The Guild Theatre

Community Theatre based in Rockdale, Sydney

Greg Kenyon

Community theatre can be like a family. For Greg it started in Bankstown with his brother in the chorus of Hello Dolly. The resident Director at the time was the renowned producer and theatre educator Edith Paull, who produced dramas, comedies, musicals, theatre restaurants and pantomime and she established a great training ground for actors of all ages. Ms Paull cast Greg in his first principal role, a Christmas pantomime of Cinderella and serendipitously he met the woman who would become his wife, Glenda Wilkes. As it turned out Glenda was Edith Paull’s daughter, so Greg says ‘she came to the altar with great credentials.’
Greg has made himself known in a number of companies around Sydney. In the 1980’s Greg diversified into light operettas, working with Robert Broadley of the Strathfield Light Opera Company. Greg had his break-out role there as D’Artagnan in The Three Musketeers, followed by titular roles in The Chocolate Soldier, The Vagabond King, and a couple of productions as Billy Bigelow in Carousel. Then followed Miranda Musical Society under the direction of the beloved Allan Mundy OA, with Greg starring in, again, the titular role in the Australian community theatre premiere of Barnum. He stayed at Miranda for Damn Yankees and 42 nd Street. The Illawarra Guild in Wollongong’s Performing Arts Centre beckoned under the leadership of the distinguished Bob Peet Esq.

Always happy to return to a good role, Greg has relished playing the Pirate King in The Pirates of Penzance four times and Danilo in three productions of The Merry Widow, Captain Von Trapp twice in The Sound of Music, and twice appeared as Fred Graham in Kiss Me Kate, the last being for Regals Musical Society. Greg has also appeared as Prof Harold Hill in two productions of The Music Man. Greg’s other favourite roles have been Atticus Finch in To Kill a Mockingbird, Javert in Les
Miserables, John Wilkes Booth in Stephen Sondheim’s Assassins, and as Don Quixote in two productions of Man of La Mancha.

So after a long traineeship in musicals, comedy and drama, Greg finally got to join The Guild Theatre Rockdale when Jim Farrow cast Greg and Glenda in a production of Funny Money. In 2006 Greg and Jim’s son, Nathan, performed together in The Woman in Black but from 2007 to 2010 Community theatre had to take a back seat, as Greg’s work required him in Melbourne for over 3 years. Although he flew back for every rehearsal for The Guild’s The Wisdom of Eve. Greg’s last appearance on stage at The Guild was the ethereal role of John Barrymore in I Hate Hamlet, although he did support his wife Glenda by playing a disembodied voice from the lighting box in Looped.

Greg and Glenda have 4 children, Dan, Lauren, Lesley and Jordan, all of whom have picked up Community Theatre as a family passion. Greg Kenyon is currently the President of The Guild Theatre.

 

‘Community theatre is a lifestyle… It’s a lifestyle about contributing to the community that we’re in.’ – Greg Kenyon

 

CREDITS

At The Guild

Previous Roles:

Sir David Metcalf QC in Beyond Reasonable Doubt  |  David O. Selznick in Moonlight & Magnolias  |  Elyot in Private Lives   |  Arthur Kipps in Woman in Black  |  Richard Willey in Out of Order  |  Lloyd Roberts in Wisdom of Eve   |  John Wheeler in Night Watch  |  John Barrymore in I Hate Hamlet!  |  Steve in Looped

Other Companies

Previous Roles:

Don Quixote in Man of La Mancha  x 2  |  D’Artagnan in The Three Musketeers   |   Pirate King in Pirates of Penzance  x 4  |  Danilo in The Merry Widow x 3   |  Atticus Finch in To Kill a Mockingbird  |  Fred Graham in Kiss Me Kate x 2