Ken Howard: Leaving Hollywood for Harvard

MARTHA HOWARD WISHES THAT HER son Ken had been in a car accident. While supportive of the actor's decision to leave "Dynasty" for the American Repertory Theater (ART), she had hoped his character could have left the prime-time soap in worse physical shape.

Upon hearing that he planned to flee Hollywood for Cambridge, Ken Howard recalls his mother saying in her North Carolina drawl, "Isn't that delightful dear, but perhaps you could talk to the producers. Maybe you could go into a coma."

A year ago, Ken Howard was cozily encased in the arms of Diahann Carroll on the hit show "Dynasty." Currently, he plays the tormented Michael Trent, a playwright sifting through reams of nonsensical nuclear deterrence theories, in the ART's production of Arthur Kopit's "End of the World with Symposium to Follow."

During the past year, Howard, who is best known to the 30 and under crowd as Coach Ken eves of television's "The White Shadow," has considered the ART, where he is a featured per-former and acting teacher. The Tony and Emmy award winner departed "Dynasty" for Harvard, citing frustrations with work on the popular series and a desire to work again with Robert S. Brustein, the director of the ART.

"In a television series you do a premise. You do one pilot, one script, you sign a contract and what it basically says is that you will do the work that we send you and you're not going to be a pain in the ass about it," Howard says. "You don't get a vote."

Because of this, the six-inch actor found the work on "Dynasty" unstimulating. "Nobody works that hard and the material is sort of a hoot," he says. "I was more interested in golf and book reading than in what I was doing." Howard says a television series serves as a nice springboard for good-looking young actors and actresses as well as a "twilight song for various performers like John Forsythe, Barbara Stanwyck and Charlton Heston." But for an actor "in the middle" of his career, as he characterizes himself, such an undertaking seems stifling.

Howard, who says he is in his "mid-40's," says he would never accept another role in a television series. "Let's say the business convened together and said 'we're never going to offer a television series again to Ken Howard," he says, adding his response, "Well, that's fine, because I don't ever really want to do one again."

The Amherst College alumnus selected the ART as his next stop because of his long-time association with Robert Brustein, whom he calls a "visionary." The ART Director taught Howard at the Yale University Drama School in the 1960's. While opposed in principle to working in a repertory company, the actor says he joined the Cambridge-based troupe because Brustein allows his players a large amount of artistic freedom and control.

Despite their over 20-year-long friendship, the Long Island-native says Brustein has shown little favoritism towards him. "Brustein has bent over backwards to have me treated the same as everyone else in terms of the work," he says. "I think maybe in one way I've provided a certain freshness, a certain new energy. I think I've made a contribution in that way."

While at Harvard, Howard has performed in three ART productions: "Sweet Table At The Richelieu," "Alcestis" and "End of The World With Symposium To Follow." The latter play is Howard's most demanding role, he says. The actor's character, Michael Trent, is featured in every scene of the two-hour drama, where he teeters on the brink of a nervous breakdown. Both "Sweet Table" and "End of The World" are currently playing at the ART.

"Some actors that I know in California say 'Oh you're going back to art,"' Howard says. "Basically, what it is, is going back to longer hours for less money, a lot of hard work and numerous frustrations, which is all somehow in the service of an ideal that Brustein is working on. And that is of value."

In addition to his acting duties, Howard taught a course last fall to young actors at the ART's Institute for Advanced Theater Training. "I think that most real discoveries in acting come in the heat of battle," Howard says regarding his philosophy on teaching acting technique. "As for the touchy feely part, in one way I'm not given to that although I must tell you there is so much stuff to get past quickly in an acting class you almost have the feeling that you'd like to have everybody come in and take their clothes off."

Howard is also in the process of creating a workshop at the Law School next year with Professor of Law Charles R. Nesson, which would teach presentational and oratory skills to future litigators. According to Howard, Nesson says public speaking "is a real weak spot" among students at the Law School.

"Often someone that you meet one on one who is extremely engaging is unable to get up and speak at the podium. Something stops and they just lose it," says Howard. "Well whatever causes that, I know how to teach and get past. That's something I deal with all the time, the notion of self versus presentational self."

Howard cites President Bok as an example of someone who has developed excellent oratory skills. "Derek Bok told me--it's hard to believe now--that he was a terrible public speaker 15 years ago when he assumed the presidency. He's a marvelous speaker now," he says. "It took a lot of practice."

HOWARD HAILS FROM THE NORTH east. He grew up in Manhasset, New York, located on the northern shore of Long Island. He acted and played basketball at Manhasset High School, where he was the only white player on his school team. He garnered the nickname, "White Shadow," from the rival Great Neck basketball squad. Regarding that nickname, Howard's former high school coach Fritz Mueller says, "sure he liked it, but he'd love any nickname. He was very funny and would spend hours singing in the showers with the other guys after practice, because Ken is a great singer, and they would keep me late."

In the television show "The White Shadow," which he created, Howard played an exprofessional basketball player turned high school coach. Howard loosely modelled his character after Mueller, even wearing replicas of his coach's sweat gear. The show's players also wore the orange-and-blue of Manhasset.

According to Mueller, now retired, Howard was a more than able player. In his senior year he copped the Most Valuable Player for his district. "He was big, very mobile, a good jumper and shooter," Mueller recalls. Had he chosen to aim for professional ball, his coach says, "he would have given it a good go."

After graduating from Amherst and Yale Drama School he was asked to play a Mid-Western lawyer vulnerable to big city temptations, in "Seesaw," which ran on Broadway in 1973. Since then, his major stage accomplishments include a Theater World Award for his portrayal of Thomas Jefferson in "1776" and a Tony Award for his work in "Child's Play."

Among his major television roles are a leading part in the television movie "Rage of Angels" and an Emmy Award winning performance in "Facts For Boys," which was a special for the program "The Body Human." His first regular appearance in a television series was in "Adam's Rib," where he played opposite Blythe Danner.

Because of his past theater and television roles, Howard says he is frequently recognized in public. Still his off-stage persona is low-key in contrast to his high-intensity performance in the "End of The World With Symposium To Follow."

During an interview, Howard is dressed modestly, wearing a brown tweed jacket, striped tie, butten down shirt and khaki pants. His hunched posture downplays his six-feet six-inch frame. His appearance is Eastern preppy, rather than Hollywood glitz.

Howard clearly prefers the East Coast lifestyle to that of the West. While living in California with his wife Margo, a political humorist for "The New Republic," the Howards grew dissatisfied with the Hollywood scene. "I never really settled in there. I always had one foot back on the Eastern seaboard," he says.

"Ken has a good sense of the balance between professional life and family," says Fred Wiseman, the Emmy award winning documentary filmmaker and a family friend. "What's nice is it has the charm of being true." Ken Howard has three step-children from his 10 year marriage to Margo. The couple maintains a home in the small town of Falls Village, Connecticut in addition to one in Cambridge.

Howard expects to continue his affiliation with the ART at least through next year. He says, "I have to be a better actor now than I was 12 months ago. I just have to."