Leonard Schach: A Portrait of a Bold Director Between Cape Town and Tel Aviv
- גור זיו
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The eve of Yom Kippur is a time for soul-searching, a moment when personal and collective memory converge. At this particular time, I feel a personal duty to correct a small oversight and to tell the story of Leonard Schach. In my childhood, 'Lennie' wasn't a renowned theater director. He was simply part of the family. As a close friend of my grandfather Bernie and grandmother Kalma, who, like him, made the journey from South Africa to Israel around the same years (and for the same reasons), his presence in our lives was so natural and constant that it took me years to understand he wasn't an uncle of one degree or another, but rather that close and colorful family friend who becomes an inseparable part of your identity.
I am publishing his story from a place of personal responsibility and longing. Yom Kippur reminds me of the duty of remembrance, especially for those whose stories are at risk of disappearing. People like him—creators who were prolific before the internet era—are gradually vanishing from the pages of history. Leonard, who never married, also had no children to ensure his legacy would not be forgotten. Symbolically enough, the first thing Leonard demanded when he first landed in Israel, two hours before the start of Yom Kippur, was to find a synagogue. This article is my small "correction" (Tikkun), an attempt to restore him to our communal memory, just as he sought to be a part of it on that holy evening many years ago, and to sketch a portrait of an extraordinary artist and a brave, dear man who connected worlds.
Leonard Schach was a South African Jewish theater director, born in Cape Town in 1918 to a Jewish family of Lithuanian descent. His path to the stage was not planned; he served in the South African Navy during World War II, but during his university studies, he discovered a fervent passion for the world of theater and served as president of the student theater society. From there, he began to accumulate experience in amateur directing, which soon blossomed into a magnificent international career.
Upon his return to South Africa after the war, Schach founded the Cockpit Players, a troupe that quickly evolved into Leonard Schach Productions and became known as one of the most innovative and influential companies in the country. In the years that followed, he directed more than two hundred productions, introducing South African audiences to a rich global repertoire - from Tennessee Williams and Lorca, to Ben Jonson and Beckett, and contemporary plays like Arthur Miller's "After the Fall". He was one of the first to bring Beckett's "Waiting for Godot" to South Africa, a landmark production that proved the local audience was ready to engage with modern and daring theater.
From the beginning of his career in South Africa, Schach was known as a sharp, intellectual, and bold theatrical voice who pushed the local establishment toward modern theater. He was involved in building a modern repertoire, promoted international collaborations, and was an active member of the International Theatre Institute (ITI). An extensive collection of documents on his work is now preserved in the National Library of South Africa (NLSA), testifying to the scope of his activities: production contracts, correspondence with institutions, programs, photographs, and more.
Schach's work in South Africa took place in the shadow of the racist policies of the apartheid regime, which imposed severe restrictions on freedom of expression and creation. Theaters, like all public spaces, were subject to racial segregation. Schach operated within this reality as a liberal and an opponent of the regime. He was not content with merely choosing a modern repertoire; he also fought against censorship and tried to challenge the laws of segregation. A prime example of this was the establishment of the i-Theatre (International Theatre), a project designed to present plays to mixed audiences, in defiance of the law. Although the initiative faced difficulties from the authorities, it marked Schach as one of the prominent voices in the artistic community who opposed the regime. His audacity was not only artistic but also political and moral, making him an admired figure in liberal circles but also a target for the conservative establishment.
Schach was not only a director; he was also a key figure in establishing cultural institutions. Commissioned by the South African Ministry of Education in the 1940s, he conducted a global survey on theater architecture, which paved the way for the founding of the country's first national body for the performing arts - the National Theatre Organisation. Alongside this, he was active in the private sector, co-founding the "Company of Four", a theater group known for its meticulous productions and international style.
In his artistic approach, Schach combined meticulous realism with a consistent attraction to modernist dramas. He was known for developing actors through disciplined table-reads and psychological character work, while simultaneously pursuing a clean and precisely defined stage pace. In South Africa, he was also noted for his exceptional openness to including Black actors under apartheid conditions - a rare step at the time, which aligned with his vision of the theater as a moral space.
Schach's decision to immigrate (make Aliyah) to Israel in 1965 was not accidental. It stemmed from a combination of deep disappointment with the political and social situation in South Africa and a profound sense of belonging to the State of Israel. After the Sharpeville massacre in 1960 and the tightening of apartheid policies, the cultural climate became oppressive and dangerous for creators with a conscience. Schach, feeling that the opportunities for free creation were diminishing, saw Israel not only as a spiritual homeland but also as a vibrant and developing theatrical space where he could continue his artistic vision without the shackles of racist censorship. He arrived in Israel not as a destitute immigrant but as a world-renowned director with a rich 'toolbox' and an international network of contacts.
