Profile: Johnny McKnight

Johnny McKnight and fellow Artistic Director Julie Brown from Random Accomplice: a theatre company dedicated to creating stimulating, new devised work.  This month, as part of the Glasgay! programme for 2005, Johnny will be performing in Random Accomplice's Little Johnny's Big Gay Adventure.

How it started

Artistic Directors Julie Brown and Johnny McKnight are both honours graduates of the Contemporary Theatre Practice Course at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama (RSAMD).

Johnny McKnight's recent performance work includes Cut to The Chase (Complete Productions) ; Tam O’Shanter (Arches Theatre Company/Prague and Edinburgh Festival); and Hi Honey I’m… (CCA residency).

He is company secretary for theatre initiative Untitled Projects and served as company manager for Soul Pilots (Tramway/ek performance).  Educational work includes Scottish Opera, Scottish Youth Theatre, Langside College, North Ayrshire Council, Arches Theatre Co. and Visible Fictions.  Johnny is also a part-time tutor of Educational Drama and lecturer of Arts Policy in Practice at RSAMD. 

Together with Julie Brown, Johnny formed Random Accomplice in July 2002 after graduating, with the first seeds of an idea for a show.  They were looking to create projects that excited them and challenged their ways of working. 

Six months later they presented their debut piece at the Arches Theatre.  Now in November 2005, Random Accomplice is a registered company with three productions under their belt: Nothing to Fear Anymore Intermission Something Wicked and a fourth, Little Johnny's Big Gay Adventure, in pre-production.

The work

Johnny's work uses devising as its main approach. Using comedy as a means to explore the underbelly of modern day society, he and Julie strive to examine and explore collisions of intellectual and critical thought with the theatrical image and (non)autobiographical material.

'Every Random Accomplice project has a different feel, a different inspiration.  We normally start with a theme and build the idea outwards through research and brainstorming. We draw influence from a wide range of sources.  We’ve been inspired from all sorts of sources including: X Factor, Tennessee Williams, Johnny’s School Christmas Nativity play, Morecambe & Wise and Julie’s love of chocolate.'

Development of work varies but 'normally consists of many artistic discussions (occasionally heated), copious amounts of To Do lists and coffee, big pieces of sugar paper pasted on the walls, topic/sections outline, huge amounts of written text (many that never gets used), the re-arranging of furniture and ideas, videoing improvisations and cringing whilst presenting (very rough) works in progress.'

The result is 'Live Performance on Anti-Depressants / Coffee / Helium*, theatre without the Fourth Wall.  It’s always to difficult to classify the work we make.
* delete where appropriate'

Coming next

The suspected illegitimate lovechild of Linda Nolan and Donny Osmond, Little Johnny was discovered abandoned on the doorstep of the Horseshoe Bar. Little Johnny shares his experiences with us, joined along the way by Mr Impotent, Mr Bunny-Boiler, Mr Oh-My-God-is-that-Real and Mr Totally Not Interested.

Random Accomplice's Little Johnny's Big Gay Adventure will be performed by Johnny at the Arches, as part of the Glasgay! programme.