Terence Knapp
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Terence Knapp (born 1932) is an actor, director and educator originally from England but currently based in Hawaii.
[edit] Biography
Terence Knapp was born in the East End of London in 1932 to Alice Catherine and Richard Knapp, a member of the Royal Army Medical Corps. His mother worked in a shop that made wigs for actors. Her involvement with theatre and her love of traditional Irish songs played an important role in Knapp's eventual career choice.
Knapp succesfully auditioned into the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in 1948. In 1950, he was drafted in the Royal Air Force and stationed in Germany. He returned to RADA in 1953 but was quickly cast at the Liverpool Playhouse, where he spent the next four years.
Throughout this period, Knapp accrued many stage, television and film credits in England.
In 1962, Knapp caught the attention of Sir Laurence Olivier and was invited by him to be a founding member of the Chichester Festival Theatre and, a year later, an Inaugural Player of the National Theatre of Great Britain under Olivier's direction.
During a tour to Japan, a chance meeting with the chair of the theatre department led to a thirty year career as a professor of theatre at the University of Hawaii at Manoa. Knapp divided his time between his classes in Hawaii and an acclaimed second career as a stage director in Japan, notably with Yamazaki Tsutomu. Between his work in Japan and his work in Hawaii, Knapp added dozens of directing and performing credits to his body of work.
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 1979, the Hawaii State legislature proclaimed Knapp "Hawaii's Own Adopted World-CIass Actor."
In 2002, the then-new Hawaii Shakespeare Festival dedicated itself to Knapp in perpetuity in recognition of his contribution to the art of theatre in Hawaii.
Knapp retired from the University of Hawaii at Manoa in 2005.
