‘Luck is the residue of design’
Branch Rickey
RETROSPECTIVE’s production as part of the Broadway Bound Theatre Festival is reaping a bumper harvest of luck. Was it our design that did it? Consider these stories of how we met cast members Mark Thomas McKenna, Adara Totino, Jasmine Dorothy Haefner, and Jeremiah Alexander and you decide.
Scroll down to know better our RETROSPECTIVE team
Mark Thomas McKenna (Rory)
Mark, actor/teaching artist, was an ensemble member at Touchstone Theater (PA) for over 23 years, specializing in devised and community-based work. He also served as producing/artistic director for half of his tenure. Most recently, he played Jim in the NY premier of A House Divided by Joshua Crone at The NuBox/Night Cook Studios. Select highlights: Steelbound dir., Bill Rauch; Los Locos del Pueblo (the Fools) dir., Chris Bayes; Candide, adapted from Voltaire, with Bill Pope L. and dir., Jim Calder; Frankenstein, in collaboration with The Independent Eye (Philadelphia), adapted/directed by Conrad Bishop. Other roles: Charlie, Stones in his Pockets; Estragon, Waiting for Godot; Sir Toby Belch, Twelfth Night; Weston, Curse of the Starving Class. Film includes: The Forest Hills (Dreznick/Goldberg Productions), AWAKE! (FusionBox Films). As a teaching artist, Mark recently worked two years in residence at Penn State Hershey Medical Center helping healthcare workers build community and listening skills. Training: Graduate, L’École Internationale de Théâtre Jacques Lecoq, Paris; TA Certification, UARTS Philadelphia; HB Studios, Second City (NYC). AEA/SAG-AFTRA
PLAYWRIGHT’S NOTE: Evidence of our luck shows up in the way our director Gifford Elliott (with the help of Jasmine and Adara ) read six superb actors for the lead role of Rory McGrory. That array of talented NYC artists made for a tough choice, but there was no doubt in our minds that Mark Thomas McKenna would be the force needed for that performance as the famous painter who has to deal with a weird reunion with an ex-wife and two frenemies. Call it a ménage à trois with a plus-one
Adara Totino (Pippa)
Adara Totino is so excited to be a part of the Broadway Bound Theatre Festival and working with Knowledge Workings Theater! Adara attended the Actor’s Studio MFA program, studying under luminaries such as Elizabeth Kemp, Susan Aston and Louis Colaianni. Career highlights include: working with playwright Edward Allan Baker on his DOLORES (ASDS Repertory) and Cyn Cooper’s I WAS A STRANGER TOO (finalist: The Jewish Plays Project 2022, produced by Remember the Women Institute). She can be seen in the upcoming short SLEEPING MOTHER which will screen at LCT in the fall of 2025. For my Mama, Carol, my grandma, Sophie, and also- for Elizabeth. @adaratotino http://www.adaratotino.com
PLAYWRIGHT’S NOTE: Jasmine introduced us to Adara Totino who will be playing Pippa in this production’s Festival performances on August 13th, August 15th, and August 16th (Yes, tickets are available at this link. Go buy a few!) That feeling when you are wowed by the way someone makes your text come alive and your character more real than you even dreamed? That’s what Adara did when we first met with her. Her scintillating creativity and deep skill astonished us.
Jasmine Dorothy Haefner (Z)
Jasmine Dorothy Haefner is an internationally performing comedic actress, writer, and producer for stage and screen based in NYC — and frankly, you should be ashamed you haven’t heard of her. She even has a credit on SNL! That’s right, WHAT a comedy credit… as Kim Kardashian’s photo double. (You have got to stop telling people that part, DAMMIT!) Her work is fast-paced, madcap, heightened, and usually funny on purpose. She’s currently developing the TV series NOT DEAD, a genre-bending mockumentary loosely based on her life with Crohn’s Disease. Her one-act play 2-Faces premiered at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe after a London preview, and earned great reviews (“If you fancy a dose of what the Fringe is really about, get really drunk and go see this show…”) and crowds six times larger than the festival average. Her film 28 is Great — a meta-mockumentary short about a film crew rife with chaos, which she wrote, directed, produced, and starred in, playing all five roles — won or received nominations for multiple film festival awards, including Best Solo Performance, Best Actress, Best Comedy, and Overall Audience Awards. After working in the entertainment industry for 10 years, she’s done just about every job except lighting fire to the hoop the lion jumps through, and if you come see her work you’re guaranteed “…eccentric and arguably refreshing new writing,” “…multiple characters with wit and physical energy,” and stories that are “…thrilling and provocative.” Her last short film The Counterfeit Moron (co-director, producer, actress) is a 19 minute true one-shot, for which they shot a standard-version and mockumentary version, and just screened at Lighthouse International Film Festival. Next performing: Retrospective (actor) at Broadway Bound Theatre Festival (August.)
