by Cynthia Marone
The spark that ignited Ken Kaissar’s love of and life in theater came from an unexpected source. As a kid, Ken not only laughed and marveled at how the late John Ritter got the guffaws on “Three’s Company,” he also began envisioning his own future as an actor. “It was his comical skills. It was his physical ability. For some reason, at the age of 9, I could look at that and see that he was doing something very technical to get the result he was getting,” the Yardley resident of 15 years said. “I would sit there, and I would study the episodes of ‘Three’s Company’ to watch how he moved and what he did. I always remembered my favorite parts were when he somehow got hit in the face. It always looked like he had to sneeze afterwards. It made me laugh so much, and I thought, ‘I want to be able to do that. That’s what I want to do.’”
Theater camp beckoned, and Ken subsequently bagged roles in community theater, including the Charles Dickens’ “Oliver Twist” musical adaptation “Oliver!” “I started doing theater outside of my school and getting involved in the local scene from the age of 10. I did that all the way through high school and into college,” the 47-year-old said. “My last public appearance on the stage was the summer before I went to college. From then on, I’ve never been on a stage publicly, outside of a classroom, but I was pretty devoted to being an actor. As you do that, you start to understand all the other parts of theater, like directing.”
Now firmly behind the scenes, he still holds acting dear to his heart and it has served as the springboard for his coast-to-coast career as a director, producer and playwright, as well as an acting coach and host of “The Audition Helper” podcast (www.theauditionhelper.com). His theater credits have taken him just about everywhere, from New York to New Mexico, but since 2020, he has put down creative roots at the Bristol Riverside Theatre (BRT) as co-producing director with wife Amy Kaissar.
Moving from a free agent to firmly planted has been a happy leap, he said. “As a freelance artist, I wasn’t sure if that was going to be for me because this is the longest I’ve ever worked in one community at one theater. A freelance career means you go all over the country and go wherever the work is. This feels really good because I’m serving a cause that I see, a need that I see, in a community, a community that I know. I’ve never had that connection to a community before coming to Bucks County,” Ken, who was born in Israel and moved to the United States, specifically Indianapolis, at age 2, said. “When you’re freelance, you’re doing your own thing and you hope you’re connecting with the people. You never really know because you don’t know the people. Here, I know the people. I know the audience personally. I know what they’re looking for. I talk to them every day about what they’re looking for. It feels like a dialogue. Bucks County is not just another place for me; it’s home.”
Ken and Amy, who have been married 19 years and share 8-year-old doggie Desdemona, landed in Bucks County in 2009 when Amy took over as BRT’s managing director. The couple decided to stay even after Amy departed BRT and began working on and commuting to Broadway. Ken, in addition to his freelance work, had already begun teaching playwriting and theater history at both Stockton and Rider universities. (He left the positions at the New Jersey schools when he joined BRT.) When the BRT slots opened up, it took a New York minute to decide being executive directors of the theater company, as Ken describes their roles, in a community they love would be the perfect fit.
In addition to the numerous duties of a co-producing director, from hiring to fundraising, Ken, as does Amy, takes directing reins at least once a season. His latest effort was “Big: The Musical.” In prior years, he has helmed “Clue,” based on the 1985 film inspired by the board game, and “A Few Good Men.” His comedic play “A Leg Up,” which had its world premiere on the BRT stage when it kicked off the 2022-23 season, was refined through BRT’s new play development program, America Rising.
Ken’s writing has run the gamut from dramas to black comedies to, as in “A Leg Up,” farces. His plays have been performed or developed by the Philadelphia Theatre Company; Delaware Theatre Company in Wilmington; The Phoenix Theatre Company; Wordsmyth Theater Company in Houston; Fusion Theatre Company in Albuquerque, N.M.; the Jewish Repertory Theatre in Buffalo, N.Y.; Urban Stages Theater in New York; and Passage Theatre Company in Trenton, N.J. His directing has taken him to New York theaters such as the Culture Project, Rattlestick Theater, The Tank and the American Globe Theatre, as well as Millbrook Playhouse in Clinton County, Pa. “When I’m not writing, I wish I were, and when I’m not directing, I wish I were. They both really tug at my interests and my attention,” Ken, whose “The Audition Helper” podcast grew out of his work as an acting coach and where he interviews Broadway actors about the realities of performing in American theater, said.
Also pulling at his attention is crafting each BRT season, as well as the changes happening at the theater. He and Amy put immense care into building and balancing what appears on stage, from classics to family-friendly fare to new plays from emerging artists, and now they are gearing up for a whole new look to the physical structure. The latter will include new seating and carpeting, state-of-the-art lighting and sound equipment, aisle handrails and a ramp that will replace the front stairs, among other revisions. “We want people to know all the programming we’ve always done is not taking a break. While our construction is happening, the William Penn Bank Summer Music Fest will be happening this summer. We're actually going to be in a different venue. We're going to be performing at the Benjamin Franklin Middle School in Bristol Township, which has a beautiful theater,”
Ken, a 2000 Carnegie Mellon University graduate with a bachelor’s degree in directing and a 2009 Columbia University graduate with a master’s degree in playwrighting, said. “Next season we’re going to do our first two shows at The Regency Room in Bristol Borough. It’s going to be a different experience, a much more intimate experience. Then we’re going to come back to our theater in January and have a spectacular end of the season in a brand-new theater.”
It is obvious the theater — BRT and beyond — is Ken’s lifeblood. So much so that when he wants to unwind he may go to the symphony, read or watch basketball or a movie, but when he truly wants to reenergize he goes to a place where he can sit, watch and marvel at what is happening right in front of him, just as he did when he was 9 years old. “Honestly, on days I need to really recharge, I go to New York and I see two plays in one day. That just feels like recharging my battery, which seems weird because it should drain me; it should be like working,” Ken Kaissar said. “As a playwright, there are plays I see where I listen to the work and I go, ‘I see how this playwright put this together. This is interesting.’ Then there are plays where I go, ‘This goes against everything I know as a playwright. And it’s brilliant.’ I try to put my mind on trying to study that and find new ways of working and new ways of putting things together. I’m also admiring actors. I love great acting. When an actor is good, there’s very little else going on in my mind other than just admiring their technique and their skill. I basically go and I geek out about actors and enjoy the work they're putting in front of me. That’s what brings so much joy, I think.”
Bristol Riverside Theatre is located at 120 Radcliffe St, Bristol, PA. For more information, call (215) 785-0100 or visit www.brtstage.org.