Welcome to Knowledge Workings Theater. Below is our blog giving updates on our work, the art of self-producing, and the theater world at large. Check out our book on self-producing, 13 Ways of Looking at Self-Producing and stay tuned for our new projects. – KWT
Ed Altman (Don Troy) gets attention by ignoring Alinca Hamilton (Ronnee Emerson) and John Blaylock (Ludwig Cade) in HONOREd Altman (DON) challenging John Blaylock (LUDWIG) to debateAlinca Hamilton (RONNEE) trying to find a solution to this conflict over HONOR
With Lunar New Year celebrations, Valentine’s Day elaborations, and Ash Wednesday genuflections in the rear view mirror and the opening of our new play, HONOR, looming, I am presuming upon your screen time and the space in your already crowded inbox to recommend to you the work of three extraordinary actors: Alinca Hamilton, John Blaylock, and Ed Altman. Writing, directing, and producing seven plays in 5 years has taught me many lessons, but the most important one is that actors bring a play to life; text is foundation; acting provides the actual structure, and acting of that text is what people come to see and hear. The new existence of a play created by actors’ actions can be astonishing, but that effect comes from their hard work and high talent. Not all actors (and not all playwrights, of course) are equal.
My extraordinary luck has brought me actors who astonish me with their ability to enliven – and sometimes usefully alter – the words I (and in four of those plays my dear friend and co-playwright Joe Queenan) have written. Astonishment, gratitude, humility, joy are all reactions that I have had working with the three actors in our latest play HONOR, which will have performances at The Chain Theatre in Manhattan February 16th, 21st, and 24th. Alinca, John , and Ed spark vivid and provocative associations as they parse and pronounce their own definitions of that title word: Honor.
To experience their dynamic work, you can purchase a ticket using the discount code ‘HONOR‘ at this link. But even if circumstances preclude your attendance, I wanted as many people as possible to know about these three actors in this play. They make theater live!
Thanks for reading this blog post. I promise to read yours anytime you feel moved to hoist one.
“Human life is not a struggle in which rivals contend for prizes. It is a voyage that brothers make together: where each employs his forces for the good of all and is rewarded by the sweetness of mutual benevolence, by the pleasure that comes with the sentiment of having earned the gratitude or the esteem of others…
Marie Jean Antoine Nicolas de Caritat Condorcet, On the Nature and Purpose of Public Instruction (1791)
And speaking of BROTHERS
Writing before the public should have a purpose. It could be just to entertain or to inform. Much of what I’ve been writing over the last several weeks and probably over the next several days promotes the work of our team putting on honor at the chain theater. But today – – the convergence of Mardi Gras, the Year of the Dragon, and Valentine’s Day Eve – – prompts me to write with a different purpose: to entreat all of us to share our gratitude for those who made us as much of what we are. Having practiced this expression of open gratitude previously, I can attest that it is an excellent exercise: remembering that anything we have achieved is due to the care and encouragement of so many others puts a good leash on enthusiastic egos and persuading our younger friends and relatives of the importance of such homage is good for our society. None of us should fall for the myth of the self-made person. Too much individualism unravels the cords of society and unstrung our communities and families fall apart. And so I want to write with the purpose of extolling my brother John.
Yes, that’s me on the left at my confirmation: John C. was my sponsor and my mom Mary Connaghan Elliott and sister Irene Elliott were added to the photo for beautification considering how I looked.
Yes, this post is yet another thank-you to my brother, John C. Elliott (he never forgave my mother for the Cornelius), the eldest of the five Elliott boys, whose 80th birthday we would have celebrated with him today had John not died far too soon in October of 2022.
Older brothers can give you courage that no one else can impart. Knowing your kinship, their approval, even their criticism, can make you believe more strongly in yourself. When someone as wise and impressive as John takes the time to guide you the steering avoids dangers and dead ends. But John did even more than that. When it came to my once and future profession of playwrighting and directing, John bankrolled our first Off Broadway show in New York, Captive Audiences, and then even after death provided resources that allowed the full mounting of our last play, The Jester’s Wife.
John giving one of the next generation ‘the stare’
He was much more than my brother. He was a soldier and a philanthropist. Most importantly, he was a fine father and grandfather as well as an innovator in business and finance.
I offer my celebration of someone dear who helped to make me whatever I am today in the hope that others will provide their own testimonials. We can learn but more fundamentally we will remember that we should be that helper for others, that encourager and enabler of what it takes to build a life. In doing so, we follow the very good advice contained in one of my go-to quotes:
Silent gratitude is not much use to anyone who had done a lot for you.
