Ken Webster and his house of letters
A story about theater, freedom, language … and the beauty of smallness
By Brad Buchholz, American-Statesman Staff
Ken Webster spends most of his days in a Hyde Park playhouse — theater space, daydream space, a creative hideaway, where he immerses himself in the beauty of language, the genius of playwright Harold Pinter, an ocean of baseball trivia, the art of a well-placed comma. It is a serious place. It is a silly place. And for Webster: It is a place of independence.
“This is my second home,” says Webster, the 55-year-old executive director of Austin’s literary-minded Hyde Park Theatre and one of the most well-known actors and directors in the city. “It’s not just a place I work; it’s a place where I hang out, where I see friends. I met my wife (the actress and author Katherine Catmull) here. It’s been a big part of my life for 30 years.”
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| Ken Webster (photo: Jay Janner, Austin Statesman) |
Ken Webster spends most of his days in a Hyde Park playhouse — theater space, daydream space, a creative hideaway, where he immerses himself in the beauty of language, the genius of playwright Harold Pinter, an ocean of baseball trivia, the art of a well-placed comma. It is a serious place. It is a silly place. And for Webster: It is a place of independence.
“This is my second home,” says Webster, the 55-year-old executive director of Austin’s literary-minded Hyde Park Theatre and one of the most well-known actors and directors in the city. “It’s not just a place I work; it’s a place where I hang out, where I see friends. I met my wife (the actress and author Katherine Catmull) here. It’s been a big part of my life for 30 years.”
