SNAPSHOT

Writer and Producer in Hollywood.  Peabody Award, Writers Guild of America Award, NAACP Image Award, two Humanitas Prize nominations, People’s Choice Award, Emmy Award nomination.  Writer/Supervising Producer of The Cosby Show during its five consecutive years of number one ratings. Writer of pilots, movie scripts, and other TV shows including Fame, Remington Steele, Hotel, The White Shadow.  Previous career: Madison Avenue, Vice President/Creative Director of Ogilvy & Mather, copywriter, Young & Rubicam, wrote and produced national television commercials and print ads. Playwright: Stage plays appeared at the Actors Studio in New York, the Grove Street Playhouse, and the Santa Monica Playhouse. Artwork: Original works of sculpture and paintings shown at multiple galleries and exhibitions. Guest speaker: Museum of Broadcasting in New York and the Smithsonian Institution in Washington. Education:  B.A. Marietta College, Distinguished Alumnus Award.

STAGE PLAYS

Kott’s first venture into live theatre was a musical revue of Gershwin songs, “By George.”  The cast included Broadway stars Teri Ralston (Company) and Tucker Smith (West Side Story).  Ira Gershwin, still alive, saw a rave review in the Los Angeles Times, wondered why nobody had asked him for the rights to his music.  He sent his young assistant, the now-famous Michael Feinstein, to investigate. Feinstein reported back to his boss with thumbs up.  Unfortunately, Ira Gershwin taught a painful lesson to a theatrical neophyte.  Never, ever proceed with a project without first obtaining permission to use source material.  “By George,” after twelve sold-out shows, summarily closed.  Kott’s next live theatre piece ended the same way, but different.  A show-business celebrity gave Kott the rights to write a full-length stage play based on vignettes he’d written and published about his career.  The play ran in Los Angeles for seven months, again, sold-out audiences, then summarily closed.  This painful lesson?  Never accept an oral agreement, no matter how trustworthy the situation appears, GET IT IN WRITING.   Kott had now learned the hard way how to proceed with his theatrical endeavors, only write original material.  “& Sons” had an amazing performance at The Actors Studio in New York, starring studio veterans Jerry Stiller, Salem Ludwig, David Margulies.  “Him and His Last Night of Sanity” ran for three months at New York’s Grove Street Playhouse, starring John Monteleone.  A mega-successful producer sat in the third row, returned the following week, then again a week later.  Finally, Kott summoned the gumption to ask, “You’ve seen my play three times.  Are you thinking of taking it to Broadway?”  The producer responded, “No.  I don’t see a nickel in this play.  I just like it.”  “As Is The Mother” was performed at the Dowling College Theatre, with two shocked members of the audience  commenting  about the brutal mother/daughter relationship, “Well, this certainly isn’t The Cosby Show.”  “The Scent of Fresh Leather” was a standout at three evenings of one act plays presented at the Palos Verdes Art Center.  “Art in Heaven” was a bucket-list event that combined Kott’s writing and acting.  The play and performance could be summed up by a classic line from A Chorus Line, “Dance ten, Looks three.”  Kott then wrote “Too Old For Rock ‘N’ Roll,” his first full-length Broadway musical.  It was up for the distinguished Kleban Prize, but for some unknown reason, it didn’t freakin’ win!  “And Then” was greeted with high praise from Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Tad Mosel, “Monumental.  God on Stage.  The most devastating end of a play I’ve read since Long Day’s Journey into Night. It’s what we strive for as writers but rarely achieve.”

ARTWORK

During Modernism Week in Palm Springs, California, Kott was selected as Featured Artist at the Smith Vargas Fine Art Gallery.  Several Kott pieces were included in The Palm Springs Art Museum Artist Council exhibition in collaboration with the University of California.  Two of his wall sculptures, “Picasso Dog” and “Calder Cat,” were selected for the exhibition “Animal Magnetism,” curated by Karen and Tony Barone.  Impresario Karen Kott produced four of her husband’s solo art shows to packed houses, “Think Stripe,” “The New Art of Modernism,”  “Lyricals,”  “The We.”   Kott’s artwork was regularly featured at the Rancho Mirage Artists Studio Tour.  A Kott triptych combining bright color combinations with song lyrics (Edward Ruscha meets Jerry Lee Lewis) was selected for the Palm Springs Annual Juried Art Show, curated by Dr. Steven Nash, executive director of the Palm Springs Art Museum.

UNEXPECTED HONOR

The sum of the parts of Kott’s writing career have now been bundled together and shipped off to his alma mater, a small liberal arts school in Ohio named Marietta College.  Included in the painstakingly organized boxes are scripts Kott wrote for television shows, pilots he sold to various networks, movie scripts he was hired to write, produced stage plays, TV commercials and print ads, plus personal memorabilia associated with all above.  Kott’s hope for the collection was twofold: 1) provide students with access to material they’d most likely never have an opportunity to see, 2) to demonstrate that it’s possible for a student to begin life in a tiny midwestern town and accomplish something on a national level.

Surprise.

“I figured my collection would end up somewhere in the Mass Communication building.  Instead, it is now permanently ensconced in the Marietta College Legacy Library, Special Collections.  First drafts, revised drafts, final drafts, handwritten drafts, VHS tapes.  My collection is in good company.  Other documents found in Specials Collection include letters written by Daniel Boone, Benjamin Franklin, Abraham Lincoln.  That’s correct.   Dan.  Ben.  Abe.  And me…” 

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