Terence Knapp
Encyclopedia
Terence Richard Knapp is an English
actor
, director, educator, and author
. He is an Emeritus Professor of Theatre, University of Hawaii at Manoa
, a (Sir Winston, KG ) Churchill Fellow and a Royal Academy of Dramatic Art
Associate.
, 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 during World War II
, first to an abandoned coal mine village in Wales
and then to live with relatives in Crumlin
, a suburb of Dublin. 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 at Parmiter's School
, an all-male Anglican grammar school. At age 14, he was cast as Lady Macbeth
. His headmaster sent for his parents and told them that their son was talented and should audition for the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art
(RADA). The Governors of Parmiters paid the audition fee.
On a scholarship from the London 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 of She Stoops to Conquer
and signed by a leading theatrical agent; however, at the age of 18, he was drafted for the National Service.
He was trained in the Royal 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 in Germany
as part of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.
. After four years of widely-varied roles in three-weekly repertory on Merseyside
side, where he also made the acquaintance of Brian Epstein
, he returned to London, where he earned a high reputation in both BBC
and ITV
television productions (when all transmissions were live), films and theatre. In 1962, he was invited by his idol, Sir Laurence 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 the National Theatre of Great Britain, under Olivier's direction, at the renowned Old Vic Theatre, which culminated in 1965 with Knapp's takeover of Olivier's star role as Tattle in William Congreve's Love For Love at the Scala Theatre
prior to the now legendary visit to both Moscow
and Berlin
in Othello
, Hobson's Choice, and Love For Love.
He was invited by John Neville, then Artistic Director of the Nottingham Playhouse
, to tour West Africa
for the British Council
, along with a company including Judi Dench
, who played Viola in Twelfth Night to Knapp's Feste. The company performed in Nigeria
, Ghana
and Sierra Leone
for three months, after which Knapp found an opportunity to travel in Africa and Europe, where at Easter
he had an audience with Pope John XXIII
in Rome
.
In 1966, after four years with Olivier, he was again invited by Neville to tour for the British Council, this time in Southeast Asia
including Malaysia, Brunei
, Sarawak
, Singapore
, Hong Kong
and the Philippines
, where the company performed under the patronage of Imelda Marcos
in her new Performing Arts Center of Manila. Knapp then visited Japan
of his own accord, where for four and one-half months, he worked as a consultant with the Kumo Gekidan of Tokyo
on the world premiere of The Golden Land, a play about the persecution of Christian missionaries and their converts in the early 17th century Nippon, by Endo 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 both Julius Caesar
and Antony And Cleopatra, as well as Rodrigo to the Othello of Robert Ryan and John Neville's Iago.
In the summer of 1968, having just played H.G. Wells in Boots with Strawberry Jam (a musical about George Bernard Shaw
by Benny Green and John Dankworth) starring Neville and Cleo Laine
at the Nottingham Playhouse
, Knapp was invited by the director Wendy Toye to play the title role as Mr. Buff in a new comic libretto by Robert Morley
of Mozart's one act opera The Impresario commissioned for the Bath Festival 1968 and conducted (as Monsieur Baton) by Sir Yehudi Menuhin
whose wife, the distinguished ballerina Diana 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 with Yamazaki 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's Shadow Play Two and Father Christmas in Burtwhistle's Down By The Greenwood Side.
scholar, 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 about Father Damien
. Damien was ultimately broadcast nationally on PBS and 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.
He continues to work in Honolulu as a mentor, a song and poetry recitalist, and an occasional performer on stage, screen and television.
, in the presence of HRH Princess Margaret at the Theatre Royal in Drury Lane in 1970. In 1972, he performed in Beyond the Fringe under the auspices of US Army Special Services. He created a Hawaiian Monarchy version of Mozart's Cosi Fan Tutte
for 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 1971-2003 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 in The Scarlet Princess of Edo by 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's Manfred, Honegger's Joan at the Stake, Schoenberg's Survivor from Warsaw, Prokofiev's Peter And The Wolf and many Shakespeare-inspired compositions by Mendelssohn, Tchaikovsky and others.
