Bold assertion: you should go see Alinca Hamilton in HONOR at the Gene Frankel Theatre running now through October 6th ONLY at the Gene Frankel Theater 24 Bond Street in the NoHo neighborhood of Manhattan. Tix at our.show/honor
Ronnee (Alinca Hamilton) attempts to referee the constant conflict of Don (Ed Altman) and Ludwig (John Blaylock, seated)
Why? Her performance compels, charms, and cheers in this comedy of corporate culture in ways that you won’t want to miss. You can read more about Alinca here and you can actually hear her via the Stage Whisper podcast of Andrew Cortes, but what would really be to your advantage is to see and listen to Alinca in this play: she’s terrific! We believe in her so much that we are offering you two (2) complimentary tickets to any of our performances of HONOR. Alinca has to be seen. Just reply to this email with your preferred performance date for your free tickets. Her performance is worth a lot more than that.
Oh, what’s the play about, the comedy by T.J. Elliott that actress Sean Young called “hilarious and very clever“? In HONOR, three executives (John Blaylock, Alinca Hamilton, and Ed Altman) meet to review the results of an investigation into a charge of bullying against one of them. In the course of a raucous and rollicking meeting, a free-for-all ensues that tests the outer limits of propriety and procedure. With sharp humor and witty tactics, each brings their own concept of “honor” to the table for debate, only to be left wondering what constitutes honor in our present world. The running time of HONOR is just over an hour, which leaves you plenty of time to enjoy the fine restaurants and nightlife in this lively neighborhood.
We appreciate the generous and enthusiastic responses of these two audience members from our run at The Chain Winter One-Act Festival this past February, but you should come and see for yourself.
Thank you to all of those who have already responded to our invitation to participate in an open and free discussion about playwrights so producing. Our convening (after that night’s performance of HONOR at the Gene Frankel Theatre, 24 Bond Street in Manhattan) is a follow-up to the T.J. Elliott’s online series of brief essays, 13 Ways of Looking at Self-Producing, published in March 2024.
If you haven’t signaled your attendance yet, you can so by clicking here for this discussion on Playwright Self-Producing taking place 8:30 PM Wednesday September 25 th after the 7PM performance of HONOR at the Gene Frankel Theatre in Manhattan.
(There is NO fee for attending this playwright community gathering. If you wish to attend HONOR at 7PM that evening, go to our tickets site here and enter the discount code ‘playwright’ for $10 off the ticket price.)
We feel extraordinarily fortunate to have the folks below on our panel. The whole point of the session is to share knowledge and offer encouragement to playwrights who either are already self producing or contemplating taking that journey. The experiences of others putting up their work and the conversations arising from these thoughtful exchanges should prove fruitful to all playwrights.
Alinca Hamilton is a New York born and bred actor, writer, and creator. Select acting credits include To All the Black Girls Who’ve Waited (Ars Nova AntFest); Clyde’s (Alabama Shakespeare Festival); Mud Row (Premiere Stages); Audelco Award-nominated Gong Lum’s Legacy (New Federal Theater); Julius Cesar (Classic Stage Company). After obtaining her MFA in Acting from Columbia University, Alinca doubled down on making her Jamaican immigrant parents happy, and added writing to her artistic pursuits. Under the guidance of the Sundance Collab Program, her first pilot “Rinse. Repeat.” was a semi-finalist for the 2021-2022 NYSCA/NYSFA Artist Fellowship Program and 2021-2022 Fresh Voices Competition. alincahamilton.com
John has an undergraduate degree in painting from Guilford College in Greensboro, NC, and a Masters in painting from New York University, in NYC and Venice, Italy. He lives and works in New York City. Diva Therapy is his first play. For tickets to this fun and affecting play running in November at to Theater for the New City, click here
A playwright in residence at Theater for the New City, Claude Solnik has written plays seen by thousands, earned favorable reviews and brought memorable characters and stories to life. His work also has been performed Off Broadway, in Paris, Philadelphia and on regional stages.
Janani Sreenivasan is a writer, director, actor, composer, and musician originally from Corvallis, Oregon. She has prioritized art since her early training as a classical violinist (both solo and orchestral repertoire) and pianist. In 2006, while earning an M.F.A. in nonfiction at the University of Iowa, she wrote and directed nearly 40 comedy sketches for the late-night showcase No Shame Theatre. In NYC, she has directed for the Tank’s Rule of 7×7 and the Chain Theatre’s One-Act Festival, as well as acting with Rule of 7×7, Manhattan Repertory, WOW Café Theatre, and Living Room Theater. Short films have screened in the L.A. Comedy Festival and the Iron Mule Short Film Festival (Audience Award w/Lee Jutton) and her jokes have appeared in Reductress and The New Yorker. Her short play “Get Leo” depicted her hunger for Leonardo DiCaprio to portray her onstage and was staged and published by the Bechdel Group. At Under St. Marks Theatre, Janani’s recently directed and produced The Importance of Being Earnest and A Midsummer Night’s Dream infused with Indian classical dance and music and featuring Odissi dancer Jeevika Bhat.
An actor and produced playwright in the 1980s (Lazy Eye, Captive Audiences), T.J. spent the next three decades away from theater making sure his children always had food and clothes – well, most of the time — before returning to Off-Broadway as co-writer with Joe Queenan of the SRO hit play Alms in 2019. In those lost years, he produced, directed, and performed among casts of thousands in a mélange of corporate telenovelas and tragic, comic, melodramatic, and absurd organizational performance art. Since his playwrighting re-emergence, T.J. and Queenan have penned three other problem comedies produced by Knowledge Workings Theater: Grudges, Genealogy (at Broom Street Theater in Madison Wisconsin), and The Oracle. His recent solo works include the mostly fake Swedish screwball comedy Keeping Right, the September 2023 premiere in New York City of The Jester’s Wife and most recently HONOR presented in 2024. Born in the Bronx, T.J. now lives in Princeton, NJ with his wife, Marjorie Phillips Elliott.
Sign up by clicking here for this discussion on Playwright Self-Producing taking place 8:30 PM Wednesday September 25 th after the 7PM performance of HONOR at the Gene Frankel Theatre in Manhattan.
KWT is remounting our new play HONOR, which had great success in February at the Chain Winter One-Act Festival. The ever estimable Ed Altman decided to ask ChatGPT what ‘it’ thought of our work and this was the answer.
WE BELIEVE THIS IS A FIRST. We’ve been waiting for the phone call from Guinness Book of World Records. This is the first time anyone used AI to get an endorsement for their Off-Broadway Play. Thank you, ChatGPT; a comp ticket is headed your way, just let us know how many seats you will take up.
But we do want a human audience when Alinca Hamilton, John Blaylock, and Ed Altman start performances on September 19th at the Gene Frankel Theatre and run on an Equity mini contract until October 6th. Tix are available now at this link
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
“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.
Sarah, our friend and ally, who is a partner at Smith Manning design , again has elevated our work by her gorgeous art for The Jester’s Wife, which opens at the Chain Theater September 21st. This is the fifth time we’ve had the very good fortune to benefit from Sarah’s astonishing talent and extraordinary amiability. She brings us luck with each production and we are grateful to her for this work.
