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Ken Davenport | |
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 Davenport in October 2020 | |
| Born | Kenneth Anjum Hasija August 23, 1972 Phoenix, Arizona, U.S. |
| Alma mater | New York University, Tisch School of Arts |
| Occupation(s) | Writer, Producer |
| Years active | 1993-present |
| Spouse | Tracy Weiler (m. 2014) |
| Website | kendavenport |
Ken Davenport (born Kenneth Anjum Hasija, August 23, 1972) [1] is a two-time Tony Award-winning [2] theatre producer, blogger, and writer. He is best known for his production work on Broadway.
Davenport was born in Phoenix, Arizona to Dr. Kenny Hasija and Pamela Soper (née Davenport). He grew up in Sturbridge, Massachusetts and attended the Bancroft School in Worcester, Massachusetts. He attended Johns Hopkins University for one year with the intention of practicing law, before transferring to New York University's Tisch School of the Arts. He graduated in 1994 with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Acting.[ citation needed ]
Davenport began his professional theater career by working as a production assistant on the 1993 Broadway revival of My Fair Lady starring Richard Chamberlain. Before he began his producing career, he established himself as a company and general manager, working on shows such as Grease , Show Boat , Ragtime , Thoroughly Modern Millie , and Gypsy .[ citation needed ]
Davenport founded the company Davenport Theatrical Enterprises (DTE) in 2004, and has created, produced, and managed Broadway shows. [1] His first ventures as a producer were the three Off-Broadway shows The Awesome 80s Prom , Altar Boyz , and My First Time , which he also wrote. [3] Davenport's first Broadway credit as a producer was 13 , and since then he has produced over 20 Broadway shows, including the first Broadway revival of Godspell , the Tony Award-winning Best Musical Kinky Boots , and Deaf West Theatre's Spring Awakening . [4]
Since its founding, Davenport Theatrical Enterprises has expanded to other areas of the theater business. It founded Broadway Genius Group Sales, a group sales agency for Broadway and Off-Broadway shows; [5] DTE Agency, a theatrical marketing agency; and DTE Management, a general management division. In 2019, DTE Management relaunched as Architect Theatrical. [6]
Davenport Theatrical Enterprises has founded several websites, including Your Broadway Genius, [7] Best of Off-Broadway, and both the website and smartphone app Did He Like It?, a review aggregator for New York theater based on New York Times chief theatre critic Ben Brantley. [8] Additionally, Davenport is the creator of Be a Broadway Star , the only Broadway-themed board game.
Davenport's television and film credits include the documentary These Magnificent Miles: On the Road with Red Wanting Blue, and The Bunny Hole, an award-winning television pilot that has appeared in the LA Indie Film Festival, the Orlando Film Festival, the LA Comedy Festival and more. [9]
He managed and owned the Davenport Theatre, an Off-Broadway theater in Manhattan's Theater District until January 2019. [10] The Davenport Theatre had two performance spaces, a 149-seat main stage on the ground level, and a 60-seat blackbox theater on the upper level. Davenport named the theater after his great-grandfather, Delbert Essex Davenport, who was a theater producer, publicist, author and lyricist in the early 1900s. [11]
Davenport was named one of Crain's "40 Under 40", [12] and received the 2010 Leonidas A. Nickole Award of Distinction from the Musical Theatre Society of Emerson College. [13] He won the 2008 Spirit of Theatre Award from Theatre Resources Unlimited, [14] and his television pilot The Bunny Hole has been honored at the Orlando Film Festival, the IndieFEST Film Awards, and more. [15]
In 2008, he appeared in one of the first Apple iPhone television commercials. [16]
Davenport has been a guest lecturer at universities in the New York City metropolitan area. [17] He has taught “Acting As A Business” for America Online, [18] and his marketing techniques have been profiled in the New York Times [19] and in marketing guru's Andy Sernovitz's book Word of Mouth Marketing. [20] Davenport was a member of the BMI Librettist Workshop [21] and is a founding member of the Independent Theater Bloggers Association. [22]
Davenport is a member of The Broadway League and the League of Off-Broadway Theaters and Producers.
An off-Broadway theatre is any professional theatre venue in New York City with a seating capacity between 100 and 499, inclusive. These theatres are smaller than Broadway theatres, but larger than off-off-Broadway theatres, which seat fewer than 100.
The Drama Desk Award is an annual prize recognizing excellence in New York theatre. First bestowed in 1955 as the Vernon Rice Award, the prize initially honored Off-Broadway productions, as well as Off-off-Broadway, and those in the vicinity. Following the 1964 renaming as the Drama Desk Awards, Broadway productions were included beginning with the 1968–69 award season. The awards are considered a significant American theater distinction.
Jeanine Tesori, known earlier in her career as Jeanine Levenson, is an American composer and musical arranger best known for her work in the theater. She is the most prolific and honored female theatrical composer in history, with five Broadway musicals and six Tony Award nominations. She won the 1999 Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Music in a Play for Nicholas Hytner's production of Twelfth Night at Lincoln Center, the 2004 Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Music for Caroline, or Change, the 2015 Tony Award for Best Original Score for Fun Home, making them the first female writing team to win that award, and the 2023 Tony Award for Best Original Score for Kimberly Akimbo. She was named a Pulitzer Prize for Drama finalist twice for Fun Home and Soft Power.
