Roger McKenzie

ROGER MCKENZIE – Rockdale Musical Society, ACT Inc & The Gold Coast Theatre Alliance.

roger-mckenzie

As a young adult Roger sang, acted, did costumes, marketing and occasionally directed, with the Rockdale Musical Society, then a one man outfit run by Winston Eldridge. Eventually Winston suggested that Roger take over. Roger organised a committee and ran RMS very successfully for many years.

In 1974 Roger McKenzie went to New Zealand where he met a some committee members of the New Zealand Federation of Operatic Societies. In the late 1980’s Roger decided that Australia needed an association like NZFOS (Now known as ‘Music Theatre New Zealand’).

He gathered a dozen societies together who formed a Steering Committee and after a few meetings they decided that the Kiwis had something worth investigating. Col Peet was elected President of the Steering Committee and Roger was elected Secretary.

In August of 1992 the NZFOS Committee came to Australia to address the meeting of Australians at the Arncliffe Senior Citizens Centre.

In 1993 the steering Committee called a General Meeting and elected our first committee thus the Association of Community Theatre was born. Col Peet was elected as CEO, Roger McKenzie elected Secretary.

Roger remained busily working in that position until he migrated to the Gold Coast.

Among the varied ways in which Roger had made a positive impact on the furtherance of community theatre on the Gold Coast is that he has been elected to many of the management committees and has been appointed in productive roles such as publicity, front of house, social convener and caterer.

Roger also gave service as a Director for several Shows; all of which, not coincidently, involved a strong presence of grass roots members on the stage. Under his Direction of the Broadway Musical “70 Girls 70” the combined cast age was one thousand and eighty seven years.

While on the Gold Coast, Roger has reviewed at least 200 live productions for Stage Whispers Magazine.

Roger’s beat covers from Beenleigh in Queensland to Ballina in NSW – requiring untold hours of travelling.

Additional information

 

Login