The Plays of Knowledge Workings Theater
We were ‘the show that got people talking’ in Isthmus magazine’s year end review of Madison Wisconsin theatre
The show that got people talking: Genealogy at Broom Street Theatre
This eloquent but talky play was part history lesson, part tag-team wrestling match, and part multi-faceted debate that explored race, the ramifications of slavery, the impact of repressive Jim Crow laws on Black Americans, and what responsibility white Americans have to right these wrongs. Dana Pellebon directed the new piece with a light touch, to allow plenty of room for the difficult arguments to resonate — which they did. At a time when the topic of race in this country is so fraught and incendiary that people are afraid to engage with it, this play was successful in encouraging conversation after the lights came back up. That is a real accomplishment. Kudos to authors T.J. Elliott and Joe Queenan and the entire production for creating space for thoughtful exchanges to happen.
Synopsis
from Gwendolyn Rice’s original review of our November 2021 premiere at Broom Street Theatre in Madison, Wisconsin:
“The play starts with two well heeled, well educated couples meeting to record an episode of the sensational podcast, “Chasing the Dead,” where a guest’s shocking genealogical research is revealed each week. Hot-shot lawyer Hamilton “Ham” Hunt (played thoughtfully by Donavan Armbruster) learns during this broadcast that one of his ancestors from the 17th century was an indentured servant who worked his way up to slave owner. Both of these discoveries make Ham squirm. He is especially appalled to see research that connects a distant relative to raping an enslaved woman and then setting her “free.”
Of course this piece of DNA evidence links him to another guest on the show — a Black, former Philadelphia Eagles football great Mosiah Wilson (a measured Atticus Cain) who has long since traded in his jersey for a PhD in philosophy from an Ivy League school. While being connected to a gridiron star this way simultaneously excites and horrifies Ham, it thrills Mosiah’s wife Aaliyah (a driven Quanda Johnson) — perhaps now that he’s been publicly outed as the descendent of a slave owner, the pit bull lawyer will take on her activist organization’s legal case for reparations.
While Ham stammers and gasps with each revelation, his wife Muggs (a no-nonsense Jamie England) coolly calculates the cost of her husband becoming involved with a noble, but likely doomed case, largely to assuage his white guilt. She makes monetary offers to buy the family out of trouble in between pouring herself cocktails at the open bar.
For podcast host Glen Weber (a glib Jackson Rosenberry), the more controversy and conflict on his struggling little show, the better. If only he could get the guys in the control room to stop sabotaging the recording with random sound effects, and finally take him and his thousands of Twitter followers seriously… (Genealogy is) part history lesson, part tag-team wrestling match, and part thoughtful debate about the ramifications of slavery — and repressive Jim Crow laws — on Black Americans and what responsibility white Americans have to right these wrongs.”
Explaining Grudges
Grudges, shows what happens when two brothers whose friendship has been sundered by the 2016 election get together for a surprise ‘bury-the-hatchet’ dinner arranged by one of their wives. They solemnly agree to never let the words “Trump” or “Obama” pass through their lips during the course of the evening. But promises are made to be broken. And hatchets rarely stay buried for long. Knowledge Workings presented Grudges, a problem comedy for our times, as a live streamed Zoom reading on Saturday, May16th at 7PM ET and Sunday, May 17th at 2PM ET 2020 (during the pandemic!) featuring John Blaylock (Matthew McCarthy ), Lynne Otis (Faith Vergaretti) , James Lawson (Paul McCarthy), Jasmine Dorothy Haefner (Candy Cruz), Andre Montgomery (Jerry Marcus) , and Ed Altman (Narrator)
Synopsis
Beliefs collide in darkly comic but ultimately meaningful ways in this late-night meeting of a zealous young Catholic convert, an involuntarily retired sportswriter, and the nun who taught him fifty years earlier as they assemble packages for the homeless — alms for the poor. John Clay in its 2019 Off-Broadway premiere directed a compelling cast of Kathleen Huber, Jack Farrell, and Aaron Long for this play co-authored by T.J. Elliott and New York Times notable author and Wall Street Journal columnist Joe Queenan. In 2023, Gifford Elliott directed Aaron Long, Lucy McMichael, and Ed Altman in the filming of scenes from Alms that you can view here
Synopsis
Stories of Dymphna, legendary medieval Irish Saint, recount her escape from her crazy wicked father accompanied by her Jester and the Jester’s Wife. Spoiler alert: The Lives of the Saints tells us that the king pursues and beheads Dymphna “because she refused to consent to their brutish passion.” Yet none of these tales explain what became of the Jester and his Wife. Apparently, that couple survived to impart Dymphna’s legend, but no one has told their story. Until now. The Jester’s Wife, a Dark Ages comedy, follows the couple as, confronted by evil and still afraid for their lives, they now encounter other perils. Contemplating questions of survival, responsibility and who gets to tell a story, this play effects an original blend of medieval and distinctly Irish tinges as the Jester’s self-preserving pragmatism and his Wife’s heroic idealism spin out interesting and entertaining moral discussions. The narrative’s examination of mythmaking, martyrdom and survivor’s guilt mingle together in ways familiar to our present lives.
Synopsis
The review in TheaterScene here said it best: “This credible incarnation of The Oracle proves it to be smart comic entertainment.” Oracles answer questions and some of the ones in this play sound familiar in this age of creping AI and quiet quitting. Is knowledge power in corporate America? Or is some other less lofty commodity the secret ingredient to success and elevation to the C-Suite? When the CEO of a megacorporation brings in a Harvard hotshot to challenge his longtime knowledge guru, nicknamed The Oracle, their fierce and scathingly funny competition shreds the curtains of ‘corporate speak’ and Wall Street jargon to reveal what really matters in the business world. The results change the lives and loves of those who work in the ‘idea factory.’ This comedy scrutinizes diversity, office politics, ambition, alliances, and competition within a company from the break room to the board room. THE ORACLE by Wall Street Journal humor columnist Joe Queenan and writer T.J. Elliott follows the action when two chief knowledge officers vie for control while the audience emerges as one big winner in the battle. A comedy about office politics, that borders on the ridiculous!
Synopsis
Two corporate lawyers, Ronnee and Ludwig, sit in a conference room awaiting the arrival of Don, another executive at their company. Their purpose is to deliver to Don a recent investigation’s results for a complaint lodged against him, but Don has another purpose in mind: Honor. This demand leads the trio to explore what meaning that word carries in our present time. If any. (Premiering February 2016 as part of The Chain Theatre’s Winter One-Act Festival.)