Gladys Bronwyn Stern, from He Wrote Treasure Island: The Story of Robert Louis Stevenson
Don Troy (Ed Altman) enters for the big meeting at the top of HONORLudwig Cade (John Blaylock) looks to his colleague Ronnee Emerson (Alinca Hamilton) for support in HONORRonnee Emerson (Alinca Hamilton) faces up with a smile to Don Troy (Ed Altman) in HONORRonnee Emerson (Alinca Hamilton) considers the dilemmas in HONOR
And many more fine photos from our February 12th session by our Executive Producer Marjorie Phillips Elliott with thanks to Christina, Nicole, and Gabby at The Chain Theatre Winter One-Act Festival where we run February 16th 21st ad 24th. Tix here.
The character — Don Troy — that Ed Altman plays in HONOR is the first one to utter our play’s title word and the way in which Ed delivers its two syllables is like tossing a match Into a room full of Roman Candles. Explosions ensue yet Ed’s character never flinches. Indeed, this dynamism is just what the play requires: an incendiary presence who flicks and lunges verbally at his two colleagues in this debate about what honor means. The trio proceed to sizzle and sparkle along the way in their storytelling with revelations and accusations, but not apologies.
Ed’s formidable array of acting experiences served him well in preparing for this role. Past work with Knowledge Workings Theater includes: The Oracle, Keeping Right, Grudges (Narrator). Other recent stage appearances had him in Two Swans, Nowhere Man, Victoria Woodhull (both at Theater for the New City). Also of late screens both big and small have benefited from Ed’s stalwart presence and straightforward style: TV/Streaming: The Good Cop (NTD/Epoch TV), The Vow (HBO), Foodthat Built America (History Channel), Dragon Meets Eagle(Amazon). His most recent film: The Dummy Detective is in production right now but earlier efforts include, Biff & Me, Oatmelio’s, Thumbwrestler II, Jazz John, all making the international film festival circuit. Ed was a member of the comedy group Prom Night with whom he wrote and performed at the Westbank Café back in the days of Lewis Black and Rusty McGee. He is also a voiceover artist for commercial and corporate work, and has voiced several audio books. Get your tickets now for one of the three performances upcoming of HONOR at The Chain Theatre Winter One-Act Festival
What does that word mean today? Is its definition still what the ancient Romans intended 2300 years ago when they built temples to their god with that name? Honor. Is the meaning still “great respect gained by a person; glory, reputation, good name?” Since the Romans, the word was applied to many deeds — massacres and mercies, duels and diplomacy — some of which today we would not consider worthy of respect, let alone glory.
Yet Shame is the older word. There are versions of it in Indo-European — the source of both English and Latin — thousands of years before honor appears as a word or a concept in any language. Those meanings have to do with being uncovered, with loss not only of respect but the obliteration of the very idea of yourself that you may have held. Debased.
Shame seems then to be the opposite of Honor. Our earliest ancestors in their language felt a need for a word to talk about that polarity even before they talked about fame and reputation and dignity.
And what of these words today? Honor still matters for those who believe in a code of behavior marking the duties of an individual within a social group. But what code? Who decides anymore? If Honor means that “a person is what he or she is in the eyes of other people”, what happens when the eyes and minds of other people see the duties of each individual quite differently? When the personal meanings of that word collide? When each person then demands of the other that they adopt a different view of honor?
In our play entitled HONOR, three corporate executives, high-ranking members of that society, convene in a conference room, each bringing a different version of the concept to that raucous and rollicking meeting. For just three performances, February 16, 21, and 24, at Chain Theatre’s Winter One-Act Festival, our superb cast of Alinca Hamilton, John Blaylock, and Ed Altman will wrangle over the meaning of the word and what it demands of each of us. Buy your tickets today and discover how your honor compares to the notions of our trio.
“Truth in acting was something he could recognize when he saw it or when he momentarily experienced it in his own playing, but he found it difficult to define and to capture.”
Harold Clurman on Konstantin Stanislavsky
Harold Clurman in his book, On Directing, was writing above about Stanislavsky, creator of what in America became known as ‘The Method’ approach to acting. Stanislavsky was the greatest influence upon Clurman who in turn became one of the finest stage directors of his time. And those first three words above — truth in acting — are what we pursue when the audience comes into the theater. Truth set forth onto the stage electrifies us; we walk away marked by the performance. There’s nothing like it.
