Terence Knapp

Terence Richard Knapp(14 February 1932 – 12 August 2019) was anEnglishactor,director,educator,andauthor.He was an emeritus professor of theatre,University of Hawaii at Manoa,a (Sir Winston, KG) Churchill Fellow and aRoyal Academy of Dramatic Artassociate.

Youth and early career

Knapp was born inHackney,London,England, the firstborn and only son of seven children of Capt. Richard Henry Knapp, RAMC and Alice Catherine (née Carey Keegan) Knapp.

The family was evacuated from London duringWorld War II,first to an abandoned coal mine village inWalesand then to live with relatives inCrumlin,a suburb ofDublin.With his father away on military duty, Knapp became the responsible man of the household at an early age. He took a scholarship examination at the age of eleven and won a free place atParmiter's School,an all-maleAnglicangrammar school. At age 14, he was cast asLady Macbeth.His headmaster sent for his parents and told them that their son was talented and should audition for theRoyal Academy of Dramatic Art(RADA). The Governors of Parmiters paid the audition fee.

On a scholarship from theLondon County Council,he was given a place at the Preparatory Academy for a year, until he was of age to be admitted to RADA. He was reassessed and formally admitted to RADA. Knapp was seen in an academy performance ofShe Stoops to Conquerand signed by a leading theatrical agent; however, at the age of 18, he was drafted for the National Service.

He was trained in theRoyal Air Force(RAF), earning a Best Recruit citation of a Wing Intake of over 1200 men, trained as an aide in anesthesiology, and served in a mobile operating theatre team inGermanyas part of theNorth Atlantic Treaty Organization.

Early career

In 1953, after three years in the RAF, he returned to RADA and was awarded the Academy Medal in the Annual Showing, also the sought-after prize of a year's engagement at the doyen of British Repertory Theatres, theLiverpool Playhouse.After four years of widely varied roles in three-weekly repertory inLancashire,where he also made the acquaintance ofBrian Epstein,he returned to London, where he earned a high reputation in bothBBCandITVtelevision productions (when all transmissions were live), films and theatre. In 1962, he was invited by his idol, SirLaurence Olivier,(whom he had seen perform on stage in roles such as Oedipus, Sir Peter Teazle and Hotspur) to be a founding member of the Chichester Festival and, one year later, an Inaugural Player of theNational Theatre of Great Britain,under Olivier's direction, at the renownedOld Vic Theatre,which culminated in 1965 with Knapp's takeover of Olivier's star role as Tattle inWilliam Congreve'sLove For Loveat theScala Theatreprior to the now legendary visit to bothMoscowandBerlininOthello,Hobson's Choice,andLove For Love.

He was invited byJohn Neville,then artistic director of theNottingham Playhouse,to tourWest Africafor theBritish Council,along with a company includingJudi Dench,who played Viola inTwelfth Nightto Knapp's Feste. The company performed inNigeria,GhanaandSierra Leonefor three months, after which Knapp found an opportunity to travel in Africa and Europe, where atEasterhe had an audience withPope John XXIIIinRome.

In 1966, after four years with Olivier, he was again invited by Neville to tour for the British Council, this time inSoutheast AsiaincludingMalaysia,Brunei,Sarawak,Singapore,Hong Kongand thePhilippines,where the company performed under the patronage ofImelda Marcosin her new Performing Arts Center of Manila. Knapp then visitedJapanof his own accord, where for four and one-half months, he worked as a consultant with theKumo Theatre CompanyofTokyoon the world premiere ofThe Golden Land,a play about the persecution of Christian missionaries and their converts in the early 17th century Nippon, byEndo Shusaku,touring throughout southern Japan with the company by local train with communal accommodations in small inns and hot spring spas.

In the summer of 1966, he was summoned back to England to join John Neville's Nottingham Playhouse company, spending two years with Neville and a brilliant young American associate director, Michael Rudman, playing a succession of leading roles, including Oberon, Tony Lumpkin, and Octavius in bothJulius CaesarandAntony And Cleopatra,as well as Rodrigo to the Othello of Robert Ryan and John Neville's Iago.