Upon his arrival in Israel, Schach brought with him the international theatrical language he had acquired in South Africa, giving Israeli theater a touch of a different modernist spirit. He quickly became a sought-after director at the Habima and Cameri theaters, among others. His early successes here include productions of Harold Pinter's "The Birthday Party" and Arthur Miller's "After the Fall", which showcased his attraction to modern theatrical language and his commitment to texts demanding precision in acting and ensemble work. He went on to direct a long series of hits and a repertoire that "spoke" to the Israeli audiences of the late 1960s and 70s, including modern comedies alongside social dramas. The Habima archives document a respectable list of his productions, including "Butterflies Are Free", "Dreyfus", and "A Walk in the Woods" (in addition to his work on other stages).
Besides straight drama, Schach also worked on opera and concert-opera productions with the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra and the Chamber Opera - another indication of his broad artistic range. He trained a generation of Israeli actors and directors in meticulous textual work and rehearsal discipline, and within a few years, became one of the figures identified with the Israeli theater's transition to a more contemporary language, influenced by modern Anglo-American playwriting.
His legacy in Israel is measured not only by the list of plays he directed but also by his profound influence on an entire generation of actors. He brought new standards of work to Israel, which included long, in-depth 'table' rehearsals and psychological analysis of the text. Leading Israeli actors, including Gila Almagor, Yossi Banai, and Lia Koenig, worked under his direction and learned from him the importance of precision, discipline, and respect for the written word. He was considered an "actors' director", who knew how to lead them to new places and demanded their full intellectual and emotional commitment. In doing so, he helped shape the modern Israeli actor.
The move from South Africa to Israel was not just geographical but also cultural. Schach came from a country where he had to contend with the political and social limitations of the apartheid regime to a young state seeking to build its cultural institutions. Here he found fertile ground to continue his work, though he also encountered criticism: some felt his style was "too European", not always adapted to the spirit of the local audience. Nevertheless, his contribution was significant - he was among those who brought modern and challenging repertoire to Israel and expanded the boundaries of the local theater.
In South Africa, his name is remembered in local historiography as someone who helped build a cultural "bridge" between the British theater world and the scenes in Cape Town and Johannesburg. South African databases (like ESAT and national collections) list him among the most influential directors of the second half of the 20th century. Despite his considerable contribution, his story has been sparsely documented in Hebrew outside of Wikipedia, theater archives, and the memories of his contemporaries. It is the South African material that helps complete the story and place him within the theater history of two nations. For theater scholars, Schach's journey clearly demonstrates how an immigrant-artist carries with them a professional "toolbox," a network of contacts, and an aesthetic taste, and implants them in the companies and institutions of a host country - in this case, Israel during its golden age of repertory theater in the 1960s–70s.
His life and work are chronicled in the book "Stage by Stage: The Leonard Schach Story" by Donald Inskip, published in 1977. Schach's work received official and international recognition in the form of numerous awards. Among others, he was awarded the Queen Elizabeth II Coronation Medal for his services to the theater (1953), the Brussels Theatre Critics' Award for directing 'After the Fall' (1966), the Kinor David (David's Harp) Award for Director of the Year in Israel for 'The Birthday Party' (1968), and the South African Breytenbach Award for Director of the Year for 'Equus' (1976). He was also named a Freeman of the City of Cape Town. In 1989, he won the Fleur du Cap Lifetime Achievement Award and established the "Leonard Schach Foundation for Theatre Productions - South Africa and Israel", which continues his legacy.
In retrospect, the story of Leonard Schach is a story of an artist who lived and worked in two worlds, making a crucial contribution to each. In South Africa, he was a pioneer who broke new ground for global repertoire and confronted walls of racism and oppression. In Israel, he was a polished professional who brought an international spirit and new standards of work to a theater still in its formative stages. He was not 'Israeli' in the Sabra sense of the word, nor was he a typical 'South African'. He was a man of the theater in the broadest and most universal sense - an artist who believed that the stage is an arena for human, intellectual, and moral encounter, transcending borders and cultures. Leonard Schach passed away in 1996, but he left behind a rich legacy of plays, students, and actors who were nurtured by him, and above all, a firm belief in the power of the stage to touch, challenge, and open new worlds to people.
