Acting is behaving truthfully under imaginary circumstances.
– Sanford Meisner
Over the years, Ken has made many appearances in film, TV drama and comedy, commercials, and theatre. He has also worked extensively in corporate role-playing.
In 1993, he co-founded the Chiaroscuro Theatre Company which ran for a couple of years until the other co-founder, Matthew Anderson, moved to the United States.
Film appearances include Loves Labours Lost, The Leading Man, and The Blonde Bombshell; TV appearances include Kavanagh QC, Spy, As Time Goes By, The Great Train Robbery, and London's Burning; theatre appearances include The Dumb Waiter, The Lover, and Twelfth Night; commercials include McDonalds, Eurostar, and Carling.
Potter trained at various courses and workshops, kicking off with the two-year drama course at The City Literary Institute in London.
Improvisation has always appealed.
"Dropping into an improvisation with little preparation excites me," he says. "It's an adventure. I often equate acting to travelling.
"When I travel I don't travel as a tourist. I live like the locals. I absorb the culture and become like one of them. I role-play.
"When you arrive to a new place or situation during a journey you improvise. You call on your imagination to deal with what the locale presents. What shall I do next? It's the same when facing an improvisation.
Whether you're acting out an improvisation or getting to grips with a new culture you're flirting with the unknown. Anything can happen.
"Doesn't matter that you may be jumping off a cliff. You might fly..."
A poster for one of Chiaroscuro's productions. Ken is playing Gus on the left and Matthew Anderson (the other co-founder of Chiaroscuro) is playing Ben on the right. Both Matt and Ken were very fond of Harold Pinter.
'Whats On' had this to say...
"Obscure and disturbing. The sinister compact between two men is aggressive and seemingly played for real. Leaves a bitter taste in the mouth but still manages to be hilariously funny."
Potter directed The Servant by Robin Maugham at the New Venture
Theatre in Brighton in 2011. Poster design by Strat Mastoris.
The story of The Servant was first published as a novella in 1948 and was regarded as a 'masterpiece of writing' by the New York Times.
In 1958, wishing to capitalise on his success, Maugham turned the story into a play. The classic Harold Pinter-scripted film starring Dirk Bogarde and James Fox came along a few years later in 1963.
The Brighton & Hove magazine, Latest 7, had this to say about the production...
"...each character is locked in a tangled web of power and control, swirling beneath the quaint superficiality of 1950s society...
"...Tony's insidious servant is meticulously played by Colin Elmer (pictured in the poster), he manipulates a subtle control over his master as they vie for status amongst the Chelsea socialites..."
An interesting body of work - he deserves to be more widely known.