Theatrical pioneer

She attended Brisbane Girls Grammar School from 1915 to 1918, where she earned Honours in English and Gymnastics in her final year. After graduating, she worked as a typist at the Nestlé factory before returning to Girls Grammar to teach elocution from 1923 to 1948.

During her tenure, she produced numerous plays and fostered a love of theatre among many of her students. In 1925, while working at Girls Grammar, Rhoda became a founding member of the Brisbane Repertory Theatre Society, where she directed her first production.

Over the following decade, she directed an additional fourteen plays for the society. In 1928, she was honoured as a Fellow of Trinity College, London for Speech, becoming the first person from Brisbane to receive such recognition. By 1936, Rhoda had established her own speech and drama studio. Aiming to further support her pupils, she formed a new amateur theatre company dedicated to producing meaningful plays and improving the standard of acting. This led to the creation of the Twelfth Night Players and the Twelfth Night Theatre Company, named for their performances on the twelfth night of each month.

Rhoda enjoyed a successful and transformative 24 years as the Director of the Twelfth Night Theatre Company. She travelled overseas in 1939 and 1947 to study trends in stage production, securing the rights to perform many plays that had never before been staged in Brisbane.

Rhoda both acted and directed in various productions, earning widespread acclaim. From 1948 to 1975, she served as a senior speech examiner for the Queensland section of the Australian Music Examinations Board, planning theatre productions around her examination tours of rural areas and her teaching responsibilities.

A strong advocate for Australian playwrights, Rhoda produced numerous works by local authors. In 1958, she was awarded an MBE for her contributions to the theatre. After retiring from the Twelfth Night Theatre Company in 1962, Rhoda focused on advocacy work. She served as a Commissioner of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation from 1960 to 1972, where she actively promoted Australian television drama.

Rhoda continued to teach until the 1980s at her home in Kangaroo Point and became a life member of the Speech and Drama Teachers’ Association in recognition of her 50 years of teaching. She donated 70 books, which she referred to as her ‘friends,’ to the BGGS library on the craft of theatre.