have submitted four plays at the current Feda festival.”
His love for acting came in his early years of primary school. Spanoudes said he always knew that acting was his calling or at least one of the things he was good at and born to do.
His advice to young talent? “Keep honing your craft, tell your stories, be aware that you have to be able to do everything – write, act, sing, dance, direct, design. You have to have thick skin, faith and passion. Listen to your inner voice and put in the work.
“Remember it takes a long, long time and the road is not straight and also ensure that you take notes from people who offer themselves with your best interests at heart. Learn as much as you can all the time; see shows good and bad and put yourself out there.”
The solo piece Strange Land was written by Rhodes University professor Anton Krueger, about Dimitri Tsafendas the man who assassinated Dr. Hendrik Frensch Verwoerd, the architect of apartheid in the houses of parliament in Cape Town in 1966 at the Market Theatre. “We had a theatre company called Imaginary Phase back then and we produced the original version of the piece in the year 2001 at Lynne Maree’s Kultcha Klub at Wits University. This first incarnation of the play was based on Henk van Wouden’s book, A mouthful of glass and Liza Key’s documentary entitled A question of madness. This play was commissioned by James Ngcobo of the Market Theatre, for this year of the elections and was required to include the latest research and evidence about Dimitri Tsafendas as recorded in a newly released book entitled The man who killed apartheid, written by Harris Dousemetzis.”
“My proudest moment in this field was performing, after 59 years on the stage of the Barney Simon’s The Market Theatre, in a sold-out nightly standing ovation solo show and performing my self-written piece about the Greeks in the diaspora, Broken Plates, in memory of my dearly beloved parents Eleni and Nicolaos Spanoudes at Daphne Kuhn’s Auto and General Theatre at the Nelson Mandela Square.
“All my life really, what can I say, even teaching and lecturing – that’s acting too right?”
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