Knowledge Workings Theater Company

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  • Happy New Year!

    https://www.instagram.com/reel/C1dGtuBuBfJ/?igsh=ZDBjMWI0ZjMxOQ==

  • THE JESTER’S WIFE “light-hearted characters, rhythmic & funny dialogue” ROCKED THE HOUSE!

    Reviews of TJW Xander Jackson as Stranger, Steve Weatherbee as Jester and Emma Taylor Miller as Wife


    Get to a great new comedy if you act now at this link. The Jester’s Wife runs only until October8th at 312 West 36th Street. Stage Whisper said our show was “Hilarious…Fantastic!”

    Stranger enters and sees Jester and Wife

    Theater Scene’s review noted, “The Jester’s Wife succeeds as a spirited experience due to the grand performances of Weatherbee, Miller, and Jackson, and their palpable rapport.” Forgotten Artist Productions stated, “Very clever writing and directing by T.J. Elliott. Beautifully acted by the cast. Very funny, entertaining, and thought provoking. A great piece of theatre. “

    Headline 15 shows to see this September
    TDF picked TJW as a top show!

    And Theatre Development Fund just picked The Jester’s Wife as one of “15 exciting, inexpensive, theatre, shows to see off off-broadway this September”

    Jester (Steve Weatherbee) and Wife (Emma Taylor Miller) share a laugh despite the beheaders lurking outside

    Broadway World just welcomed Emma Taylor Miller , our marvelous WIFE, to THE JESTER’S WIFE  cast and now you can see her marvelous performance by going to our Eventbrite page at this link   and purchase seats for your chosen date; the promo code ‘Jester-Besties’ for a 25% discount is automatically applied. Our $20 ticket slides to 15 bucks, a value that is no jest.

    Emma Taylor Miller is The Jester’s Wife

    Buy Tix At This Link For All Performances

    Thursday           9/21/2023 7:00 PM
    Friday                 9/22/2023 7:00 PM
    Saturday            9/23/2023 7:00 PM
    Sunday               9/24/2023 3:00 P
    Wednesday       9/27/2023 7:00 PM
    Thursday           9/28/2023 7:00 PM,
    Friday                 9/29/2023 7:00 PM
    Saturday            9/30/2023 7:00 PM
    Sunday               10/1/2023 3:00 PM
    Wednesday       10/4/2023 7:00 PM
    Thursday           10/5/2023 7:00 PM
    Friday                  10/6/2023 7:00 PM
    Saturday             10/7/2023 7:00 PM
    Sunday                10/8/2023 1:00 PM

     

    Stranger play fights with Jester

     

  • It’s A Month Until Etudes for TJW

    July 13th & July 14th: The Jester’s Wife Cast & Crew Meet in Central Park, NYC

    Yes, that’s the beginning of the next phase of exploring this play on the way to opening night September 21, 2023

  • This Fall TJW Comes to NYC

    The April 20 Reading Went Very Well!

    Immense thanks to the audience who taught us so much about our play and TheaterLab for hosting us. (Go see Orietta there in Let Me Cook For You)

    The playwright Alan Ayckbourn has taught me more about that craft than anyone and his most important lesson might be in this sentence: “Theatre is not about the writing, it’s not about the directing. It is about that, but in the end it’s really about the actors and the audience and most audiences – aside from the cognoscenti who sit there being experts – come to watch a bit of acting.” 
    Our kind (and I must say highly intelligent, sensitive, and aesthetically refined)audience for this reading watching and reacting to ‘that bit of acting’ by Winnie, Steve, and Xander (along with Ed Altman as necessarily noisy narrator) taught us so much about what needs to happen as we move towards fully realizing our work. 
    We anticipated a ninety minute night but the reading came in at exactly ten minutes LONGER, which taught us that we can trim some branches to this story of a woman whose name we never learn without harm to the overall tale. Our TJW actors gained from our audience the advantage of feeling for the first time what the moments between each one of them and the audience can be. As Margaret Atwood has written, the audience is co-creator of any story and at this stage of our work, their presence was felt and appreciated greatly.
    And now…