In the summer of 1968, having just playedH. G. WellsinBoots with Strawberry Jam(a musical aboutGeorge Bernard Shawby Benny Green and John Dankworth) starring Neville andCleo Laineat theNottingham Playhouse,Knapp was invited by the director Wendy Toye to play the title role as Mr. Buff in a new comic libretto byRobert Morleyof Mozart's one-act operaThe Impresariocommissioned for the Bath Festival 1968 and conducted (as Monsieur Baton) by SirYehudi Menuhinwhose wife, the distinguished ballerinaDiana Gould,played the cloakroom lady.

Later in that year, sponsored by Olivier, he received a Churchill Fellowship in the Performance Arts of Japan and was off to Tokyo for nine months, with a Berlitz crash course in Japanese and generous introductions to star actors, choreographers and scholars for the study of Kabuki, Noh and, in particular, with the legendary "Charlie Chaplin" of Kyogen, Nomura Manzo. He was to return to Japan many times over the next twenty-five years to direct a score of Japanese language productions, mostly of Shakespeare, often in partnership withYamazaki Tsutomu,and where he introduced to Tokyo audiences, in a trio of roles,Watanabe Ken.

In 1970 for the City of London Summer Music Festival Knapp performed the premiere of Alexander Goehr'sShadow Play Twoand Father Christmas in Burtwhistle'sDown by the Greenwood Side.

"Hawaii's World Class Actor"

In Tokyo, Knapp metKabukischolar, Earle Ernst, the founding Chairman of the Department of Theatre and Dance at the University of Hawaii at Manoa's Kennedy Theatre. In 1970, he was invited by Ernst to go to Hawaii as a Visiting Professor to create a Performance and Production program, focusing particularly on the plays of Shakespeare and other European "classical" playwrights, as well as distinguished American authors.

In 1976, Knapp directed himself in the titular role in Aldyth Morris'Damien,a one-man show aboutFather Damien.Damienwas ultimately broadcast nationally onPBSand won the following awards: George Peabody, Ohio State, Christopher awards for author and director, Corporation for Public Broadcasting Honorable Mention for Drama, and the National Association of Educational Broadcasters Award for Art Directing. In addition, he was recognized by the Hawai’i State Legislature as Hawai’i's Adopted World Class Actor.for this role.

Professor Knapp received the University of Hawaii at Manoa's Board of Regents Medal for Excellence in Teaching in 1977. He remains at the university as emeritus professor after 35 years of teaching, after being named as one of the Fabulous Ninety Faculty in celebration of the Ninetieth Anniversary of the university.

In 2001, the Hawaii Shakespeare Festival was dedicated to Knapp in perpetuity.

In last years he continued to work inHonoluluas a mentor, a song and poetry recitalist, and an occasional performer on stage, screen and television.

Selected stage, screen and television roles

In addition to the roles mentioned above, Knapp was honored to be chosen as a member of the ensemble performance on the occasion of the seventieth birthday of SirNoël Coward,in the presence of HRH Princess Margaret at the Theatre Royal in Drury Lane in 1970. In 1972, he performed inBeyond the Fringeunder the auspices of US Army Special Services. He created a Hawaiian Monarchy version of Mozart'sCosì fan tuttefor the Hawai’i Opera Theatre, which received national recognition. He also adapted Gounoud's Faust for young audiences, served as performer/narrator in Verdi's Otello with the Hawai’i Opera Theatre and gave lectures from 1971 to 2003 for the Friends of the Hawai’i Opera Theatre in conjunction with upcoming productions. He appeared at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., in the leading role of Abbot Seigen inThe Scarlet Princess of Edoby Namboku IV and Dr. James Brandon. He is perhaps best known internationally for his many performances as Father Damien, the leper priest of Moloka’i, at the Kennedy Theatre at UH Manoa, at Kalaupapa Settlement, Moloka’i, Hawai’i, at Sophia University in Tokyo, at Manoa Valley Theatre, in a gala performance at Honolulu Hale (Honolulu City Hall), at the Historiche Damiaanstoer in Tremeloo, Belgium (Damien's birthplace) and in the Peabody and Ohio State award-winning television production. Dr. Knapp has often appeared with the Honolulu Symphony as narrator and recitalist for such productions as Schumann'sManfred,Honegger'sJoan at the Stake,Schoenberg'sSurvivor from Warsaw,Prokofiev'sPeter and the Wolfand many Shakespeare-inspired compositions by Mendelssohn, Tchaikovsky and others.