And we know when we see it as I have known it working with John Blaylock in three plays: as Matt, the wise-cracking liberal younger brother in Grudges (co-written with my friend and colleague Joe Queenan), as GUNNAR GUSTAFSSON, fastidious but corrupt boss of the Swedish Traffic Authority, in Keeping Right, and now as Ludwig Cade, the consummate corporate general Counsel in HONOR opening February 16th in The Chain Theater Winter One-Act Festival. The effect of John’s talent strikes just as strongly in other performances: Victor Frankenstein in The Articulate Theater production of Doctor Frankenstein, Fr. Tommy DiCamilo in Holy Child by Joe Lauinger, Disraeli Levering in Both Your Houses at Metropolitan Playhouse, and Jack Mullen in The Weir at Gallery Players. John brings that truth to each part he assumes. I struggle to say more about the energy and intelligence he marshals and can you blame me? If Stanislavsky found it difficult ‘to define and to capture‘ that truth, what words will I find or invent? You have to see and hear John to understand the veracity of his work.
John Blaylock and Alinca Hamilton in rehearsal for HONOR
And about that book, On Directing? I don’t consider myself a by the book director as a great deal of the delight and satisfaction from making theater live is its collaborative nature, the mix and mess with good talented people of making it up as you go along to some extent. But through the span of a directing project, I am definitely by the books. I return again and again for inspiration and refreshment to three sources: Declan Donellan,Katie Mitchell, and then Harold Clurman. When I am preparing before rehearsals, Declan provides the framework for marking the ‘targets’ of the play: the specific and active focal points outside the actor to direct their performance towards. Katie Mitchell in The Director’s Craft helps to anchor my rehearsal planning in effective structures and routines that are at once practical and illuminating. When it gets to that inevitable point where after a flock of rehearsals I’m not sure exactly how the puzzle of performance ultimately will be solved, I go back to Harold and read him as if that faded paperback was the Gospel. Passages like the one below allow me the occasional epiphany and the constant reassurance:
“Certain directors compose beautiful or striking tableaux or visual patterns. I never consciously attempt to do so. I direct for the idea or intention of each scene for the play as a whole, and seek whatever combination of means will best convey them. I direct for the actor and through the actor: he is body and voice, movement and feeling, and something more than all these. The actor like the production itself, is an indivisible totality. I do not conceive a production in “departments.” I seek the integration of all the theatre’s elements to form a unified effect and meaning.”
Harold Clurman, On Directing
For anyone interested in directing, in theater generally, or any form of art, these books will reward the reader greatly.
At Knowledge Workings Theater, our motto since founding in 2018 has been #maketheaterlive and depending upon your stress of that ‘i’ in “live” the meaning of our catchphrase shifts. To make theater continue to thrive, the actors, playwright, directors, lighting, sound, set, costume, makeup folks, and the producers must engage audiences who after all complete the puzzle of every performance. But first we must persuade the audience to show up, which as Marshall Brickman learned is 80% of success after all. This is not a new problem as some journalists would contend lately; indeed the first documented use of the phrase ‘a run’ in the English language to describe “The (length of) time during which a theatrical performance continues on stage” was in 1699 by dramatist and critic Charles Gildon as part of a complaint about English audiences NOT showing up:
“In Paris almost e’ry one goes to the Theatre, here not the tenth part, for..the Governours of the House were unwilling to wear it out, and so balk’d the Run of it.”
C. Gildon in G. Langbaine, Lives English Dramatic Poets (revised edition) 144
Many writers have referred to theatre more recently as ‘The Fabulous Invalid‘, which ironically originated as the title of a 1938 play by genius playwrights Kaufman and Hart that audiences didn’t frequent enough to get the production beyond 65 performances and middling reviews. It’s never been revived.
And yet theatre persists with the attitude of one of Beckett’s characters: “I must go on, I can’t go on, I’ll go on” And it will go on quite marvelously and prolifically starting this Friday February 9th in the Chain Theater Winter One-Act Festival. Our work, HONOR, is in Program #1, an Equity Showcase, premiering on February 16th at 8:30 PM and then continuing our brief ‘run‘ on the 21st at 6:30 PM and the 24th at 5PM. But we want everyone to know about the opportunity to see other plays such as our dear friend and colleague, Lucy McMichael, in Doc Burns and Mrs. Teter And we want everyone to get the discount available by using the correct ode for each play they wish to attend.