Other favorite roles include Henry Higgins in Pygmalion
, the title role in The Miser
, and King Lear in Carol Sorgenfrei's Cordelia Victorious, at Kennedy Theatre; Fagin in Oliver!
, King Arthur in Camelot
, Archie Rice (the Olivier role) in The Entertainer
, Henry Higgins in My Fair Lady
and Gallimard in M. Butterfly
, all at Diamond Head Theatre, Honolulu, as well as Noel Coward in Noel and Gertie, Salieri in Amadeus
and The Chairman in The Mystery of Edwin Drood
at Manoa Valley Theatre. One-man shows include Captain Cook, RN by Aldyth Morris in Hawaii and Einstein Talks Like a Regular Guy (Dowd) at the University of Capetown and the PretoriaTeknikon, South Africa, performing the Einstein piece also in Hawai’i. From 1971-2005, Knapp was the featured performer in annual Shakespeare Birthday Shows at Kennedy Theatre and from 1993-2005 performed annually at (Robert) Burns Night for the Caledonian Society of Hawai’i.
Television performances, in addition to Damien, include several featured roles in the Hawaii Five-O
, Magnum, P.I.
and Big Hawaii series. From 1977-1982 he regularly hosted Spectrum–Hawaii, interviewing various celebrities and distinguished artists on Hawaii Public Television (KHET).
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
actor
Actor
An actor is a person who acts in a dramatic production and who works in film, television, theatre, or radio in that capacity...
, director, educator, and author
Author
An author is broadly defined as "the person who originates or gives existence to anything" and that authorship determines responsibility for what is created. Narrowly defined, an author is the originator of any written work.-Legal significance:...
. He is an Emeritus Professor of Theatre, University of Hawaii at Manoa
University of Hawaii at Manoa
The University of Hawaii at Mānoa is a public, co-educational university and is the flagship campus of the greater University of Hawaii system...
, a (Sir Winston, KG ) Churchill Fellow and a Royal Academy of Dramatic Art
Royal Academy of Dramatic Art
The Royal Academy of Dramatic Art is a drama school located in London, United Kingdom. It is generally regarded as one of the most renowned drama schools in the world, and is one of the oldest drama schools in the United Kingdom, having been founded in 1904.RADA is an affiliate school of the...
Associate.
Youth and early career
Knapp was born in HackneyLondon Borough of Hackney
The London Borough of Hackney is a London borough of North/North East London, and forms part of inner London. The local authority is Hackney London Borough Council....
, London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
, 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 during World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, first to an abandoned coal mine village in Wales
Wales
Wales is a country that is part of the United Kingdom and the island of Great Britain, bordered by England to its east and the Atlantic Ocean and Irish Sea to its west. It has a population of three million, and a total area of 20,779 km²...
and then to live with relatives in Crumlin
Crumlin, Dublin
Crumlin is suburb in Southside Dublin, Ireland. It is the site of Ireland's largest hospital for children.-Location:Crumlin covers the area from the River Poddle near the KCR to the Drimnagh Road, to Bunting Road, and is situated not far from the city centre, on the Southside of Dublin city....
, a suburb of Dublin. 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 at Parmiter's School
Parmiter's School
Parmiter's School is a co-educational school in Garston, Hertfordshire on the outskirts of North West London, England with a long history. Although the school admits pupils of all abilities it is partially selective...
, an all-male Anglican grammar school. At age 14, he was cast as Lady Macbeth
Lady Macbeth
Lady Macbeth may refer to:*Lady Macbeth, from William Shakespeare's play Macbeth**Queen Gruoch of Scotland, the real-life Queen on whom Shakespeare based the character...
. His headmaster sent for his parents and told them that their son was talented and should audition for the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art
Royal Academy of Dramatic Art
The Royal Academy of Dramatic Art is a drama school located in London, United Kingdom. It is generally regarded as one of the most renowned drama schools in the world, and is one of the oldest drama schools in the United Kingdom, having been founded in 1904.RADA is an affiliate school of the...
(RADA). The Governors of Parmiters paid the audition fee.
