Folger Shakespeare Library: Shakespeare Unlimited

After over thirty years as the artistic director of Washington, DC’s Tony-winning Shakespeare Theatre Company, Michael Kahn is retiring. Kahn has directed Off-Off-Broadway, Off-Broadway, and on Broadway. He directed Measure for Measure for Joe Papp’s Shakespeare in the Park. He ran, at various points, the American Shakespeare Theatre in Stratford, Connecticut, the McCarter Theatre, and the Acting Company. From 1992 – 2006, he was the Richard Rodgers Director of the Drama Division of the Juilliard School. As a director and as a teacher, Kahn has helped to usher in a new style of Shakespearean acting, one that combines the psychologically-grounded American “Method” with a British emphasis on text, tone, and technique. As Kahn opens The Orestia, the last production of his final season at Shakespeare Theatre Company, we brought him into the studio to talk about Shakespearean performance throughout the 20th century, Shakespeare’s continued relevance, and reading Shakespeare with his mother. Michael Kahn is intervi