SUBSCRIBER CONTENT: Jun 6, 2014, 6:00am EDT Social Capital

‘That’s what we need, to be more human, more humane.’

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Jeff Fusco Carmen Khan, head of the Philadelphia Shakespeare Theatre on the stage. Carmen Khan is the founding artistic/executive director of The Philadelphia Shakespeare Theatre, which recently presented a production of “Romeo and Juliet,” April 9 through May 18. She talks about her career path and her passion for the arts. You are a proper Englishwoman who was as an actress in Texas before ending up in Philadelphia. How did you travel that somewhat crooked path? I was at the point where I needed to leave London and be on a different adventure. I didn’t have any money to travel, so when a former professor suggested I go to Texas for a year to study, I thought “why not?” All I knew about Texas was “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre,” and the Kennedy assassination. I met an amazing group of the most talented and eccentric theater people there that you can imagine at a place called the Hip Pocket

Theatre, which was in a meadow. It was like being part of the Magical Mystery Tour. I performed in 26 original productions, with titles like, “In Watermelon Sugar,” “Beast Beach” and “Even If You Can Stop The Yellow Claw My Deadly Tidal Wave Will Still Destroy New York.” Give a brief history of The Philadelphia Shakespeare Theatre and your role in its evolution? Twenty years ago there was no real Shakespeare presence in Philadelphia. At the time I was artistic director of a small company called the Red Heel Theatre. We produced the little-known classics; the contemporaries of Shakespeare like Christopher Marlowe. But there was only a small audience for that. Growing up in London and seeing some of the greatest Shakespeare in the world, I thought, “Why doesn’t Philadelphia have a great Shakespeare Theatre? I think I’ll do that here.” So, in the last 17 years we have produced 45 Shakespeare plays, served over 70,000 high school students with matinees, tours and residencies, solely focused on the works of Shakespeare. I believe we are the only professional theater in the U.S. to solely produce the works Shakespeare. We intend to reach every high school student in Philadelphia multiple times, because he teaches us who we really are, and that’s what we need, to be more human, more humane. What is it about Shakespeare than makes him, after hundreds of years, still the gold standard, still meaningful to contemporary audiences? Shakespeare gets us. He writes people, not characters. They are fully human from the lowest servant to the kings and queens. And the variety of people you get to see in one play shows many points of view that are vastly different from our own. When you look at life through all of these myriad lenses, and at one time as you watch a play, your sense of humanity broadens. This witnessing of the other naturally evokes empathy in us. Maybe we become a little more tolerant, a little more accepting. This is especially important for our young people. You staged “Romeo and Juliet” this spring. It’s part of a year-long celebration of Shakespeare’s 450th birthday, what are some of the happenings tied to it? There are hundreds of Shakespeare-related events this entire year. We have partnered with the Free Library of Philadelphia, and their website is a clearing house

for all that is going on. Some highlights include full productions by area theatres, readings, and exhibitions of rare books like the First Folio. We have a free lecture/performance series with world class Shakespeare scholars every month at the Free Library. There is Shakespeare cuisine, hip hop Shakespeare. The Yards brewery even brewed a special Shakesbeer! What do you think Shakespeare would think of the state of the performing (theater, films, TV) today? He would love it. He would be a blockbuster TV, film and theater producer. He was the most popular playwright in London at the time and he packed the Globe to capacity, and made a lot of money. He knew exactly how to please the audience: think of the madness of Lear, Othello’s jealousy, Hamlet’s obsessive self-examination; the murdering Macbeths; the blood fest that is Titus Andronicus, and on and on. I also think he would love the tools of the theater now, especially the lights. Mostly, I think he would love the ability to cast women in his plays. He wrote the strongest women characters. Besides producing more than 40 plays, what are some of the company’s other offerings? We are all Shakespeare all the time, quite a niche theater. Our offerings include plays, readings, lectures, The Open Door Project, (our suite of school programs) which include matinees, artist in residencies, tours, teacher training in collaboration with the Folger Shakespeare Theatre, classes and camps. Who is the main audience for the company? We see 5,000 high school students a year. Adults come from all over the region as well as New York and Washington, D.C. The bulk of the audience is from Center City. They are every age but most are young between 24-54. They are arts consumers and ethnically very diverse. And of course we have a core group of Bardolators who come to all we do. In addition to your love of theater, you’re a movie junkie and appreciate TV these days, too. Name a couple recent films and TV shows you think are high quality? Downton Abbey, Game of Thrones, American Hustle. HBO is amazing. Then the great work of people like Spielberg and, of course, Miramax is an endless outpouring of great work. This is the best that it’s ever been. It is the integration of great writing, direction, acting, clothes, lights and setting that form such a wonderful immersion into the various worlds