On a scholarship from the London County Council
London County Council
London County Council was the principal local government body for the County of London, throughout its 1889–1965 existence, and the first London-wide general municipal authority to be directly elected. It covered the area today known as Inner London and was replaced by the Greater London 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 of She Stoops to Conquer
She Stoops to Conquer
She Stoops to Conquer is a comedy by the Irish author Oliver Goldsmith, son of an Anglo-Irish vicar, first performed in London in 1773. The play is a great favourite for study by English literature and theatre classes in Britain and the United States. It is one of the few plays from the 18th...
and signed by a leading theatrical agent; however, at the age of 18, he was drafted for the National Service.
He was trained in the Royal Air Force
Royal Air Force
The Royal Air Force is the aerial warfare service branch of the British Armed Forces. Formed on 1 April 1918, it is the oldest independent air force in the world...
(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 in Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
as part of the North 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, the Liverpool PlayhouseLiverpool Playhouse
The Liverpool Playhouse is a theatre in Williamson Square in the city of Liverpool, Merseyside, England. It originated in 1866 as a music hall, and in 1911 developed into a repertory theatre. As such it nurtured the early careers of many actors and actresses, some of which went on to achieve...
. After four years of widely-varied roles in three-weekly repertory on Merseyside
Merseyside
Merseyside is a metropolitan county in North West England, with a population of 1,365,900. It encompasses the metropolitan area centred on both banks of the lower reaches of the Mersey Estuary, and comprises five metropolitan boroughs: Knowsley, St Helens, Sefton, Wirral, and the city of Liverpool...
side, where he also made the acquaintance of Brian Epstein
Brian Epstein
Brian Samuel Epstein , was an English music entrepreneur, and is best known for being the manager of The Beatles up until his death. He also managed several other musical artists such as Gerry & the Pacemakers, Billy J. Kramer and the Dakotas, Cilla Black, The Remo Four & The Cyrkle...
, he returned to London, where he earned a high reputation in both BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
and ITV
ITV
ITV is the major commercial public service TV network in the United Kingdom. Launched in 1955 under the auspices of the Independent Television Authority to provide competition to the BBC, it is also the oldest commercial network in the UK...
television productions (when all transmissions were live), films and theatre. In 1962, he was invited by his idol, Sir Laurence Olivier
Laurence Olivier
Laurence Kerr Olivier, Baron Olivier, OM was an English actor, director, and producer. He was one of the most famous and revered actors of the 20th century. He married three times, to fellow actors Jill Esmond, Vivien Leigh, and Joan Plowright...
, (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 the National Theatre of Great Britain, under Olivier's direction, at the renowned Old Vic Theatre, which culminated in 1965 with Knapp's takeover of Olivier's star role as Tattle in William Congreve's Love For Love at the Scala Theatre
Scala Theatre
The Scala Theatre was a theatre in London, sited on Charlotte Street, off Tottenham Court Road, in the London Borough of Camden. The first theatre on the site opened in 1772, and the theatre was demolished in 1969, after being destroyed by fire...
prior to the now legendary visit to both Moscow
Moscow
Moscow is the capital, the most populous city, and the most populous federal subject of Russia. The city is a major political, economic, cultural, scientific, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the continent...
and Berlin
Berlin
Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...
in Othello
Othello
The Tragedy of Othello, the Moor of Venice is a tragedy by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written in approximately 1603, and based on the Italian short story "Un Capitano Moro" by Cinthio, a disciple of Boccaccio, first published in 1565...
, Hobson's Choice, and Love For Love.
He was invited by John Neville, then Artistic Director of the Nottingham Playhouse
Nottingham Playhouse
The Nottingham Playhouse is a theatre in Nottingham, England. It was first established as a repertory theatre in the 1950s when it operated from a former cinema. Directors during this period included Val May and Frank Dunlop.-The building:...
, to tour West Africa
West Africa
West Africa or Western Africa is the westernmost region of the African continent. Geopolitically, the UN definition of Western Africa includes the following 16 countries and an area of approximately 5 million square km:-Flags of West Africa:...
for the British Council
British Council
The British Council is a United Kingdom-based organisation specialising in international educational and cultural opportunities. It is registered as a charity both in England and Wales, and in Scotland...
