Life member interview: Keith Gledhill
- Andrea Staunton
- Jun 7
- 3 min read
Updated: Jun 8
Written by Grant Kennedy for Frankston Theatre Group’s Life Member Interview Series.
I enjoyed a chat today with Keith at Martha Cove, in amongst all the splendid boats moored at the marina there.
Going back to his beginnings, I heard how Keith was born in Halifax, West Yorkshire in 1952. He came to live in Australia when he was 7 years old in 1959 and started his life down under in Frankston. Keith attended Frankston High School and Davey Street State School.
He met Janet in 1970 and they were married in 1974 and lived in Frankston and had two children.
Keith joined the RAAF and was there for six years. He spent four years in Sydney and two years in Canada in 1992–93 as a radio technician. When he came back to Melbourne, he became a field engineer with AWA, a large electronic company. He was there for 12 years. From there, he became a computer and electronic engineering teacher with Box Hill TAFE. Keith retired in 2012.
Keith joined Frankston Theatre Group in 1983 and performed in Rinse the Blood off my Toga. He has taken on many roles with FTG and other theatre companies – from actor to director, musical director and also playing in various orchestras. He has also served on the FTG committee for several years, including terms as president.
Keith then explained why and when he took up his interest in the theatre. Keith said that, whilst at AWA, he was given a job one day to go to Channel 7 and the set of Cop Shop in South Melbourne. The police actors were supposed to be using computers but they didn't have anything on the screens, so Keith had to be there with a computer in the wings sending them words for their screens. It was there that he thought that acting looked like good fun.
So, when he got home, he looked up the White Pages telephone book, found FTG and ended speaking with Jayne Copeland who invited him to a workshop they were having the next evening!
When asked if there were any funny moments in his years with the theatre, Keith said in one play, Who Goes Bare, three different things went wrong. This play had a two-level set and Keith came out of a door upstairs with nothing on except skin-coloured jocks. He had to hold a framed picture in front of him covering his nether regions! He had to walk sideways along this balcony then suddenly dash back along the balcony to the door he had come out of. In his haste, he knocked the picture out of the frame and there he was, left holding the frame in front of himself with his manhood now nicely framed for all to see!
In the same play, he had to walk up and onto a step and his foot went right through the wood. The last thing in that same play was when he had to sit on Dan Ellis's lap and the chair collapsed under them, sending them all over the place. There is nothing like live theatre!
Some of the plays Keith has been involved with over recent years with FTG have been The Moustrap, Eric's Homecoming, A Sting in the Tale and Exit Laughing.
In the late '90s, Keith and the band in Dimboola received the 'Best Technical Achievement Award'.
Keith has also enjoyed working with the play A Slice of Saturday Night three times – in 1995, 1997 and 2023.
Keith has carried on with his acting abilities and had an agent for several years, picking up extras work for TV shows and commercials.
Comments