Sally McKenzie
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Sally McKenzie | |
|---|---|
| Born | 8 February 1955 Sydney, New South Wales, Australia |
| Alma mater | National Institute of Dramatic Art, Queensland University of Technology, Flinders University |
| Occupations |
|
| Years active | 1977–present |
| Children | 2 |
Sally McKenzie (born 8 February 1955) also credited as Sally MacKenzie, is an Australian actress, director, playwright and screenwriter. She graduated from Australia's National Institute of Dramatic Art in 1977.[1] She was awarded a Master of Fine Arts from the Queensland University of Technology in 1996.[2]
Early life and education
[edit]Sally May McKenzie was born on 8 February 1955 in Lindfield a suburb of Sydney. McKenzie grew up in South Australia. From the age of 11 she took drama classes run by Morna Jones[3] who established the Patch Theatre. During her teenage years McKenzie performed with the Pioneer Players, the Arts Theatre, Theatre 62 and the Bunyip Children's Theatre. She began an arts degree at Flinders University but only completed 2 years[4] before moving to Sydney to study acting at the National Institute of Dramatic Art (NIDA)[5].
Career
[edit]McKenzie graduated from NIDA in 1977.[6] In 1978 McKenzie performed under the direction of Peter Schumann with the Bread & Puppet Theater at the Adelaide Festival and understudied all the female roles for the Queensland Theatre Company (QTC) touring production of King Lear in which Warren Mitchell played Lear and Geoffrey Rush played the Fool. In 1979 she was part of the Early Childhood Drama Project[7] the professional arm at La Boite Theatre Company where she performed in numerous productions including The Hills Family Show.[8]
In 1980 McKenzie was a member of the TN! Theatre Company inaugural ensemble performing Jenny Diver in The Threepenny Opera under the baton of Georg Tintner. In 1981 she played Lavinia Mannon in Mourning Becomes Electra for QTC a role she reprised for the Melbourne Theatre Company (MTC) directed by Michael Blakemore.
Several productions with MTC followed including the title role in The Good Person of Szechwan by Bertolt Brecht and the role of Beatrice-Joanna in The Changeling under the direction of John Sumner. She performed in the Australian premiere of Top Girls by Caryl Churchill with the Nimrod Theatre Company in Sydney. During this time under the direction of Bud Tingwell, McKenzie played Lynn in a 2-hour 500th special episode of Cop Shop for which she won a 1983 Penguin Award[9] for Best Single Performance by an Actress in a Serial.
In 1985 McKenzie played the role of Lady Macbeth for the QTC. She appeared in 20 productions for this company including several premiere productions of plays by David Williamson under the direction of Aubrey Mellor. McKenzie returned to study in 1995 and was awarded a Master of Fine Arts in 1996.
As a playwright McKenzie's plays include Scattered Lives, Martha's War on War, i dot luv dot u☺ and WAY. A review of WAY in Stage Whispers said: "Sally McKenzie grips the audience's attention for a complex seventy-five minutes with an astonishing sustained theatre performance. If you love theatre, see this".[10]
As a screenwriter and director works include documentary Actingclassof1977.com which looks at actor training in Australia in the late 1970s.[11] The film features Steve Bisley, Mel Gibson and Debra Lawrance and first aired on the ABC in June 2008.[12] McKenzie won an Australian Writers' Guild AWGIE Award for Best Documentary Public Broadcast in 2014.[13]
In 2019 McKenzie was awarded a Winston Churchill Memorial Trusts Fellowship Medal for her research and subsequent paper 'Developing Australian Playwrights and their Plays'. For this paper she interviewed writers for both screen and stage living in the United States of America, Canada and the United Kingdom. The interviewees included Tony Kushner, Christopher Hampton, David Henry Hwang, Mike Leigh, Robert Lepage, David Lindsay-Abaire, Hannah Moscovitch, Judith Thompson and Enda Walsh.[14]
Filmography
[edit]Film
[edit]| Title | Year | Role | Type |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cathy's Child | 1979 | Young Nun | Feature film |
| We of the Never Never | 1982 | Carrie | Feature film |
| Undercover | 1983 | Shop Assistant | Feature film |
| The Schippan Mystery | 1984 | Mary Schippan | TV film |
| Tripe | 1985 | Aunt Esme | Short film |
| Sharkey's Party | 1986 | Penny | Short film |
| With Love to the Person Next to Me | 1987 | Gail | Feature film |
| The Lonely Ones | 1988 | Mother | Short film |
| Redheads | 1994 | Warden Zelda | Feature film |
| Mermaids | 2003 | Georgia | TV film |
| Sniffer | 2003 | Aunt Magda | Short film |
| The Diamond Cutter | 2003 | Zelma (voice) | TV film |
| actingclassof1977.com | 2008 | Herself | TV film |
| Storage | 2009 | Carol | Feature film |
| Jucy | 2010 | Ros | Feature film |
| The Day After Today | 2014 | Angela | Short film |
Television
[edit]| Title | Year | Role | Type |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cop Shop | 1983 | Lynn | TV series, 2 hour special |
| Carson's Law | 1983-84 | Emily Forrest | TV series |
| Special Squad | 1984 | Rosetta | TV series |
| Mother and Son | 1985 | Sergeant Watts | TV series |
| Prisoner | 1986 | Roo Morgan | TV series |
| Rafferty's Rules | 1987 | Constable Prior | TV series |
| A Country Practice | 1988 | Phyllis Greenway | TV series |
| The Leaving of Liverpool | 1993 | Official Woman | TV series |
| The Flying Doctors | 1995 | Patsy Goldfisch | TV series |
| Fire | 1995 | Fai Alicis | TV series |
| The Wayne Manifesto | 1996-97 | Ms Cunningham | TV series |
| Fat Cow Motel | 2003 | Eleanor Rigby | TV miniseries |
| Mortified | 2006-07 | Mystic Marj | TV series |
| Reef Doctors | 2013 | Gracie | TV series |
| Harrow | 2019 | Beverly McIntyre | TV series |
| Fires | 2021 | Dell | TV series |
| Apple Cider Vinegar | 2025 | Amy | TV series |
Theatre
[edit]References
[edit]- ^ "doollee.com - the playwrights database of modern plays". www.doollee.com. Retrieved 28 December 2018.
- ^ Lives, Scattered. "Scattered Lives". Scattered Lives.
- ^ "Biographical cuttings on Morna Jones, founder of the Little Patch Theatre, containing one or more cuttings from newspapers or journals".
- ^ "Flinders Drama Centre Graduates".
- ^ "NIDA - All alumni".
- ^ "NIDA - All alumni".
- ^ "The Early Childhood Drama Project (ECDP) 197582".
- ^ "The Hills Family Show".
- ^ "Penguin Award".
- ^ "Stage Whispers, Way".
- ^ Murray, Elicia; Maddox, Garry (15 May 2008). "Mel opens up, but ever so fleetingly". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 15 May 2008.
- ^ Actingclassof1977.com, retrieved 28 December 2018
- ^ "47th Annual AWGIE Awards Winners Announced". 8 September 2014. Retrieved 1 August 2023.
- ^ "Churchill Trust – Sally McKenzie – QLD 2017".
- ^ "AusStage – Sally McKenzie". Retrieved 1 August 2023.
External links
[edit]- Sally McKenzie at IMDb
- [1] Sally McKenzie Austage
- Living people
- National Institute of Dramatic Art alumni
- 20th-century Australian actresses
- 21st-century Australian actresses
- 21st-century Australian dramatists and playwrights
- Australian television actresses
- Australian stage actresses
- Australian women dramatists and playwrights
- 21st-century Australian women writers
- 1955 births