, along with a company including Judi Dench
Judi Dench
Dame Judith Olivia "Judi" Dench, CH, DBE, FRSA is an English film, stage and television actress.Dench made her professional debut in 1957 with the Old Vic Company. Over the following few years she played in several of William Shakespeare's plays in such roles as Ophelia in Hamlet, Juliet in Romeo...
, who played Viola in Twelfth Night to Knapp's Feste. The company performed in Nigeria
Nigeria
Nigeria , officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a federal constitutional republic comprising 36 states and its Federal Capital Territory, Abuja. The country is located in West Africa and shares land borders with the Republic of Benin in the west, Chad and Cameroon in the east, and Niger in...
, Ghana
Ghana
Ghana , officially the Republic of Ghana, is a country located in West Africa. It is bordered by Côte d'Ivoire to the west, Burkina Faso to the north, Togo to the east, and the Gulf of Guinea to the south...
and Sierra Leone
Sierra Leone
Sierra Leone , officially the Republic of Sierra Leone, is a country in West Africa. It is bordered by Guinea to the north and east, Liberia to the southeast, and the Atlantic Ocean to the west and southwest. Sierra Leone covers a total area of and has an estimated population between 5.4 and 6.4...
for three months, after which Knapp found an opportunity to travel in Africa and Europe, where at Easter
Easter
Easter is the central feast in the Christian liturgical year. According to the Canonical gospels, Jesus rose from the dead on the third day after his crucifixion. His resurrection is celebrated on Easter Day or Easter Sunday...
he had an audience with Pope John XXIII
Pope John XXIII
-Papal election:Following the death of Pope Pius XII in 1958, Roncalli was elected Pope, to his great surprise. He had even arrived in the Vatican with a return train ticket to Venice. Many had considered Giovanni Battista Montini, Archbishop of Milan, a possible candidate, but, although archbishop...
in Rome
Rome
Rome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...
.
In 1966, after four years with Olivier, he was again invited by Neville to tour for the British Council, this time in Southeast Asia
Southeast Asia
Southeast Asia, South-East Asia, South East Asia or Southeastern Asia is a subregion of Asia, consisting of the countries that are geographically south of China, east of India, west of New Guinea and north of Australia. The region lies on the intersection of geological plates, with heavy seismic...
including Malaysia, Brunei
Brunei
Brunei , officially the State of Brunei Darussalam or the Nation of Brunei, the Abode of Peace , is a sovereign state located on the north coast of the island of Borneo, in Southeast Asia...
, Sarawak
Sarawak
Sarawak is one of two Malaysian states on the island of Borneo. Known as Bumi Kenyalang , Sarawak is situated on the north-west of the island. It is the largest state in Malaysia followed by Sabah, the second largest state located to the North- East.The administrative capital is Kuching, which...
, Singapore
Singapore
Singapore , officially the Republic of Singapore, is a Southeast Asian city-state off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, north of the equator. An island country made up of 63 islands, it is separated from Malaysia by the Straits of Johor to its north and from Indonesia's Riau Islands by the...
, Hong Kong
Hong Kong
Hong Kong is one of two Special Administrative Regions of the People's Republic of China , the other being Macau. A city-state situated on China's south coast and enclosed by the Pearl River Delta and South China Sea, it is renowned for its expansive skyline and deep natural harbour...
and the Philippines
Philippines
The Philippines , officially known as the Republic of the Philippines , is a country in Southeast Asia in the western Pacific Ocean. To its north across the Luzon Strait lies Taiwan. West across the South China Sea sits Vietnam...
, where the company performed under the patronage of Imelda Marcos
Imelda Marcos
Imelda R. Marcos is a Filipino politician and widow of 10th Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos. Upon the ascension of her husband to political power, she held various positions to the government until 1986...
in her new Performing Arts Center of Manila. Knapp then visited Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
of his own accord, where for four and one-half months, he worked as a consultant with the Kumo Gekidan of Tokyo
Tokyo
, ; officially , is one of the 47 prefectures of Japan. Tokyo is the capital of Japan, the center of the Greater Tokyo Area, and the largest metropolitan area of Japan. It is the seat of the Japanese government and the Imperial Palace, and the home of the Japanese Imperial Family...
on the world premiere of The Golden Land, a play about the persecution of Christian missionaries and their converts in the early 17th century Nippon, by Endo 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 both Julius Caesar
Julius Caesar (play)
The Tragedy of Julius Caesar, also known simply as Julius Caesar, is a tragedy by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written in 1599. It portrays the 44 BC conspiracy against...
and Antony And Cleopatra, as well as Rodrigo to the Othello of Robert Ryan and John Neville's Iago.