PLAYWRIGHT’S NOTE: Some people are lucky charms because they introduce you to other good people. Meeting Jasmine Dorothy Haefner happened because she knew Aaron Long, one of the actors in Alms, the very first play that Joe Queenan and T.J. wrote in in 2018. Jasmine not only came to see the play but told us she wanted to be in one of our plays. Well, Jasmine has now been in three Knowledge Workings Theater productions: GRUDGES, THE ORACLE, and now dazzling as Z in RETROSPECTIVE. Again we’re lucky.
Jeremiah Alexander (Clint)
Jeremiah is delighted to return to the stage after a long career in film, television, and commercials. Select television credits include Mozart in the Jungle, Howl, All My Children, One Life to Live, and The Guiding Light. Film appearances include Inside Man, Goosed, Half Baked, and Unfaithful. A few favorite New York stage credits are Enter a Free Man, Lone Star, and Gentile of the Top Percentile. Jeremiah is thrilled to be working with such a “heavenly” gang! Many thanks to T.J. and Knowledge Workings Theater.
PLAYWRIGHT’S NOTE: T.J. created the character of Clint Belinsky in RETROSPECTIVE with Jeremiah in mind because “his timing and verve make the laughs flow and the truths resound.” They first worked together in 1978 as the leads in a regional production of The Devil’s Disciple in Saratoga Springs, New York. Talk about ‘luck as the residue of design’: how about this reunion 47 years later from a feeling that T.J. had back then about wanting to see Jere work in one of his plays. Their connection is one of the very special aspects of this production
PLAYWRIGHT’S NOTE: Of course, the evidence for luck being in our corner is best exemplified by Gifford Elliott as director who got to make these casting decisions along with Marjorie Phillips Elliott who is both producer AND production designer on this show.
Gifford Elliott (Director)
Besides serving as Director, Co-Producer, and/or Technical Manager for many of Knowledge Workings Theater’s plays since 2018, Gifford has played many other parts in their eight productions: maker of publicity Instagram reels, mover of massive sets, magician with sound design, and mender of props. This stack of work led to his co-authoring with T.J. Elliott 13 Ways of Looking at Self-Producing
Besides this wide and wizardly work, Giff served in recent years as a post-production coordinator on such hit series as Bupkis (the Pete Davidson comedy), The Best Man — The Final Chapters, Queens Gambit, and Divorce (Season 3). Prior to those assignments, he was a manager at LightIron, one of the premier firms in the movie and television industry specializing in post-production workflows. A graduate of the Cal Arts acting program, Gifford is also a director of a variety of theatrical events including Srivia, the weekly fun trivia extravaganza at Singers in Brooklyn.
Marjorie Phillips Elliott (Production Design)
Marjorie’s work as Executive Producer & Co-founder of Knowledge Workings Theater arises from deep roots in the arts. Having studied theater at Skidmore College and photography at the Fashion Institute of Technology, Marjorie brings to her role at Knowledge Workings a wide array of talents and experiences including her work in the film industry for New Line Cinema in the 1980s. Her support of our productions ranges from strategy to prop design to photo retouching to publicity consultation and beyond. Marjorie is also the former Chair of the Board of Chamiza Foundation, a nonprofit helping to ensure the continuity & living preservation of Pueblo Indian culture and traditions, and on the Members Committee of the Phillips Collection in Washington, DC.
Myles Platt (Stage Manager)
Myles Platt is an artist from Rockford, Michigan. He is thrilled to be welcomed back to stage management after his retirement in 2017. Myles has a bachelor’s in arts from Wayne State University where he studied literature. He has appeared in and produced various independent films and productions over the last 12 years. And he is honored to join in sharing the sacred winds of “Retrospective” with its audiences.
Kaye Loggins (Lighting Design)
Kaye Loggins is a New York multi-instrumentalist, producer, filmmaker & actress. Her compositions as Time Wharp cover the range of ambient jazz, kosmische, dance music, and minimalist composition. She produces the internet broadcast project New York Television and hosts the bizarro multimedia talk show KAYE NITE LIVE. . More info is at her LinkTree
Jonathan Leonard (Choreographer/Movement Coach)
Jonathan’s background in professional theatre spans over a decade in repertory dance. He is a classically trained dancer who started in the Joffrey Ballet School Trainee Program, a scholarship awardee. Upon graduating, he immediately thrusted himself into the professional sphere, starting small in the studio companies of both The Sarasota Ballet (FL) and Ballet Hispanico (New York City). His breakthrough was at New York Theatre Ballet, where the marriage of dance and theatre was paramount. Under the esteemed direction of Diana Byer, Jonathan worked meticulously in a rare syllabus form of the Cecchetti Method which highlights gesture, musicality, and theatricality. With careful guidance, he rose to principal dancer, dancing some of the finest works of 20th century masters including Jerome Robbins, Antony Tudor, Jose Limon, Merce Cunningham and Agnes de Mille. His focus shifted to coaching later on, leading to his promotion to rehearsal master of NYTB. He helped stage some of the major ballets in the company’s repertoire including The Firebird and The Nutcracker. Now retired from performing, Jonathan is excited to devote more of his time to expanding his reach as a dance instructor, movement coach, and repetiteur.
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