McKey and his Newfoundland puppy River Bear McKey’s Rosalind.
Clarkson McKey Carpenter
McKey and his Newfoundland puppy River Bear McKey’s Rosalind.
As a young boy I had trouble learning in school. Nothing helped until I started doing Shakespeare at the age of thirteen. I could read it, I could understand it and I could speak it. The rhythm of the Iambic Pentameter is so natural to me that it bypasses all my dyslexic problems. I am young, driven and according to my mother I’ve been that way since before I was born.
Looking back, I have been a steady Shakespearean actor since the age of thirteen starting with the Rebel Shakespeare Company in Salem, Massachusetts. There I received the classical training which is used by Directors at the Globe Theatre and at the Royal Shakespeare Company in London. I traveled to London on an acting/theater tour, where I took acting classes at the RSC and the Globe Theatre. I later started directing for the Rebel Shakespeare Company. While with them, I helped direct three productions. My solo directing debut was Romeo and Juliet with Apollonian Players in Dalton, Massachusetts.
Now that I have those experiences under my belt, I am determined to bring to New York the true words of Shakespeare instead of the attempts made by the typical American theater. I think the common mistake made by the modern American director is trying to bring Shakespeare forward into our time without bringing his text.
The modern audience goes to "see" a Shakespeare play. In his time, people went to "hear" a Shakespeare play. To me, both are now the essence of bringing forth Shakespeare. I'm capable of presenting his language with the art of acting so as to make the play understandable to the modern audience.
I want to do Shakespeare because I love it. Not because of that old stand by reason, “Well, we can always do Shakespeare.” I’m not willing to fail at anything I do, and won’t let anything get in the way of his beautiful works of art.
Puck’s Shakespeare Company plans to focus initially on Shakespeare and his plays, though eventually other forms of theater will be considered. Our mission is to bring the British sensibility and history of performing the classics to the American stage.
I found the inspiration to create the company when on a theatrical tour of London. My hope is for Puck’s Shakespeare Company’s clarity of text and mutual artistic respect that characterized the London productions to become a driving force in New York City.
Home Page
“Much Ado About Nothing” The First Production
Links
The American Academy of Dramatic Arts
Robert (Robe) Carpenter (The Art Work)
The Rebel Shakespeare Company