KEN DAVENPORT (HASIJJA)* (Photo: Ken Davenport with Nicole Kempskie in No, No Nanette)
As a child, Ken Hasijja was bitten by the “theatre bug” performing with the Gateway Players in Southbridge, MA. At Bancroft High School in Worcester, he shifted his focus to sports and did not return to the stage until his senior year when a rift with his basketball coach sent him back to his first love, theatre. He landed the role of Billy Crocker inAnything Goes and from that point on knew that he was destined for a professional theatre career.
After completing his freshman year at John Hopkins University, Ken burst onto the scene at Theatre at the Mount in the summer of 1991 playing the role of Tom Trainor in No, No Nannette and Tony in West Side Story. That fall he transferred to the Tisch School of Performing Arts at NYU as an acting major and returned to TAM in the summer of 1992 to play Kenicki in Grease.
Ken’s first professional experience began in the summer of 1993 in summer stock at the Maine State Music Theatre on the campus of Bowdoin College in Brunswick, Maine. Despite a grueling schedule of 8 shows a week, attending classes taught by equity actors, building sets and much more (all for just $30 a week!), Ken made many lifelong professional friendships and contacts.
Ken’s eyes were opened to the management aspects of the theatre business in 1993 when he was recommended by one of his professors for a position as a Production Assistant for the Broadway revival of My Fair Lady starring Richard Ken admits that while the uncertainty
of a career in theatre is rather
disconcerting, it is more than balanced
by the excitement of always facing new
and challenging projects. Chamberlain. As one of over 150 active staff members needed to stage a Broadway show, his responsibilities ranged from getting coffee for the cast to serving as “line coach” for Chamberlain.
After graduating from NYU in 1994, Ken spent several years alternating between working as an actor and working “behind the scenes.” During this time he performed summer stock with the West Virginia State Music Theatre and with the Carousel Dinner Theatre in Ohio and served as a Production Assistant for the Broadway revival of Grease starring Rosie O’Donnell.
For the past nine years, Ken has settled into a career as a Company Manager, working on the touring production of Jekyll and Hyde, the Las Vegas production of Chicago and the Broadway productions of Showboat, Candide, Ragtime and Thoroughly Modern Millie. He is currently employed by Nina Lannan Associates as Company Manager for the Broadway production of Gypsy with Bernadette Peters.
When asked just what a Company Manager does, Ken replied that the Company Manager makes sure that the show happens on a day to day basis. His responsibilities include handling payroll for the company, negotiating actor contracts, box office management, budgeting for the producers and an infinite number of other details. He describes the job as “part accountant, part lawyer, part counselor.”
Ken admits that while the uncertainty of a career in theatre is rather disconcerting, it is more than balanced by the excitement of always facing new and challenging projects. What does the future hold for Ken? He hints at the possibility of producing his own theatre projects and we at Theatre at the Mount eagerly anticipate the chance to catch a “Ken Davenport Production!”
*Born Ken Hasijja, he has adopted the professional name Ken Davenport.