    The Jester’s Wife, a medieval comedy by T. J. Elliott produced through Knowledge Workings Theater, will prepare for an autumn opening. Our play will seek to realize fully the story of Jester and Wife as confronted by evil and still afraid for their lives they now encounter in their hideout cave a Stranger afflicted with madness. The Jester and Wife (who might have been the original prototypes for Punch and Judy with their hurled blows and one-liners) bicker, banter, and battle through questions of survival, responsibility, and who gets to tell their own story.

    With an original blend of medieval and distinctly Irish tinges, the comedy pits the Jester’s self-preserving pragmatism and entertainer antics against his Wife’s heroic idealism — and her prowess wielding a broom! Their dilemma shifts from figuring out how to keep their heads to contriving how telling the story through a mystery play might be their ticket out of the cave where they live. But which story gets told is up for grabs. The narrative’s examination of myth-making, martyrdom, and survivor’s guilt mingle together in ways familiar to our present lives. 

    So stay tuned as our team brings this tale to full and funny life.

  • The Jester’s Wife: Readying for a Rollicking Reading this Evening April 20th

    Wife (Winnie Stack) ‘counsels’ Jester on his running away from the beheadings

    (All photos below courtesy of Associate Producer, Narrator, and General Blessing, Ed Altman)

    The ​J​ester’s ​W​ife ​by T.J. Elliott ​takes shape in a semi-staged reading tonight April 20 via…  ​

    the expert efforts of Xander Jackson, Steve Weatherb​ee, Winnie Stack, Ed Altman, Gifford Elliott, Thomas R. Elliott, and Marjorie Phillips Elliott.

    Thank you Orietta and Jenn at TheaterLab. This is the next step to our planned Autumn 2023 full scale production of the play.

    Wife watches as Jester and Stranger ‘dance’

    Last Night’s Fun: Rehearsing Our Reading

    T.J chats with Stranger (Xander Jackson) before the prologue: you do know what a prologue is?
    The Jester’s Wife ponders the wrecks men make
    Jester (Steve Weatherbee) stares in disbelief at suggest that he is not the Jester G.O.A.T. in the 7th Century
    Knowledge Workings’ Artistic & Technical Director Gifford Elliott conferring with our fine cast
    (l-r Xander Jackson – Stranger, Winnie Stack – Wife, Steve Weatherbee – Jester)
    T.J. pondering how he got so lucky to work with all these people who are bringing The Jester’s Wife to sprightly, witty, and wise life

    Stay Tuned For TJW News by following us on Instagram and Facebook

  • Happy Beckett Birthday! April 13th

    Happy Beckett Birthday! April 13th

    Samuel Beckett’s Portrait for Nobel Prize

    “There is nothing funnier than unhappiness”
    It’s the birthday to the man who wrote this line and so many others that continue to make us think and feel in ways that are powerful and yet reflective: Samuel Beckett. Fifty years ago, I got to play Pozzo in the traveling production of Waiting for Godot and I have been hooked on the work of this man ever since right up to the fantastic presentation of Endgame currently going on at Irish Repertory Theatre with Bill Irwin and John Douglas Thompson.
    Here’s what Writers’ Almanac had to offer this morning:
    Today is the birthday of the Irish playwright and novelist Samuel Beckett, born in the Dublin suburb of Foxrock (1906). He studied French and Italian at Trinity College, and, for a while, divided his time between Paris and Dublin. He taught English at the École Normale Supérieure in Paris, and taught French at Trinity College, and traveled around Europe for several years. He settled in Paris permanently in 1937. It was there that he met and befriended fellow Irish ex-pat James Joyce. Joyce’s eyesight was failing by this time, so Beckett would read to him and help him as he worked on Finnegans Wake. One day in 1937, Beckett was out walking with some friends when a panhandler attacked and stabbed him. A young piano student named Suzanne Deschevaux-Dumesnil came to his aid and phoned for an ambulance. It was the start of a lifelong romance and eventual marriage. After he recovered from the stabbing, he visited the attacker in prison. Beckett asked the man why he had decided to attack him; the man said simply, “I don’t know.” Beckett was deeply influenced by the conversation, and began to realize how much of life is just a random series of events.

