Rhoda Mary Felgate (1901 – 1990) was an

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

n speech and drama teacher and theatre director. She founded the Twelfth Night Theatre in Brisbane in 1936.

Life

Felgate was born in

Stoke Newington Stoke Newington is an area occupying the north-west part of the London Borough of Hackney in north-east London, England. It is northeast of Charing Cross. The Manor of Stoke Newington gave its name to Stoke Newington the ancient parish. The ...

in 1901. Her parents were Alice Maude (born Willson) and her husband Gordon Felgate and they emigrated to Australia while she was still a baby. Her father travelled as a company representative. They made their home in Brisbane in 1910 where she attended Brisbane Girls Grammar School. The Twelfth Night Players was an amateur group founded by Felgate. It was named "Twelfth Night" because it intended to perform of the twelfth night of every month. Felgate had directed many plays for the Brisbane Repertory Theatre Society. A society that was for advanced performers. Felgate believed that, with her teaching skills, she could found a new company for improving amateurs who would perform important plays. When it started performing, the company consisted of only a dozen or more amateur actors. The Twelfth Night company first performed in March 1936 at the Empire Chambers. In the first three years of the company, it staged 21 different plays including works by the British playwrights J. M. Barrie, A. A. Milne and J. B. Priestley. Felgate travelled abroad in 1939 and in 1947. In the 1940s Twelfth Night Theatre performed many plays new to Australia which Felgate was able to source including John Van Druten's '' I Remember Mama'', Shaw's 1939 play

In Good King Charles's Golden Days ''In Good King Charles's Golden Days'' is a play by George Bernard Shaw, subtitled ''A True History that Never Happened''. It was written in 1938-39 as an "educational history film" for film director Gabriel Pascal in the aftermath of '' Pygmalio ...

, Krasna's 1944 play Dear Ruth and the eponymous Gas Light. Twelfth_Night_Theatre

In 1948 the company found its first location in a large building on

Wickham Terrace Wickham Terrace is one of the historic streets of Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. It is known as the street of private medical specialists. Geography Wickham Terrace commences at the western corner of the intersection of Ann Street and Whar ...

where it occupied two floors; the upper for play rehearsal and the lower for teaching. In 1955, Felgate became a

Member of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding contributions to the arts and sciences, work with charitable and welfare organisations, and public service outside the civil service. It was established o ...

. In the following year the company obtained a church hall on Wickham Terrace named ''Gowrie Hall'' which became their small theatre. Felgate appeared in another showing of ''I Remember Mama'' before retiring from the company in 1962. She continued her association as its Patron while Joan Whalley took over as the artistic director of Twelfth Night Theatre. Felgate died in 1990 in Auchenflower, Queensland.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Felgate, Rhoda Mary 1901 births 1990 deaths People from Stoke Newington Australian actors Theatre directors People from Brisbane Drama teachers Australian Members of the Order of the British Empire