Knowledge Workings Theater Company
photo by Bill Wadman
Starting in 2018, T.J. wrote the plays Alms, Grudges, Genealogy, & The Oracle with celebrated American satirist Joe Queenan; he also directed the latter May 2022 at Theater for the New City. Genealogy was produced by Broom Street Theater and directed by Dana Pellebon November 2021 in Madison Wisconsin.
In the Spring and Summer of 2020, T.J. produced live on Zoom for eleven performances the dark comedy, Grudges, That autumn, he directed also on Zoom an unauthorized adaptation of Within The Context of No Context (celebrating the 40th anniversary of the publication of that momentous New Yorker essay by the late George W.S. Trow) and his mostly fake Swedish screwball comedy Keeping Right.
Other solo playwrighting and producing includes HONOR which ran at the Gene Frankel Theater in 2024, The Jester’s Wife which ran at The Chain Theater in 2023, and Retrospective which started part of the 2025 Broadway Bound Theater Festival at AMT Theater and had its UK premiere at Barons Court Theatre May 2026
Those experiences inspired T.J. to co-author with Gifford Elliott the 2025 book 13 Ways of Looking at Self-Producing. “To make live theater, playwrights increasingly must self-produce scripts for their audiences. 13 Ways Of Looking At Self Producing offers reflections and recipes gained from that experience. This candid and perceptive set of views by T.J. and Gifford illuminates the process and prospect of self-production, whisking readers through that tricky but fulfilling course and suggesting dozens of resources that will come in handy along the way.”
T.J.’s 2019 Alms SRO comeback at TheaterLab ended a 35-year hiatus from Off-Off-Broadway where his earlier shows Lazy Eye and Captive Audiences played. In those lost years, T.J. produced, directed, & performed among casts of 1000s a mélange of corporate telenovelas & tragicomic, melodramatic, & absurd organizational performance art. To put it another way, his all-consuming job was VP and Chief Learning Officer at ETS for half that time, and a wandering organizational consultant and knowledge broker before that hitch.
Before that organizational odyssey, T.J. also appeared regionally as an actor in The Devil’s Disciple (Reverend Anthony Anderson), Sexual Perversity in Chicago (Bernie), and The Dumbwaiter (Ben). In the early 1980s, T.J. studied with Alan Brody, Terry Schreiber, and Jill Andre.
T.J. also writes two Substacks — Chasing the Dead: Amateur Adventures in Genealogy & Testing: A Personal History
Born in the Bronx, he lives in Princeton NJ with his wife and frequent collaborator, Marjorie Phillips. Together they founded Knowledge Workings Theater. Their plays are available for purchase and licensing from Off the Wall Plays
More on T.J. here
“Writing a play is like smashing that ashtray, filming it in slow motion, and then running the film in reverse, so that the fragments of rubble appear to fly together. You start—or at least I start—with the rubble.”
Tom Stoppard, to an interviewer in 1977
Joe Queenan
A free-lance satirist based in Tarrytown, N.Y., Joe is the author of 10 books, including If You’re Talking to Me, Your Career Must Be in Trouble and Red Lobster, White Trash and the Blue Lagoon. His 2009 memoir Closing Time was a New York Times Notable Book of the Year. A frequent contributor to BBC Radio, his work there includes From the Mayflower to the Moon (And Back Again), A Brief History of Shame and Hitler’s Favourite Cowboy. He also made three short films for Britain’s Channel 4: Mickey Rourke for a Day, My Fair Hugh, and So You Wanna Be a Gangster. He wrote, directed and starred in the financially ruinous 1994 low-budget film Twelve Steps to Death, an unsparing assault on 12-step programs of all descriptions He writes the Moving Targets column for the Wall Street Journal and has been a regular contributor to the New York Times, Barron’s, GQ, The Guardian and innumerable other periodicals over the years. He is co-author with TJ Elliott of the problem comedies Alms, Grudges, Genealogy, and The Oracle. His most recent solo effort for theater was The Counterfeit Moron, a sold out hit at The Chain Theater Off-Broadway in 2025 His movie Top Hate is a festival favorite and award winner.
Only Baby Boomers are capable of such anachronistic annoyingness
The Oxford English Dictionary has used this quote as a citation.
J. Queenan, Balsamic Dreams ii. 43
Knowledge Workings Theater Company
photo by Bill Wadman
Earlier stage-works included Lazy Eye at Warren Robertson’s Studio Theatre, as well as writing, directing, and producing two unexpected break-even Off-Off Broadway runs of the Captive Audiences revues. He also appeared regionally as an actor in The Devil’s Disciple (Reverend Anthony Anderson), Sexual Perversity in Chicago (Bernie), and The Dumbwaiter (Ben). In the early 1980s, T.J. studied with Alan Brody, Terry Schreiber, and Jill Andre.
In the Spring and Summer of 2020, T.J. produced live on Zoom for eleven performances the dark comedy, Grudges, also co-written with Queenan — to whom he owes his return to playwrighting. In November 2020, he directed Within The Context of No Context celebrating the 40th anniversary of the publication of that momentous New Yorker essay by the late George W.S. Trow. In December 2020, Knowledge Workings Theater premiered online his solo mostly fake Swedish screwball comedy Keeping Right. Returning to live in-person theater in November 2021, Genealogy by Queenan and Elliott premiered in Madison Wisconsin at Broom Street Theater. T.J. then directed their most recent collaboration, The Oracle, at Theater for the New City in May 2022, which garnered glowing reviews. (TBH, the reviews were gratifyingly good but we had to glue glitter to make them literally glow). Elliott’s latest solo work, The Jester’s Wife, will open in September at The Chain Theater in Manhattan.
Born in the Bronx, T.J. now lives in Princeton, NJ with his wife, Marjorie Phillips Elliott, with whom he co-founded Knowledge Workings Theater
photo by David Schroedel
A free-lance satirist based in Tarrytown, N.Y., Joe is the author of 10 books, including If You’re Talking to Me, Your Career Must Be in Trouble and Red Lobster, White Trash and the Blue Lagoon. His 2009 memoir Closing Time was a New York Times Notable Book of the Year. A frequent contributor to BBC Radio, his work there includes From the Mayflower to the Moon (And Back Again), A Brief History of Shame and Hitler’s Favourite Cowboy. He also made three short films for Britain’s Channel 4: Mickey Rourke for a Day, My Fair Hugh, and So You Wanna Be a Gangster. He wrote, directed and starred in the financially ruinous 1994 low-budget film Twelve Steps to Death, an unsparing assault on 12-step programs of all descriptions He writes the Moving Targets column for the Wall Street Journal and has been a regular contributor to the New York Times, Barron’s, GQ, The Guardian and innumerable other periodicals over the years.
In May of 2019, his first play with T.J. Elliott , Alms, enjoyed a sold out Off Broadway Equity Showcase production. Their second collaboration, Grudges, a dark comedy that mined the hilarity in familial polarity between two brothers estranged by the 2016 election, ran live on Zoom for seven heralded performances in July 2020. Genealogy, their third collaboration, opened Broom Street Theater’s Fall 2021 season in Madison Wisconsin. The Oracle, their fourth concoction, premiered at Theater for The New City in May 2022.
The Alms Team
May 2019 at TheaterLabA Partial Grudges Team Reunion
December 4th, 2021 at James Joyce Public House, NYC
