Barbara Rita Barbieri

Barbara Barbieri was born in Cape Town, with a dream of pursuing Musical Theatre. At the age of four, she took up ballet which would help her in establishing a career in show business, only to learn that there were no institutions in Cape Town which governed this passion. This was not going to stop her; she studied singing, everything from light music to opera which would help in giving her voice a flexible range. She then too discovered a love for acting – predominantly film acting. She literally became obsessed with this genre and spent her school years taking part in every type of production possible whether musical theatre or theatre. Naturally after school she went to City Varsity to study ‘Acting for the Camera’ with Aletta Bezuidenhoudt (South African Actress), Tony Perris (Warner Brothers Scholar and Director) and Gerard Rudolph (South African Actor), because this, she thought would bring her closer to her dream. However, she found that film; being only 100 years old and mostly being derived of the stories from existing plays, prompted her to want to learn more – also realizing that most big movie stars today had studied theatre first and then gravitated towards movies.

This led her to study at the Waterfront Theatre College, studying Theatrical Performance Drama and Teaching, under Ralph Lawson and Musical Theatre Performance and Teaching, under Barry Prince, in which she attained the highest level of Trinity of London Guildhall qualifications: L.T.C.L Performing and Teaching in Drama and Musical theatre; (4 qualifications in total) which in South Africa is equivalent to a B.A of Arts and Teaching in University. She found that by acquiring overseas qualifications this would benefit her work opportunities when working around the world.

She has worked at various establishments: Waterfront Theatre College, North link College, and Faces4Film Casting Agency in order to gain experience which would enhance her teaching and performing career, however, this opened her eyes to the lack of tuition regarding the performing arts and film and gave her the idea of taking everything she had studied and the experience she had acquired to develop courses which would enhance and cater for the most important aspects in performing arts today, regarding film and theatre. She has also worked extensively in correcting speech impediments and catering for the Trans gender community, an area in which she has had great success. This is how Biebie Productions was established.