SOME SAY...
a choreographer-director-writer-performer and all-around theatrical auteur who matter-of-factly calls
his work 'avant-garde song and dance--you know, whimsical, surrealist music theater,'
as if we all know what he's talking about."
a theatrical savant implies he knows not what he does—
that he's an idiot savant to boot. He might be the first to agree.
LA Stage Magazine, Feature Article
Roht's vision is part dream - part nightmare - a sliver of fantasy and some social commentary
wrapped with a huge blanket of imagination and creativity. By the end of the 55 minutes,
you feel that you fell through Alice's rabbit hole,
and the images you saw are you, looking back at yourself.
Entertainment Today
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click: film
Ken Roht, bio...
A recent transplant from Los
Angeles, Ken arrived in the Berkshires in January 2018 and created Daniel’s Art
Party, as part of Bard College at Simon’s Rock. Serving as Artistic Director, a
June 2018 festival was presented, featuring many Berkshire organizations and
individuals including Moving Arts Exchange, Cantilena Chamber Choir, Berkshire
Fire Fighters, Great Barrington Girl Scouts, Broadway performer Lauren Elder, local
fiber artist Huck Elling and Shakespeare and Company regulars Martin Jason
Asprey and James Warwick.
Since June, Ken has created more
community engagement projects and workshops with Gould Farm, Berkshire South
Regional Community Center, Berkshire Montessori School, Red Room Radio Redux
with WBCR, USA Dance and CTSB-TV.
Previously, Ken adapted,
directed and choreographed Queenie Pie, Duke Ellington's only opera, for
Chicago Opera Theater and Long Beach Opera, as well as the highly successful
production of the Czech opera, The Good Soldier Schweik. He is the
creator and director of the yearly holiday musicals co-sponsored by the 99c
Only Stores chain. Seven original musicals in eight years. Ken also directed
and choreographed an evening of Offenbach one-acts for Bard Summerscape
Festival in New York. And his one-act opera Last Resort, in which he played a lead role, opened
the first New Works Festival at Disney’s REDCAT. He has been commissioned by
Los Angeles’ Center Theater Group twice, where three of his new musicals where
workshopped. Among other supporting
organizations: Audrey Skirball, Durfee Foundation, Dance Theater Workshop,
California Arts Council and Evidence Room Theater.
As a filmmaker, Ken's film Perfect
Cowboy was chosen to screen during the first weekend of Los Angeles OUTFEST
at the Directors Guild of America. The festival celebrated Ken as one of their
top five writer/directors to follow, "5 in Focus". Being an
accomplished actor, Ken playing the title role. The film is now being
distributed by Breaking Glass Pictures. Ken’s first film, a vampire musical
starring Kevin Richardson of The Backstreet Boys, was a glorious mess.
Ken choreographs for other
directors, notably at New York City Opera, New York Philharmonic, New York’s
Playwrights Horizons, La Jolla Playhouse, Yale Repertory, Oregon Shakespeare
Festival (for seven consecutive years), Getty Villa, Kirk Douglas Theater,
Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, Cornerstone, South Coast Rep, Gale Gates et al,
Ohio's Great Lakes Theater Festival and Lookingglass in Chicago.
As a performer, Ken sang lead
roles in rock opera projects with Grace Jones and with New York City Opera
singers; acted in videos by artists Bill Viola and Paul McCarthy and Winsome
Brown; recently danced in Florence + The Machine’s “What Kind of Man” video;
and was a company member and principle choreographer for the genius-auteur Reza
Abdoh’s Dar-a-Luz, an international, experimental theater company (the work now
archived at Lincoln Center and Cal Arts) for seven years. Before that, Ken was
a member of the very wholesome national song and dance ensemble, The Young
Americans.
Gerald Herman
Kathi Finnerty
Kathi Finnerty
Plum Foundation
Department of Cultural Affairs, Los Angeles
Good Works Foundation
Audrey Skirball-Kenis Theater Projects
The Oppenheims
Durfee Foundation
L.A. Future Projects
Flintridge Foundation
Dance Theater Workshop
California Arts Council
California Arts Council
And people like you…
