Glenda Linscott

The Wentworth Star, Issue 10, December 1996

'That's her very first picture, of Rita coming out of the van at the very beginning. The other one is a very sad story ... Rita arriving at Blackmoor' - I think part of the reason why I enjoyed Rita so much was that it was ten years after I went to NIDA. I was coming to understand why I was an actor and I had a vehicle to express it! - I met up with Glenda in Sydney while her husband Richard came down to produce a play. This vibrant woman has a wonderful optimism about her future and life in general. Family life has occupied this terrific actress of late, but is now ready for another exuberant challenge, as Rita did for her once before.

Glenda, hello, do you come from an acting family?
No, not really. My father is a singer. He was a policeman and was always involved in Barbershop Quartets, musical comedy, Music Hall and vaudeville. He loved that side of it. He also was involved with amateur music theatre. My mum wanted to be a dancer and became involved in musicals with dad. Thinking of gifted relatives, my aunt whom I never met or knew because she died before I was born, was an Opera singer. My brothers became involved with Scout Gang Shows and we were all involved in Youth Theatre groups.

When did you arrive in Australia?
We came out in the late 60s, on '£10 Poms' passenger ships. We were the last to come out on the Fair Star, from England. They came over with £50, a fridge and four kids! The fridge was their worldly possession and it was dropped on the docks, so that was busted (Laughter). And once we arrived here, my dad was supposed to pick up a job as a policeman. But they said, 'You're six months late, you're in the wrong city, you should be in Canberra,' and we were in Adelaide. He ended up getting a job in Whyalla, for BHP, so we went to line in the outback. Then I went to a high school in Adelaide, eventually.

Is Adelaide where you started your theatrical training?
Not exactly, but from as long as I can remember, I wanted to be an actor and I read in a magazine, as a kid that there was an organisation called RADA, in London. Mum said, 'It's a bit far away darling, but there is one in Australia.' So, at the age of eleven, I wrote away for the NIDA prospectus and I knew then that was what I wanted to do! I was admitted to NIDA, straight from school and found I was living in Sydney, on my own, at seventeen years of age. I was one of the youngest, in a pretty young year, and I don't think they've taken a young year like that since! Two or three of us were seventeen and one was even younger (He lied about his age to get in!). He was quite a baby.

Was joining NIDA at such a young age a good idea on your part?
I must tell you, before NIDA I was involved with The Saturday Company, which was a fantastic youth theatre organisation run by Helmut Bakaitis, who is now the artistic director for Q Theatre, at Penrith and we did really exciting theatre! I don't think I had an experience as good as that until well into my late 20s. So anyone who knows The Saturday Company knows that a lot of very exciting people came out from that experience. Helmut was our guru! He wrote The Lay of Sir Orfeo, based on a Middle English Chaucer story and the following year he wrote the astounding spectacle Carlotta & Maximilian, based on the Franz Josef and the fall of the Habsburg Empire, in Austria, at the turn of the century. Carlotta & Maximillian (I played Max!) were sent to South America where Carlotta went slowly mad and Maximilian was eventually executed by Spanish militants. The production was so successful that it was staged for the 1976 Festival! After this amazing experience I got into NIDA and yeah, I was too young to go to NIDA. Everyone at NIDA said I was too young to understand. I was enraged at their patronising attitude and I was depply homesick and very out of my depth. I didn't understand the passions I was experiencing, my passion for acting! I was 6' tall, in this huge body and I felt that people thought me a bit of a fool. At the same time, NIDA gave me a training which stood me in good stead to this day. I met people that influenced me profoundly and there are some teachers that I never want to speak to again! But that's the nature of Drama School! I wouldn't have done it any differently but I was too young! It didn't exactly damage me, but it did take me ten years to understand what had happened to me. After the year and a half of playing Rita, I came out really clear about my ability. After NIDA I went back to Adelaide, South Australia to work in Theatre and Education. I did find it difficult at twenty, graduated and six feet, to get work! I had a lot of resistance in the industry. At first I found it very difficult to get an agent. So I decided to travel to England, visit my grandma and study. I then went with $400 and a back pack and travelled through Europe on my Eurail Youth Pass! Every twenty-one year old has to do that! (laughter) And after seeing some Greek Theatre performed, under the star at the Epidavros Festival, I thought 'This is what I want to do!' So I decided to go back to London to get a job, that's when I found work, to pay for classes at the Actors Centre, in Sydney. Even though I'd only recently come out of NIDA, I always believe in keeping on.

