In Memoriam: Duncan MacKenzie

	Duncan McKenzie

R. Duncan MacKenzie, who played an important role as a technician and theatre consultant, and for his work on industry standards, died on April 23. He was 77 and lived in Florida.

Growing up in Montana, he was introduced to theatre through his mother's subscription to Theatre Arts Magazine. He began educating himself in lighting by studying the Kliegl Brothers catalog and Stanley McCandless' book A Method for Lighting the Stage. His fascination with computers led to a job at IBM when he was 15. He then attended Whitman College in Walla Walla Washington, where he was a theatre major.

After graduation, he worked as an assistant technical director/stage operations supervisor at Santa Fe Opera for a season, followed by longer gigs as technical director at Spokane Civic Theatre and Oregon Shakespeare Festival. Turning to business, he spent nearly five years at George Thomas Howard Associates, first as an associate and later as a principal. Next, he spent several years as design manager, research and development, for the rigging firm Hoffend & Sons. From 1990 until his retirement in 2024, he was the principal of the theatre consulting firm Proskenion Design, working on a wide variety of projects.

Discussing some of his projects with Lighting&Sound America in 2016, he said, "The renovation of the stage system at Radio City Music Hall with JR Clancy is a good example. The original control valves for the lift system were made of cast iron. Over the 60-plus years they had been used, they were starting to leak because the water had literally gouged the interior of the valve apart. These valves were replaced with air-actuated and positioned ball valves, used in the process control industry, to control the flow of water from the pump system to the lifts. We did that job in 1999, and it's still working! There was also the Programmable Logic Controller (PLC) system that I put into the original MGM Las Vegas (now Bally's) during the rebuild done in 1981 to control all the stage floor machinery. In 2004, we replaced the PLC with a newer version, but not any of the input/output modules. We were able to just drop in the ladder logic program that I had originally written -- translated to the current version -- into the new PLC. We did it in 24 hours; they didn't miss a show!"

Other projects include the Kennedy Center, Lyric Opera of Chicago, Seattle Opera House, Orange County Performing Arts Center, Solomon Victory Theatre, the Peabody Opera, the Hollywood Bowl, the Lunar Landing Theatre at Kennedy Space Center, and various theme park, cruise ship, and broadcast projects. He was also a founding member of the American Society of Theatre Consultants and served on the ESTA board of directors. In 2022, he received an ESTA Lifetime Technical Achievement Award.

In 2014, he moved to Florida to become a systems designer for InterAmerica Stage in Sanford, Florida.

Looking back on his career, when speaking with LSA, he said, "I've worked on some of the largest projects in the country; it's been a great ride. I've made an enormous number of friends in this business. It is the people with whom I've worked who have made it much more than just a job."

He is survived by his wife, Gloria. Friends wishing to express sympathy can send contributions by mail to: Lions World Vision Institute Foundation, 1410 N. 21st Street, Tampa, Florida 33605, or online through their website, Lions World Vision Institute Foundation Donation Page: lwvi.org/ways-to-give/?utm_source=chatgpt.com.