In the summer of 1968, having just played H.G. Wells in Boots with Strawberry Jam (a musical about George Bernard Shaw
George Bernard Shaw
George Bernard Shaw was an Irish playwright and a co-founder of the London School of Economics. Although his first profitable writing was music and literary criticism, in which capacity he wrote many highly articulate pieces of journalism, his main talent was for drama, and he wrote more than 60...
by Benny Green and John Dankworth) starring Neville and Cleo Laine
Cleo Laine
Dame Cleo Laine, Lady Dankworth, DBE is a jazz singer and an actress, noted for her scat singing and vocal range...
at the Nottingham Playhouse
Nottingham Playhouse
The Nottingham Playhouse is a theatre in Nottingham, England. It was first established as a repertory theatre in the 1950s when it operated from a former cinema. Directors during this period included Val May and Frank Dunlop.-The building:...
, Knapp was invited by the director Wendy Toye to play the title role as Mr. Buff in a new comic libretto by Robert Morley
Robert Morley
Robert Adolph Wilton Morley, CBE was an English actor who, often in supporting roles, was usually cast as a pompous English gentleman representing the Establishment...
of Mozart's one act opera The Impresario commissioned for the Bath Festival 1968 and conducted (as Monsieur Baton) by Sir Yehudi Menuhin
Yehudi Menuhin
Yehudi Menuhin, Baron Menuhin, OM, KBE was a Russian Jewish American violinist and conductor who spent most of his performing career in the United Kingdom. He was born to Russian Jewish parents in the United States, but became a citizen of Switzerland in 1970, and of the United Kingdom in 1985...
whose wife, the distinguished ballerina Diana Gould
Diana Gould (dancer)
Diana Gould, later Diana Menuhin, Baroness Menuhin was a British ballerina and occasional actress and singer, who is best remembered as the second wife of the violinist Yehudi Menuhin...
, 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 with Yamazaki 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's Shadow Play Two and Father Christmas in Burtwhistle's Down By The Greenwood Side.
"Hawaii's World Class Actor"
In Tokyo, Knapp met KabukiKabuki
is classical Japanese dance-drama. Kabuki theatre is known for the stylization of its drama and for the elaborate make-up worn by some of its performers.The individual kanji characters, from left to right, mean sing , dance , and skill...
scholar, 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
Damien (play)
* For the other uses of Damien, see Damien .Damien is a 1976 one person show about Father Damien by Aldyth Morris. The play was originally performed in Hawaii in by Terence Knapp and has had numerous professional and amateur productions since that time.The play is set in 1936 when Damien's body...
, a one-man show about Father Damien
Father Damien
Father Damien or Saint Damien of Molokai, SS.CC. , born Jozef De Veuster, was a Roman Catholic priest from Belgium and member of the Congregation of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary, a missionary religious order...
. Damien was ultimately broadcast nationally on PBS and 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.
He continues to work in Honolulu as 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 Sir Noel CowardNoël Coward
Sir Noël Peirce Coward was an English playwright, composer, director, actor and singer, known for his wit, flamboyance, and what Time magazine called "a sense of personal style, a combination of cheek and chic, pose and poise".Born in Teddington, a suburb of London, Coward attended a dance academy...
, in the presence of HRH Princess Margaret at the Theatre Royal in Drury Lane in 1970. In 1972, he performed in Beyond the Fringe under the auspices of US Army Special Services. He created a Hawaiian Monarchy version of Mozart's Cosi Fan Tutte
Così fan tutte
Così fan tutte, ossia La scuola degli amanti K. 588, is an opera buffa by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart first performed in 1790. The libretto was written by Lorenzo Da Ponte....
for 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 1971-2003 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 in The Scarlet Princess of Edo by 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's Manfred, Honegger's Joan at the Stake, Schoenberg's Survivor from Warsaw, Prokofiev's Peter And The Wolf and many Shakespeare-inspired compositions by Mendelssohn, Tchaikovsky and others.
