Rodger McDonald – Founding Board Treasurer (retired)
Rodger McDonald, Founding Board Treasurer and current Advisory Committee member for Placer Repertory Theater, is a third-generation performer who hales originally from Los Angeles.
PERFORMING ARTS
Formerly the Project Management/Construction Director, and former Financial Controller for Western Care Construction, McDonald is a seasoned performing arts professional. A veteran actor and director, his career has spanned more than 5,000 stage appearances and over 250 productions. McDonald won the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Elly Organization and taught Oral Interpretation at BYU and Cornell as a Guest Artist.
He completed roles as Joseph Pulitzer in Newsies, Friar Laurence in Romeo and Juliet, Doctor Finache in A Flea In Her Ear, Ebenezer Scrooge in Christmas Carol, the lead in The Miser, Captain Hook in Peter Pan, and Judge Sorell, in The Seduction of Judge Thomas Sorrell at the Geery Theater, after directing Evita in which he played Peron for Runaway Stage. He has completed his fourth season at Music Circus.
At Woodland Opera House, he most recently directed Meet Me in St. Louis, Midsummer Night’s Dream, The Miser, and A Flea In Her Ear. He has acted and directed in The Imaginary Invalid and has appeared as King Pelinor in Camelot, Cervantes/Don Quixote in Man of La Mancha, Father in Ragtime, Harold Hill in Music Man, and Higgins in My Fair Lady.
With Runaway Stage he has performed as the lead in Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, the Pirate King in Pirates of Penzance, and Von Trapp in Sound of Music. With other local theaters he was Cladwell in Urinetown at River Stage, Captain Hook in Peter Pan at DMTC, and Capulet in Romeo and Juliet at Sierra Shakespeare.
Rodger owned the Nottingham Players Children’s Theater in Los Angeles which performed for over One million children in seven seasons throughout California, Arizona, and Utah. Rodger has authored many children’s plays and two full length three act plays, The Beggar’s Deception and Commander.
ACTING HIGHLIGHTS
He has performed with several major theater companies including:
- The Alley Theater in Houston
- Pacific Conservatory
- Robert Redford’s Sundance Theater
- Rod Serling’s Vooheis Theater in New York
- Sherwood Shakespeare Festival
- Utah Repertory
- Solvang Theaterfest
- Elizabeth Howard’s Dinner Theater
- The Great American Melodrama
- The National Theaters of Guatemala and El Salvador
and was selected for the Oregon Shakespeare Summer Shakespeare Company in 1978.
He appeared as King James in the National PBS Drama, Passionate Pilgrim, and recently was featured in a new movie with Ellen Green and Kevin Corrigan which will debut in 2021 and performed in Europe and Asia with the USO as one of six members of the popular singing group “Collector’s Item.”
Rodger is well suited to his position as Board Treasurer and chair of the Finance Committee, as he is the current Project Management/Construction Director, and formerly the Financial Controller, for Western Care Construction, as well as a seasoned performing arts professional. Rodger has served as Placer Rep Board Treasurer in 2020 as the appointed Treasurer. At the end of 2020, the semi-annual board officer elections were held and Rodger McDonald was named Treasurer for 2021 and 2022.
AWARDS
- Best Actor Award in the State of Utah
- Best Actor at BYU, a two-time winner, where he both graduated and taught.
- Los Angeles DramaLogue Award for Macbeth
- Eight Chesley Awards
- Four Elly Awards
- 18 Elly Nominations for Best Actor and Director.
- Lifetime Achievement Award presented by SARTA at the Annual Elly Awards in 2015
- Placer Repertory Theater Service Recognition Award 2024
