Riverina Trucking Company
Past productions
RTC’s beginnings fitted the pattern of regional theatre development – there was a strong desire in the community for a professional company, fuelled by the Riverina College of Advanced Education (RCAE) and a very strong School of Arts organisation. The professional inspiration came from Terry O’Connell, seconded from NIDA to direct a couple of amateur productions in Wagga Wagga.
O’Connell was appointed the first Artistic Director of the curiously named Riverina Trucking Company (a tongue in cheek reference to the company spending much time on the road touring) and presented its opening production, Hamlet on Ice, in August 1976.
Under O’Connell’s leadership there was a resident designer, a core of professional actors, community actors for the large cast musicals and an impressive team of volunteers for other functions of the new company. The community were possibly more supportive for this company than any other of the new regional theatre companies. Name changed in 1983 to the Riverina Theatre Company to reflect its maturity into a fully professional regional theatre company.
In March 2009, the board members of the Riverina Theatre Company decided to place the RTC into liquidation after the RTC lost government funding and the failure of its last two productions to bring in income, Charles Sturt University took full ownership of the shared purpose built Riverina Playhouse Theatre.
The Riverina Theatre Company lived for a third of a century.
It was the longest serving theatre company in Regional Australia.
