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Exclusive: Konversations with Keeme: A Chat with Claire Kelly
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Nov 1, 2022
Fourteen year old Ajibola Tajudeen, better known as Keeme, is the host of New Paradigm Theatre's web series now in it's third season here on BroadwayWorld. 'Konversations with Keeme' is show where Keeme interviews seasoned television and film professionals like Tamara Tunie of Law and Order: Special Victims Unit and Renee Lawless of Tyler Perry's The Have and the Have Nots, as well as Broadway veterans such as Emmy and Grammy winner, Paul Bogaev, and Broadway pros Christine Dwyer, Kelly Grant, Juwan Crawley and more.
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Hello, my name is Ajabola Tajuddin, but you can call me Kimi, and today you're watching
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Conversations with Kimi, a show where we ask stuff and we make stuff. Today, like most of
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our episodes on season three, we'll be making a chain that will bind together our West Side
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story community. Today our guest is Claire Kelly who is the director of our West Side Story
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and artistic director of Shakespeare on the Sound. She strives to empower the creative
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self-expression of her students. Help me in welcoming Claire Kelly. Thank you for having me
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So what is Shakespeare on the Sound? Well Shakespeare on the Sound is a professional
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theater company. We perform mainly Shakespeare and we also have one big show the year in June
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and then we do year-round educational programming because education and community relations are a
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huge, huge part of our mission. The reason why Shakespeare is still relevant is because he tells
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these human stories. Have you ever felt like angry and betrayed by somebody? All the time
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There you go, that's Hamlet. And I think people get hung up on his language because it's kind of old
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but it's really the storytelling. So our mission is to tell the story clearly because Shakespeare is still relevant now
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How did you become the artistic director of Shakespeare on the Sound? Well, that's an excellent question
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I was originally hired as the director of education and I trained as a director but also as an educator and a theater educator and then eventually I directed three shows and then they
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offered me the position of artistic director which is kind of a dream come
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true. Have you ever thought about being on stage or started behind the scenes
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That's an excellent question. I have been on stage early in my career
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And, yeah, no. I think the directing is my, I like to play all the parts
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And I always joke that I do play all the parts, but I kind of do play all the parts in my head
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So I'm better at helping people discover their character and creating the world of the play rather than being in it myself
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So as you know, the theme behind West Side Story is about people not being tolerant of those who don't look or act like them
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So have you ever dealt with that in your life? I have actually, in a little bit of a different situation
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But I've been in a room with male directors because directing, there aren't very many female directors
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And especially in the Shakespeare world. And I was just recently actually in a room with male directors and I was the only woman
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the only female artistic director in the room of probably 15 men
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And they were giving advice about theater and being an artistic director
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and every time they were doling out advice they looked at me not at anybody else but at me And it felt really really really weird But instead of kind of like hunching my shoulders and feeling sorry for myself
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I sat up as straight as possible. I listened, I looked them in the eye, and I made comments and asked questions when appropriate
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because I wasn't going to let them kind of put me down
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But I'm also older, and I, you know, probably 10 years ago I might not have done that
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And it can feel really, really awful when you feel like you're alone
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But afterwards, two of the men who were in the room came up to me and said
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it did not go unnoticed that you were the only woman in this room, and we were totally there for you, and so glad that you stayed and that you spoke up
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So what would you say to young girls who want to be artistic directors
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I would tell them to pursue their dreams, be true to themselves, believe in themselves
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even when people are telling you or telling them that they can't do it
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And to look for allies, because sometimes allies are where you least expect them
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If you don't talk to other people, people that you trust, you can feel very, very, very alone
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What do you plan on doing with the NPT Self Defense class
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Well, I'm actually really excited about that. So I studied martial arts for five years, and I still love it
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I had to take a break because I got injured. So we going to pair up with partners and I going to teach four or five of these very simple things you can do if someone is trying to grab you in a couple of different ways and common grabs that women or even like young kids are
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grabbed in a way that they're grabbed and how to protect themselves when if
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you find yourself in that situation so our partnership this year is building
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one community as you know for West Side Story and they thought of this idea of
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doing hands so every one of our guests on conversation will keep me great we'll sign a
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hand and then we'll put them together with our chain at the west side story production okay so
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do you mind signing this of course come see west side story february 23rd with npt and the nook
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symphony you can come see our chain our final product and our hands so let's show our work to
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to the audience. Okay. I don't think you can read it, but it says
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creative self-expression. I wrote, believe in yourself, love, because love is the answer
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to everything, in my opinion. Inspire, follow your passion, be brave, and find your voice
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Well, thank you so much, Claire, for joining us here on season three of Conversations with Kimi
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And I want you guys to remember, your voice is your power. So use it. Kimi out
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Conversations with Kimi is produced with support from the Department of Economic and Community Development
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Connecticut Office of the Arts, which also receives support from the National Endowment for the Arts, a federal agency
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