Ken Webster, Director

Ken Webster, Producing Artistic Director of the Hyde Park Theatre, received his training at the University of Houston. He has been actively involved in the Austin theatre scene for 35 years as an actor, director, producer, and playwright, and has served as the producing artistic director of Hyde Park Theatre since 2001. From 1988–2001 he was the artistic director of The Subterranean Theatre Company, and from 1986–1991 he was a resident director at Zachary Scott Theatre. He was a company member at The State Theatre from 1998-2001.

Webster has been nominated for 47 B. Iden Payne Awards and23 Critics’ Table Awards. He has appeared in and directed over 70 stage productions. In his career, Artistic Director Ken Webster has received 47 B. Iden Payne Award nominations and fourteen B. Iden Payne Awards. He received the B. Iden Payne Award for Outstanding Direction in 1983, 1984, 1990, 2003, 2004, 2007, and 2008, and the Critics’ Table Award for direction in 2003 and 2012. He is the only Austin director to have been honored with awards for directing in each of the last four decades.

He also received the Payne Award for his performance in Eric Bogosian’s Sex, Drugs, Rock & Roll in 1993, and Critics’ Table Awards for his one-man performances in St. Nicholas by Conor McPherson and Thom Pain (based on nothing) by Will Eno in 2007. In 1999 Webster received the Critics’ Table John Bustin Award for “Conspicuous Achievement.” And in 2009 he received The Austin Theatre Examiner Award for Outstanding Performance in a Comedy for his role in House by Daniel MacIvor. In 2010 Webster was nominated as Best Director by The Austin Theater Examiner for all four of the productions that he directed that year He served on the board of directors for The Austin Circle of Theatres from 1984-1986, and again in 1989-1990.