To add a personal and vivid dimension to Schach's character, here is a translation of a rare interview conducted with him in 1989 for Telfed magazine:
Leonard Schach Celebrates Two Anniversaries Leonard Schach, the South African born theater director, is in the news again marking a jubilee of his journey in international theater and his 25th year in Israel. To mark these two occasions he has a two-stage experiment - in January 1990 he is going to stage two productions, one in Hebrew and one in English, of Lee Blessing's play "A Walk in the Woods", at the same time in Israel, one at the Cameri and the other at Beit Lessin. "A thing like this has never been done, and the experiment has stimulated worldwide attention", he said. The second stage of the experiment is that the Habimah will send Shlomo Bar-Shavit and Alex Peleg will go to South Africa to appear in the Hebrew version of the play concurrently with Schach's own production in Johannesburg and Cape Town. "I'm the only director staging the same production in two languages in two countries at the same time". Telfed spoke to Leonard Schach. The time spent with him was a theatrical event in itself. Leonard was brought to Israel in 1964 by the Cameri Theatre to direct Arthur Miller's "After the Fall". He arrived in Tel Aviv two hours before Yom Kippur and he immediately demanded a synagogue. Four actors, Oded Teomi, Gila Almagor, Yossi Banai and a fourth actor he met told him they didn't even know where a synagogue was. "You can't be serious?" It turned out there was no synagogue in the area. Eventually he found one, but without a seat for him. He found a chair ten minutes before the fast started. Still, the production of the play was "a spectacular success." For the next 25 years he worked in Hebrew and English and taught the Israelis English. He never had time to learn Hebrew properly. "Israelis speak so badly. It makes it difficult to understand and learn". For the Hebrew production of "Walk in the Woods," the star Bar-Shavit, an ardent nationalist, refused to speak English. Leonard, not knowing Hebrew, directed the production in Hebrew with the help of his synagogue friends in Jaffa translating the English text into Hebrew for him. It was the first time that Leonard had a Hebrew text translated with the help of the peripatetic rebbe to teach him and his brother Sidney to read and write. His mother, an intellectual, replaced the rebbe with an atheist from a kibbutz who taught them to write. Leonard graduated in law from the University of Cape Town and served in the South African navy during World War II. He practiced law for six months and divorced 72 couples! In 1947 he was asked to direct a play for the royal family's visit to South Africa. As a result he was asked to do a survey on establishing a national theater for South Africa. He was sent to Europe and America. He met Tennessee Williams and secured the rights for "The Glass Menagerie", the first production outside New York. It was billed to run for three days at the Little Theatre (then with 250 seats). The production was so successful that the run was extended to seven days - and he had to get the actors back from a mid-run from Tanganyika! Leonard can still hear his mother's calls to watch his career. She would say every day: "You're a lawyer, not a theater director. You're a silly boy". She said if he had three flops in a row he should go back to law. "I've had more than three flops but not in a row, so I'm still in the theater". Leonard worked on a film in Greece but he disliked the artificiality of the media. He directed opera in Italy, produced plays in Brussels' Royal Theatre and directed plays in France. His anecdotal stories are many and surprising - he used to be a helpless stutterer. The cure for the stutter? He tells the story of how he got a letter one day when he was doing his national survey on the theater, requiring him to address a meeting of 6,000 students. He was expected to give a five minute address on his findings. The traumatic shock of facing this audience cured the stutter and he spoke fluently for twenty minutes! His first introduction to theater was through elocution lessons to try to overcome the stutter. Theatrical passion was kindled by the weekly visits to the old opera house in Cape Town with his mother. She wrote letters to the school to let him off early for the occasion. He never thought of being an actor. Referring to the theatrical career highlights of his illustrious career in Israel and South Africa, he mentions the opera production "Masada" for the Israel Festival. (He is still annoyed that Golda and her Cabinet went that evening to hear the German Beethoven's symphony instead of the Masada opera). After the first performance Yigal Yadin said: "Today I have seen Masada for the first time". Of his South African achievements he mentions "Try for White". The play ran for three years, moved from Cape Town to Limpopo and changed casts four times. Leonard comes from a Zionist home. His father was a close friend of the great Zionist Jacob Gitlin and both his grandmother and mother were very involved in the "Daughters of Zion" in Cape Town. He belongs to Israel. His life in Israel is interesting. He finds through his work he comes into contact with a wide cross-section of people, each with his own national background and stories. But at the same time he feels he has a European background because he was brought up on European literature and through his wide travels. As he grows older he finds himself sharing memories with his South African friends. He is saddened that Israel today is not the country he dreamed of. "The official symbols are all wrong", he says. He hopes that the human texture of the younger generation will not be warped by the political strife in the country. Still he marvels at the achievements of the country. "Forty-one years - and it's really wonderful". He speaks very highly of Israeli theater, the actors and their "life-force", and the important vital audience participation. Leonard Schach lives in a house in Jaffa, surrounded by what seems like seventy synagogues. He spends his Yom Kippur day going from synagogue to synagogue.
Sources: Leonard Schach Collection
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