Other favorite roles include Henry Higgins inPygmalion,the title role inThe Miser,and King Lear in Carol Sorgenfrei'sCordelia Victorious,at Kennedy Theatre; Fagin inOliver!,King Arthur inCamelot,Archie Rice (the Olivier role) inThe Entertainer,Henry Higgins inMy Fair Ladyand Gallimard inM. Butterfly,all at Diamond Head Theatre, Honolulu, as well as Noël Coward inNoel and Gertie,Salieri inAmadeusand The chairman inThe Mystery of Edwin Droodat Manoa Valley Theatre. One-man shows includeCaptain Cook, RNby Aldyth Morris in Hawaii andEinstein Talks Like a Regular Guy(Dowd) at theUniversity of Cape Townand thePretoria Technikon,South Africa,performing the Einstein piece also in Hawai’i. From 1971 to 2005, Knapp was the featured performer in annual Shakespeare Birthday Shows at Kennedy Theatre and from 1993 to 2005 performed annually at (Robert) Burns Night for the Caledonian Society of Hawai’i.

Television performances, in addition toDamien,include several featured roles in theHawaii Five-O,Magnum, P.I.andBig Hawaiiseries. From 1977 to 1982 he regularly hostedSpectrum–Hawaii,interviewing various celebrities and distinguished artists on Hawaii Public Television (KHET).

Awards and honors

• Royal Society of Poetry, Certificate of Merit (1947)
• Royal Academy of Dramatic Art Medal, Diploma of Distinction, Comic Mime Prize, Arliss Prose Prize, Liverpool Playhouse Scholarship and offer of H.M. Tennant One-Year Contract (1954)
• Recipient of Churchill Medal, presented by Queen Elizabeth (1969)
• University of Hawai’i Board of Regents Medal for Excellence in Teaching as a Senior Professor (1977)
• Nominated byHonolulu Star-Bulletinnewspaper, as a State Cultural Treasure (1978)
• Recipient, State of Hawai’i House of Representatives Resolution: "Hawaii's Own Adopted World-Class Actor", his Damien Public Broadcasting system telefilm received Peabody and Ohio State University Awards (1979);
• Recipient, University of Hawai’i Clopton Award for Distinguished Community Service(1980)
• Numerous Hawai’i State Theatre Council Po’okela (Excellence) Awards including Director ofRomeo and Juliet,Kennedy Theatre; Lead Actor and Director,Amadeusand Best Performance in a Musical forNoel and Gertie(1986); Director,A Midsummer Night's Dream(1987)
• Recipient, Certificate of Appreciation from Friends of the Hawai’i Opera Theatre for twenty years of lectures on opera production, lives of composers, etc. (1990);
• Recipient of Presentation Clock in appreciation of twenty-five years of lectures for Friends of the Hawai’i Opera Theatre, Recipient, Scot of the Year Award, Caledonian Society of Hawai’i; Laureate:National Society of Arts and Letters(Hawai’i Chapter) (1995).

Publications

• The Training of the Young Actor in Japan,Shimbun Darts, 1974
• Dialogue article with Donald Keene on the problems of directing in the Japanese language, Shjingekidan Kumo, 1974
• "The Kawasugi Journal",Onstage Studies,Number Six, published by the Colorado Shakespeare Festival, 1982
• "Genesis of Damien",Hawai’i Catholic Herald,1996
• Hawaii's Adopted World Class Actor(with Hilda Wane Ornitz), Xlibris Corporation, Copyright 2000.

Additional Source

• Knapp, Terence with Hilda Wane OrnitzHawaii's Adopted World Class Actor(2000)

External links

• Faculty biography from the University of Hawaii at Manoa
• Terence KnappatIMDb
• Honolulu Star Bulletinfeature about Knapp's retirement