created. They are often epic and romantic and I love that. I also love many genres, and my husband and I will watch all the films of one artist — all of Hitchcock, Chaplin, Keaton, Kurosawa, Miyazaki, Lynch. What is the best advice you ever got? It was from watching my dad. He worked his way up from being a poor farm boy with no shoes to becoming a chemical engineer. His persistence in the face of great odds always keeps me going. Now for some less serious questions. You have a free Saturday all to yourself, what would be your perfect day? A warm summer day in the garden, planting and digging. Then a hike with my family, taking time to talk. Then shop for some amazing food, cooking together. Have a few friends or family for dinner, talking quietly through the evening. You are a voracious reader, do you think the youth of today read as much as you did at their age or are their attention spans shorter? Generally they don’t read as much, the texting and computer has taken that over, they read in much shorter bursts, and a lot don’t have the patience for longer more-complex passages. I think it is a matter of habit, though. I know a number of young people who are avid readers because they actually read. The question is how do we encourage that. Early exposure is key, reading to our children, having books, lots of them always available for them to see and pick up. What’s your favorite movie? There are so many in such a variety of genres, but what returns and haunts me over and over again is “Shawshank Redemption.” The main character’s quiet persistence, the amazing heroism of the moment he comes out of the sewer, that image inspires me. He just chipped away for a very long time, until he succeeded. Hard work and unwavering faith, I have to keep remembering that. What is the difference between stage acting and movie/TV acting? On the stage and especially with Shakespeare your entire body/mind is involved in a big way. The language is heightened and calls for a strong resonant voice, a supple fit body ready to respond to the huge emotional states of characters like Hamlet, Lear, Macbeth, Othello, Desdemona Lady Macbeth, Beatrice, and on and on. They require a capacity from the actor that is Olympian — it’s an

athletic event. With movie and TV acting it can be, and needs to be much more subtle. When a camera is focused so closely on you the expression of the eyes is a key factor, being able to control the muscles of the face. It is a more contained focus. Too much movement and gesturing can look silly. Even the old Vaudeville actors like Chaplin, Keaton and very physical actors like Donald O’Connor who did the most amazing slapstick, were controlled and tight in their movements. When they make the movie of your life, who would play you and which play would be at the crux of the plot? Meryl Streep. She is well put together. Remember I have a vivid imagination! But can also be nutty, outrageous whimsical. I would want the plot to be one of the great Irish plays like “Playboy of the Western World.” The characters are wildly funny, tragic, poetic, musical and a bit out of control, all at the same time. They love life to the full and there is something about the Celtic sensibility that appeals to me in a deep way. Maybe it’s because I’m half Irish. You’re out to dinner at your favorite restaurant, what would you order? Indian food. My father was Indian and we lived with my grandparents for over two years when we were young. My grandmother’s curries were magical, and every time I smell Indian spices I am transported back to an ancient time. Five thousand years of memories in one fragrant dish! I f you could go back in time, where would you go, NOT counting the Elizabethan Era? That’s really hard to say. Things have been pretty bad for women until relatively recently, and there is still a long way to go to achieve equality. This maybe a fantasy but perhaps ancient Mesopotamia, where the myth of the great goddess was alive in the planting cultures of the time. They believed that the female was sacred and nurtured life like the earth. The female was equated with the earth and viewed reverently. So maybe we were all treated a bit better back then and the planet was more respected. What famous person would you most like to spend an afternoon with? Joseph Campbell. He spent his whole life exploring what it means to be a human. He studied the cultures of the world and looked at their religions and myths and found the common patterns that reveal how much we are the same, just with different rich expressions of our humanity. He said, “the privilege of a lifetime is

being who you are.” I would want to listen to all of the wisdom he had learned about that. Who would you least like to be stuck next to on a long flight? Glenn Beck because his intolerance and spreading of misinformation narrows people’s minds and causes prejudice, and divisions where there shouldn’t be any. It is when we as humans are able to collaborate, accept each other and work together that makes the world better. He has an amazing platform to spread a message and do good. Instead he tries to evoke fear in people and suspicion using inaccuracies. And lastly, you’re stuck on a desert island, which book and which music CD would you want with you? Book — The Complete Works of William Shakespeare. CD — The Complete Beatles. Both Shakespeare and the Beatles had such an incredible outpouring of creativity that it would take a very long time to understand and appreciate it all. The complexity and entertainment that both provide is a never-ending source of inspiration to me. Even after 25 years of poring over Shakespeare’s texts and listening to the Beatles I am sill uncovering layers and layers of meaning. BIO Name: Carmen Khan Title: Artistic/executive director Company: The Philadelphia Shakespeare Theatre Age: 56 Education: B.Ed, University of London; MFA, acting, The Catholic University of America, Washington, D.C. Birthplace: London First job: 1980, teaching high school girls at the Elephant and Castle in London, dance, English, field hockey. Current residence: West Chester Family: Husband Jack Armstrong, son Michael, 25, daughter Emily 17. Dell Poncet is the managing editor of the Philadelphia Business Journal.