Other favorite roles include Henry Higgins in Pygmalion
Pygmalion (play)
Pygmalion: A Romance in Five Acts is a play by Irish playwright George Bernard Shaw. Professor of phonetics Henry Higgins makes a bet that he can train a bedraggled Cockney flower girl, Eliza Doolittle, to pass for a duchess at an ambassador's garden party by teaching her to assume a veneer of...
, the title role in The Miser
The Miser
L'Avare is a 1668 five-act satirical comedy by French playwright Molière. Its title is usually translated as The Miser when the play is performed in English....
, and King Lear in Carol Sorgenfrei's Cordelia Victorious, at Kennedy Theatre; Fagin in Oliver!
Oliver!
Oliver! is a British musical, with script, music and lyrics by Lionel Bart. The musical is based upon the novel Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens....
, King Arthur in Camelot
Camelot (musical)
Camelot is a musical by Alan Jay Lerner and Frederick Loewe . It is based on the King Arthur legend as adapted from the T. H. White tetralogy novel The Once and Future King....
, Archie Rice (the Olivier role) in The Entertainer
The Entertainer (play)
The Entertainer is a three act play by John Osborne, first produced in 1957. His first play, Look Back in Anger, had attracted mixed notices but a great deal of publicity. Having depicted an "angry young man" in the earlier play, Osborne wrote, at Laurence Olivier's request,about an angry middle...
, Henry Higgins in My Fair Lady
My Fair Lady
My Fair Lady is a musical based upon George Bernard Shaw's Pygmalion and with book and lyrics by Alan Jay Lerner and music by Frederick Loewe...
and Gallimard in M. Butterfly
M. Butterfly
M. Butterfly is a 1988 play by David Henry Hwang loosely based on the relationship between French diplomat Bernard Boursicot and Shi Pei Pu, a male Peking opera singer....
, all at Diamond Head Theatre, Honolulu, as well as Noel Coward in Noel and Gertie, Salieri in Amadeus
Amadeus
Amadeus is a play by Peter Shaffer.It is based on the lives of the composers Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Antonio Salieri, highly fictionalized.Amadeus was first performed in 1979...
and The Chairman in The Mystery of Edwin Drood
The Mystery of Edwin Drood (musical)
Drood is a musical based on the unfinished Charles Dickens novel The Mystery of Edwin Drood. It is written by Rupert Holmes, and was the first Broadway musical with multiple endings . Holmes received Tony Awards for Best Book and Best Original Score...
at Manoa Valley Theatre. One-man shows include Captain Cook, RN by Aldyth Morris in Hawaii and Einstein Talks Like a Regular Guy (Dowd) at the University of Capetown and the PretoriaTeknikon, South Africa, performing the Einstein piece also in Hawai’i. From 1971-2005, Knapp was the featured performer in annual Shakespeare Birthday Shows at Kennedy Theatre and from 1993-2005 performed annually at (Robert) Burns Night for the Caledonian Society of Hawai’i.
Television performances, in addition to Damien, include several featured roles in the Hawaii Five-O
Hawaii Five-O
Hawaii Five-O is an American police procedural drama series produced by CBS Productions and Leonard Freeman. Set in Hawaii, the show originally aired for twelve seasons from 1968 to 1980, and continues in reruns. The show featured a fictional state police unit run by Detective Steve McGarrett,...
, Magnum, P.I.
Magnum, P.I.
Magnum, P.I. is an American television series starring Tom Selleck as Thomas Magnum, a private investigator living on Oahu, Hawaii. The series ran from 1980 to 1988 in first-run broadcast on the American CBS television network....
and Big Hawaii series. From 1977-1982 he regularly hosted Spectrum–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 by Honolulu Star-Bulletin newspaper,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 of Romeo and Juliet, Kennedy Theatre; Lead Actor and Director, Amadeus and Best Performance in a Musical for Noel 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 Ornitz Hawaii's Adopted World Class Actor (2000)