    As an Irish citizen, Beckett was allowed to remain in Paris even after the Germans occupied the city. He chose to remain with Suzanne, and they both worked in the French Resistance until the Gestapo captured some of the members of their group. They went into hiding in rural France, where Beckett spent the rest of the occupation working on a farm and passing messages for the Resistance.

    Beckett wrote a great deal beginning in the 1930s: poems, stories, novels, and essays. But it was a play he wrote in 1952 that made him famous. That was Waiting for Godot, which was first performed in 1953. Godot was groundbreaking. Typically, plays are concerned with questions that Beckett considered nonessential: will the hero gain fame or fortune, will he win the hand of his lady, will he live happily ever after? In Waiting for Godot, Beckett’s two characters are more concerned with the reason for their existence: what are we here for? One critic hailed it as “a masterpiece that will cause despair for men in general and for playwrights in particular.” It changed what a play could do. As Beckett scholar Ruby Cohn wrote: “After Godot, plots could be minimal; exposition, expendable; characters, contradictory; settings, unlocalized, and dialogue, unpredictable. Blatant farce could jostle tragedy.” The identity of the mysterious Godot has been the subject of much debate; Beckett once said, “If I knew, I would have said so in the play.”

    Beckett was awarded the Nobel Prize in literature in 1969, but by this time he was avoiding all publicity to focus solely on his art. He accepted the award, but did not go to Stockholm for the awards ceremony because he didn’t want to make a public speech. His work became more and more sparse as he stripped away everything he decided was not essential. In 1967, he wrote a play, Come and Go, which contained only 121 words, which were spoken by three characters. His play Rockaby (1980) is only 15 minutes long, and his prose works also became shorter and shorter. He wrote a total of six novels, four long plays, many short plays and story fragments, and poems, teleplays, and essays. Beckett was also a prolific letter writer. His letters have been published in two volumes, and last year even more material was published as Dear Mr. Beckett: Letters from the Publisher, the Samuel Beckett File (2016).

    And it’s Seamus Heaney’s birthday as well: an embarrassment of riches for April 13 nativities 

    “Between my finger and my thumb The squat pen rests; snug as a gun…”

    from Digging

  • Two For One and One For All: World Theater Day & 4th Birthday of Knowledge Workings Theater Company

    Two For One and One For All: World Theater Day & 4th Birthday of Knowledge Workings Theater Company

    We started with Alms four years ago, persevered through the pandemic with Grudges, Within the Context of No Context, and Keeping Right on Zoom, landed back on stage at Broom Street Theater in Madison, Wisconsin with Genealogy and then returned to Off-Broadway at THEATER FOR THE NEW CITY (they insist on all caps) with a fine run of The Oracle last May. And now we are pushing for a revival of Alms and the opening of The Jester’s Wife. All in four years and like any four-year old we can be a little hyperactive but also charming as long we get enough sleep. Thanks are owed to sooooo many for helping us keep on keeping on to #maketheaterlive:

    Next up? The Jester’s Wife. Stay Tuned.

  • You Must Meet The Jester’s Wife

    You Must Meet The Jester’s Wife

    Saint Dymphna with head still attached informs our play but inspiration came from considering her companion, The Jester’s Wife

    Our Cast & Team for Thursday April 20th Reading at TheaterLab

    In Order of Appearance

    Xander Jackson (Stranger)

    Xander Jackson is an on stage & camera actor who recently began his journey with the Barrow Group. Past on stage productions include Proof (Greenwood Lake Theater), Sweat (Cultural Arts Playhouse), and Smartphone Love (The Tank). He has continued his training in the classroom, in front of the camera, and on stage throughout the tristate area.

