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Recently hailed as
the “P.T. Barnum of Off-Broadway” in the New York Times, featured
on a
national commercial for the iPhone,
and named one of
Crain's Forty Under 40 for 2008, Ken is the only independent producer to have three shows running
simultaneously Off-Broadway:
ALTAR BOYZ,
THE AWESOME 80S PROM and
MY FIRST TIME.
Ken is
also a Producer of
13 and
Speed
the Plow on Broadway.
ALTAR BOYZ, the longest running Off-Broadway musical to open in the
last ten years, which Ken co-conceived and produced, was the winner
of the 2005 Outer Critics Award for Best Off-Broadway Musical and
the winner of the Broadway.com Audience Favorite Award for Long
Running Off-Broadway Musical for the past two years in a row. It
recently completed its first National Tour, garnering critical
acclaim around the country, and has also been produced
internationally in Korea and Hungary. In the coming year, ALTAR
BOYZ is slated for production in Brazil, Japan, Australia, the
United Kingdom and many other countries.
THE AWESOME 80s PROM, which Ken created and directed, is in its 4th
year in New York City, and in its 3rd year in Chicago, and has had
long runs in Minneapolis and Baltimore. THE PROM won the
Improvisational Theater Association’s Award for Best Interactive
Show in 2006 and is widely considered to be one of the most
successful interactive theatrical productions ever created. THE
PROM is currently being licensed to theaters around the country
through Interactive Theater Worldwide, a subdivision of Davenport
Theatrical Enterprises, dedicated to the licensing of interactive
properties.
MY FIRST TIME, Ken’s latest production, which he wrote and directed
as well as produced, recently premiered Off-Broadway at New World
Stages and has already been featured on CNN, MSNBC, The BBC, Fox
News, TMZ.com and in Jay Leno’s monologue on The Tonight Show. In
the coming year, MY FIRST TIME will be seen in Germany, Austria,
Switzerland, Mexico, France, Spain, Korea, and many more countries
around the world. MY FIRST TIME, is the first ever example of
‘Theater 2.0.’ Based on submissions to a popular website, it is the
first play based solely on “user generated content.” Ken’s “Virgins
Get In Free” promotion for the opening of MY FIRST TIME received
international attention from every major media network around the
world.
Ken is a Sturbridge, Massachusetts native and a graduate of The
Bancroft School in Worcester, which recently awarded him with the
Young Alumni Achievement Award. After high school, Ken attended
Johns Hopkins University and New York University’s Tisch School of
the Arts, where he graduated with honors and was named a “University
Scholar”. Immediately upon graduation, Ken began his career in the
commercial theatre industry with management positions on the
Broadway revivals of My Fair Lady with Richard Chamberlain and
Grease with Rosie O’Donnell. While a member of the staff at The
Charlotte Wilcox Company, Ken had the opportunity to work on the
Broadway productions of Damn Yankees, On The Waterfront, Buskers,
and many others. After company managing a National Tour of A Grand
Night for Singing, Ken began a three year relationship with the
infamous impresario Garth Drabinksy and LIVENT, during which time he
worked on the Tony Award winning Broadway productions of Showboat,
Candide, Ragtime and Parade. Ken company managed the Broadway
production of the 2002 Tony Award Winning Thoroughly Modern Millie as
well as the touring companies of Jekyll & Hyde, Chicago (National
Tour and Las Vegas) and general managed the National Tour of
Cinderella starring Eartha Kitt, Deborah Gibson and Jamie Lynn
Sigler. Ken was the Associate General Manager for GYPSY starring
Bernadette Peters and directed by Sam Mendes which was nominated for
the Tony Award for Best Revival in 2003. As the Director of
Creative Development for NETworks, Ken worked on the development of
several new theatre pieces, including the Broadway production of
Little Women. Ken has also produced and directed several workshops,
readings and regional productions, including several companies of
Forever Plaid (the last of which he performed for former President
George Bush and his wife, Barbara), a revised version of Is There
Life After High School and an original musical which he wrote
entitled Prime Time. He has had the pleasure of working with a
wonderful variety of talents over the years including Harold Prince,
Tommy Tune, Terrence McNally and many of Broadway’s premier
producers including Clear Channel Entertainment, Robert Fox, Barry
and Fran Weissler, Hal Luftig, Fox Theatricals and others.
Ken taught “Acting As A Business” for America Online and was
profiled online and in the premiere issue of Experience magazine as
a Broadway “up-and-comer” and his unique marketing style has been
profiled in the New York Times and in marketing guru’s Andy
Sernovitz’s latest book entitled Word of Mouth Marketing.
Ken won the 2003 Acclaim Screenwriting Award for his television
pilot, “I.C.A.”, and he is a member of the BMI Librettist Workshop.
He is a senior member of the organization known as The Off-Broadway
Brainstormers, a town-hall like forum for dialogue amongst the
Off-Broadway community at large. The Brainstormers were founded on
the belief that communication and collaboration amongst industry
peers is critical for the success of the community. The
Brainstormers have already implemented several industry changing
initiatives including a quantitative study of its audiences and the
now biannual “20at20” campaign, which gives audiences an opportunity
to purchase $20 tickets, 20 minutes before curtain time, to a
variety of Off-Broadway shows (www.20at20.com). Ken was the
committee leader for both 20at20 and the focus group studies.
Ken has had the pleasure of being asked to speak to a variety of
organizations on theatrical marketing and production including
The Word Of Mouth
Marketing Association (WOMMA), Center for Communication
Studies, The Commercial Theater Institute, The Independent
Presenter’s Network, The TAMY Awards, and others.
Ken’s current projects include adapting the novel and film Somewhere
in Time into a Broadway musical, a documentary on one of the top
unsigned bands in the country, Red Wanting Blue, and a new social
networking site for the Broadway community called
BroadwaySpace.com.
Ken is a member of The Broadway League and the League of
Off-Broadway Theaters and Producers.
Ken's favorite
website is
BestMusical.com.
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