Ken Davenport

Ken Davenport is a theatre producer.

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, Davenport is the only independent producer to have three shows running simultaneously Off-Broadway: ALTAR BOYZ, THE AWESOME 80S PROM and MY FIRST TIME.

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 every 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 Thorough 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 performed for former President George H.W. 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. [ [http://www.20at20.com 20at20] ] Davenport was the committee leader for both 20at20 and the focus group studies.

Davenport has had the pleasure of being asked to speak to a variety of organizations on theatrical marketing and production including the Center for Communication Studies, The Commercial Theater Institute, The Independent Presenter’s Network, The TAMY Awards, and others.

Davenport’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.

Notes

External links

* [http://www.davenporttheatrical.com DavenportTheatrical.com]
* [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j-toeLrBGmI National iPhone Commercial]
* [http://mycrains.crainsnewyork.com/40under40/profiles/2008/10090 Crain's Forty Under 40]
* " [http://www.altarboyz.com Altar Boyz] "
* " [http://www.theawesome80sprom.com The Awesome 80s Prom] "
* [http://www.americantheatrewing.org/seminars/detail/producing_commercial_theatre_off_broadway_10_06 Producing Commercial Theatre Off-Broadway] "Working in the Theatre" video at American Theatre Wing, October 2006