    In his free time, he enjoys a multitude of activities including Baking, Snowboarding, Skydiving, and Martial Arts Training to name a few. 

    Steven Weatherbee (Jester)

    Steven Weatherbee (Jester) is making his off-Broadway debut in The Jester’s Wife. An MFA graduate from Texas Tech, Steve is an actor and educator who daily relishes the chance to learn from others — artistic craft, philosophy, and pedagogical approach all especially. Born and raised in California, he is thankful to his supportive and ever-inspiring friends and family. Steve is honored to take part with the talented people Knowledge Workings LLC have brought together to make vibrant this story.

    Winnie Stack (Wife)

    Winnie Stack moved from LA to NY in 2019 to pursue comedy and acting, and has found that subway rats are her best audience. Shortly after moving she was cast in the Upright Citizens Brigade Maude team “Peaches,” and now collaborates on two comedy sketch groups “One Bad Egg” and “Sleepover.” While she isn’t performing sketch comedy, she is performing her one woman show “@Jenna” to sold out crowds in NY and LA. Winnie is thrilled to be working on another T.J. Elliott play, and is eager to share this unique and hilarious story with audiences!

    Ed Altman (Narrator)

    With Workings Knowledge Theater: The Oracle, Keeping Right, Grunges (Narrator). Recent stage: Two Swans, Nowhere Man, Victoria Woodhull (both at Theater for the New City). TV/Streaming: The Good Cop (NTD/Epoch TV), The Vow (HBO), Food that Built America (History Channel), Dragon Meets Eagle(Amazon). Recent film: 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.  (Ed is also our invaluable Associate Producer for The Jester’s Wife)

    T.J. Elliott (Playwright & Director)

    Wrote Alms, Grudges, Genealogy, & The Oracle w/ the Joe Queenan — directed the latter May 2022 at Theater for the New City; solo playwrighting: Keeping Right, Honor, The Jester’s Wife. His 2019 Alms SRO comeback ended a 35-year hiatus from Off-Off-Broadway. In those lost years, T.J. produced, directed, & performed among casts of 1000s a mélange of corporate telenovelas & tragicomic, melodramatic, & absurd organizational performance art. (VP Chief Learning Officer at ETS for half  that time.)

    Marjorie Phillips Elliott (Executive Producer)

    Marjorie’s work as Executive Producer & Co-founder of Knowledge Workings Theater arises from deep roots in the arts. A theater major at Skidmore College and grad student in photography at the Fashion Institute of Technology, Marjorie brings to producing a wide array of talents and experiences including her work in the film industry in the 1980s at New Line Cinema. Her support of our productions ranges from strategy to prop design to photo retouching to publicity consultation and beyond. Marjorie is also the Chair of the Board of Chamiza Foundation, a nonprofit helping to ensure the continuity & living preservation of Pueblo Indian culture and traditions, and serves on the Members Committee of the Phillips Collection in Washington, DC

    Gifford Elliott — Artistic & Technical Director

    A graduate of Cal Arts acting program, Gifford has served as Post-Production Coordinator on Bupkis, the 2023 Pete Davidson series, and The Best Man — Final Chapters, both streaming on Peacock. He was also on the postproduction teams for Queen’s Gambit on Netflix and Divorce (Season Three) on HBO. He has worked as a director of theater and film as well as the host of the very popular Srivia at Singers Bar in Brooklyn.

  • New Year, New Play: The Jester’s Wife

     Goossen van der Weyden (1455-1543) The Escape of Saint Dymphna, Father Gerebernus, The Jester and…The Jester’s Wife (Phoebus Collection)

    “​​You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take.”

    My friend, Eddie Powell, said that to me after a horrendous first half of a basketball game in which I could not find the Backboard with any shot let alone the rim or the net.  I like that philosophy and I have preached it to others. Now once again I am practicing what I am preaching as we embark upon our next production: The Jesters Wife.