Altar Boyz is a musical comedy with music and lyrics by Gary Adler and Michael Patrick Walker and book by Kevin Del Aguila. Centering on a fictitious Christian boy band from Ohio, the show satirizes, among other things, the phenomenon of boy bands and the popularity of Christian-themed music in contemporary American culture. It began an Off Broadway run on March 1, 2005, and closed on January 10, 2010, after sixteen previews and 2,032 regular performances, making it the 9th longest-running Off-Broadway musical of all time.
Alexander H. Cohen was an American theatrical producer who mounted more than one hundred productions on both sides of the Atlantic. He was the only American producer to maintain offices in the West End as well as on Broadway.
The House of Blue Leaves is a play by American playwright John Guare which premiered Off-Broadway in 1971, and was revived in 1986, both Off-Broadway and on Broadway, and was again revived on Broadway in 2011. The play won the Drama Critics' Circle Award for Best American Play and the Obie Award for Best American Play in 1971. The play is set in 1965, when Pope Paul VI visited New York City.
Jeff Calhoun is an American director, choreographer, producer and dancer.
The Lucille Lortel Awards recognize excellence in New York Off-Broadway theatre. The Awards are named for Lucille Lortel, an actress and theater producer, and have been awarded since 1986. They are produced by the League of Off-Broadway Theatres and Producers by special arrangement with the Lucille Lortel Foundation, with additional support from the Theatre Development Fund.
Kevin McCollum is an American theatrical booking executive and producer of musical theater and plays, many on Broadway. During a producing career spanning over twenty-five years, McCollum has received three Tony Awards for Best Musical for In the Heights, Avenue Q, and Rent.
Kevin Adams is an American theatrical lighting designer. He has earned four Tony Awards for lighting design.
Tyler Maynard is an American stage and film actor. He is best known for playing Mark in the 2005 musical Altar Boyz, for which he won a Theatre World Award and received a nomination for a Drama Desk Award.
Stewart F. Lane is a Broadway producer, director, playwright and former actor. He has also written books, including Let's Put on a Show! and Jews of Broadway. He has also produced in Dublin. In addition to publishing two plays, he has directed across the country, working with Stephen Baldwin, Shannen Doherty, Chazz Palminteri, and more. He is co-owner of the Palace Theatre (Broadway) with the Nederlander Organization and a partner in the Tribeca Grill with Robert De Niro, Sean Penn and Mikhail Baryshnikov. He has written three books: Let's Put on a Show!, Jews on Broadway: An Historical Survey of Performers, Playwrights, Composers, Lyricists and Producers, and Black Broadway: African Americans on the Great White Way.
Stafford Arima is a Canadian-born theatre director. Arima studied at York University in Toronto, where he was the recipient of the Dean's Prize for Excellence in Creative Work. He is a member of the SDC and CAEA. In April 2017, he became the artistic director of Theatre Calgary.
Alex Lacamoire is a Cuban-American composer, arranger, conductor, musical director, music copyist, and orchestrator who has worked on many shows both on and off-Broadway. He is the recipient of multiple Tony and Grammy Awards for his work on shows such as In the Heights (2008), Hamilton (2016), and Dear Evan Hansen (2017). Lacamoire was awarded the Kennedy Center Honor in 2018.
The John Gore Organization (JGO), formerly known as Key Brand Entertainment (KBE), is a producer and distributor of live theater in North America, as well as an e-commerce company, focused on theater. KBE was founded in the UK in 2004 by 14-time Tony Award-winning Producer John Gore who is the company's Chairman, CEO and Owner.
Edgar George McIldowie Lansbury is a British-American retired theatre, film, and television producer.
Christopher Gattelli is an American choreographer, performer and theatre director.
Jill Furman is an American theatrical producer. Furman's Broadway credits include: Hamilton,,In the Heights, Rodgers + Hammerstein’s Cinderella, The Heiress, Seminar, West Side Story,The Drowsy Chaperone, Sly Fox and Fortune’s Fool. Off Broadway: Freestyle Love Supreme, On The Line and Adult Entertainment. Furman's father is the producer Roy Furman.
Anna Louizos is an American scenic designer and art director. She is known for her Tony Award-nominated sets for the musicals In the Heights,High Fidelityand The Mystery of Edwin Drood as well as the London, Broadway, Las Vegas, and touring productions of Avenue Q. Louizos was represented on Broadway with School of Rockat The Wintergarden Theatre,Holiday Inn (2016),Honeymoon in Vegas,Dames at Sea (2015),Cinderella at the Broadway Theatre in 2013–15.Other Broadway designs include Curtains (2007),,It Shoulda Been You,White Christmas on Broadway at the Marquis Theatre,The Performers,Steel Magnoliasand Golda's Balcony
Morris Berchard is a Canadian theatre producer.
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