Can you describe the gathering for the Who Weekly magazine?
Who weekly approached me to be part of their Prisoner reunion because they were doing flashbacks to Australian series. I said, 'Yes. Wonderful, I'd like to do that!' It was a great treat. They flew us from wherever, put us up in the Intercontinental. We then went to the Old Sydney Gaol and did the photo shoot. Then went and had a beautiful lunch. It was an interesting collection of actresses because not a lot of us had actually worked together, except for Louise, Maggie and I. Maggie had certainly worked with a lot of the people but for me, most of the ladies that were there I only knew from other jobs, so much of our lunch talk was about, 'Who did you play and when were you in Prisoner?' It wasn't a climactic coming together by a group of people who had worked together very closely, because we were a group of people who were taken over 8 years. I had never met Val Lehman before.

Did it seem strange to be meeting the original Top Dog?
Not really because she is a legend, she is the Top Dog people remember.

Rita is also a Top Dog the fans remember.
Oh really? Well that astounds me! I always thought it was Bea! I think that Rita was an extremely likeable character and very adventurous and energetic, I loved her! I can understand how people can be attracted to that kind of person. But Maggie and Val are actresses with enormous repect in the industry and it was wonderful to see them together. I felt like taking a back seat when they're there. It was very interesting to talk with Val because she's spent the last five years in England. Most of us were brought together because of Prisoner, but we're all actresses with extensive and varying careers, outside Prisoner, so it was a relly good afternoon. All of us agreed that Prisoner provided some extraordinary roles for women and we're all grateful to Prisoner, for that. I remember how we all lamented how we all went on to very dodgy, patchy careers with only a couple of years in the workforce, which is a great pity.

How did you hear about the role of Rita?
I was asked to audition for Rita. The role of Rita was very significant for me as it turned out and very significant for the programme too, but my agent and I were very naive when it came to negotiating my contract. We did not know that Rita was to be the lead role that she was. So I signed to equity minimum for the whole of my contract - grateful to be given the work. I was furious when I realised the workload and the subsequent success of the character. I had received the equity minimum for Rita and no residuals, so this show goes on, all over the world and somebody's getting rich but not the actors! If actors are that good affirm it and pay for it! The workload was huge and I think I needed time to recover.

Even though I won a Penguin award as best actress, for Rita, I did not work for 18 months - not even an audition! I was very angry and lost a lot of confidence. I travelled to England with my husband (who I married just after Prisoner). I went to The Actors Centre, in Sydney, to take classes and started to teach there. I get my confidence back and I auditioned for Paul Eddington, on video which was sent to him. I was cast to play his daughter in The Browning Version by Terrence Rattigan which was an absolute delight. I played alongside him and Julia Blake, who was my cellmate, Nancy McCormack in Prisoner. I understudied her and we had a fantastic time together!

What attracted you to the role of Rita Connors?
(Laughter) Rita was the great Australian hero - all for one and one for all! She had a very strong moral code. She couldn't stand to see injustice, (that's what got her into prison in the first place!) It wasn't right that her boyfriend was sleeping with a girl from another gang so she did something about it. She had a white hot temper, (which is quite opposite to me) but she was extremely passionate about the underpriviledged, so she would protect them like a big sister. There were lots of things I loved about Rita! I was given a gift, I had time to research prison and Bikies. I worshipped her character, so I was able to offer a range of things which the scriptwriters picked up on and developed, I tried to respond in unexpected ways, and it would often be great fun. If I got a script and they'd expect violence, I would find a humorous way to play it, or a tender way to play it. I wanted to deflate that two-dimensional soap kind of thing. Sometimes it was impossible, but it was a goal I tried for.