    THE JESTER’S WIFE

    A Dark Ages Comedy by T.J. Elliott

    Synopsis

    The image above is one panel of the famed 16th Century altarpiece by Goossen van der Weyden that depicted the life of Dymphna, legendary medieval Irish Saint. The most famous of those panels shows her along with her confessor, jester, and the jester’s wife escaping her father, (described in the 17th Century Acta Sanctorum, or Lives Of The Saints), as a King of Ireland (who) grieving over his beautiful dead wife, turned his attention and lust upon Dymphna.” Spoiler alert: that king pursues and beheads Dymphna “because she refused to consent to their brutish passion.” Yet none of these stories explain what became of the Jester and his Wife. Apparently, they survived to impart Dymphna’s legend, but no one has told their story. Until now.

    Can you guess which figure is the Jester’s Wife?

    The Jester’s Wife, a Dark Ages comedy, follows this surviving couple as confronted by evil and still afraid for their lives they now encounter a stranger afflicted with madness. Contemplating questions of survivorship, responsibility, and who gets to tell a story, the play blends and bends the medieval Irish world into a riotous mingling of myth-making, martyrdom, machinations, and magic all too familiar to our present lives.

    There’s that spoiler alert again: Dymphna loses her head but The Jester’s Wife keeps hers — for now

    What’s Next?

    We have assembled a superb casting for the three roles, Stranger, Jester and Wife as well as our staged reading narrator. See their details at this post. —  — APRIL 20 staged reading at our good friends TheaterLab in NYC that will lead to a September production.

    And now we are looking for have found a set designer, costume designer, rehearsal assistant, stage manager, and a fight coordinator. Yes, a fight coordinator: don’t worry no actors or playwrights or most importantly audience members will be injured in the course of this play. And we are seeking a PR representative and marketing consultant for this planned Fall production.

    Let people see the different types of tech roles
    Looking for tech friends

    Our loyal and marvelous supporter, Ed Altman, follows up his stellar acting in last May’s The Oracle at Theater for the New City this time to serve as Assistant Producer and Marjorie Phillips Elliott will again serve as Executive Producer. Want to help? Let us know!

    Ed staring me down…again

  • Looking for Space

    gray and black galaxy wallpaper
    Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com

    Well, not that kind of space. Theater space.

    ​Thanks to the superb ​skills and extraordinary efforts of our actors, crew, producing and directing partners, and just ​splendid  friends,​ ​the last two Knowledge Working Theater shows — Genealogy & THE ORACLE — succeeded powerfully in their objectives; we sold out houses, got good reviews, showed off talent, and prepared for possible expanded productions. Feeling lucky and happy, we now move on (bravely? rashly?) to what’s next.

    In the parlance of New York theater, Knowledge Workings is referred to as an ‘itinerant theater company‘; in other words, we don’t have a space of our own. We have not yet been arrested for vagrancy, but we have used living rooms, the parlor of the Ukrainian Institute, the back of a bar, and Zoom among other venues for auditions, rehearsals, and productions. Now we seek to find a theater for extended runs of Genealogy and The Oracle in the New York City area.

    ​That is why we turn here to ​the wisdom of crowds​ and the kindness of strangers (and those splendid friends yet again)​ for suggestions of and referrals to possible theater spaces. Genealogy with the original cast from its successful premiere at Broom Street Theater in Madison Wisconsin as directed and produced superbly by Dana Pellebon is scheduled to go up in the first weeks of January 2023. The Oracle doesn’t have a set date, but our actors and crew had signaled their desire to continue work that garnered praise for them from our audiences at the Theater for the New City last month. 

    If you have an idea for a theater space, please email me tjell2010@gmail.com  by doing so, you would aid the primary cause of our group, which is to make theater live. Thanks in advance for your consideration and good luck, good health, and good times to you and yours this summer.

    This would be nice