Kemal Başar

Ankara, a conservatory, and 24 years on the state payroll

Başar was born in Ankara on 25 October 1963, into the trade: his father was the actor Savaş Başar. He went through TED Ankara College and then the theatre department of the Mimar Sinan University State Conservatory, finishing in 1989 and joining the Turkish State Theatres in the same year.

What followed was the full institutional career rather than a freelance one. He acted as a company member at the Bursa and Ankara State Theatres, directed productions in Ankara, Bursa and a string of Anatolian cities, and moved into administration: founder and head of the Foreign Relations Unit at the State Theatres General Directorate, then director and deputy director of the Ankara State Theatre. The foreign-relations job made him a fixture at international theatre festivals as a curator and panellist, and it built the contacts that still shape his touring — he has run seminars and workshops abroad for years, particularly in Romania and Poland.

He has directed more than thirty productions over that span, including Hamlet and Romeo and Juliet, and work by Dario Fo and Edward Albee. He also translates, bringing Israeli, American and Eastern European playwrights into Turkish — a habit that feeds directly into what he stages now.

Walking out in 2013

In 2013 Başar left the State Theatres by choice, before the end of a career that could have run longer, and set up Emma Gösteri ve Sanat Hizmetleri. Tiyatro Keyfi is the theatre arm of that company, and he has been its artistic director ever since, which in practice means he directs most of what it stages, does the dramaturgy, and frequently walks on stage in it.

The company's tenth-anniversary production gives a clear sense of the taste. Söz Veriyorum, Fatoş Sevengil's translation of Aleksei Arbuzov's three-act text about three young people sheltering in a bombed city in 1942, opened at Şişli Kats Sahne on 16 December 2023 with a cast of three — Savaş Alp Başar, Zelal Barlas and Efe Can Karakaya as Marat, Lika and Leonidik. Small cast, hard text, no spectacle. That pattern repeats across the repertoire.

Savaş Alp Başar, born in 1996, is his son, and now carries leads and directs for the company himself; Lale Başar, his wife, is also on the acting roster. Tiyatro Keyfi is a family operation in the literal sense.

Cyrano Rock, and what it has done for him

The production that has travelled furthest is Cyrano Rock, Hakkı Ergök's adaptation of Rostand with dramaturgy and direction by Başar, who also plays Cyrano. It runs 90 minutes in a single act, carries a 12-plus age guidance, and is built on the staging principles of orta oyunu — the traditional Turkish improvised form — which is to say very little scenery, masks by Candan Seda Balaban, costumes by Canan Göknil, choreography by Kerem Kuraner, and songs by Nurkan Renda and Hazım Körmükçü played live rather than tracked.

It has been collecting prizes. The New Theatre Awards gave it best duo performance in 2024; in 2025 it brought Başar two separate best-director awards, from the İsmet Küntay Theatre Awards and the Anadolu Theatre Awards. It was then picked for the main programme of the 37th Sibiu International Theatre Festival in Romania in 2025, where it was performed in a stripped solo version in the open air at the historic Habermann Markt, Başar alone on stage with Ferhat Daşdemir handling light and sound.

The full ensemble version went back to Romania a year later, closing Tiyatro Keyfi's 2025–26 season at the Babel International Theatre Festival in Târgovişte on 10 June 2026, again outdoors, with Melisa Aytaç as Roxanne, Savaş Alp Başar as Christian and Zeynep Yaylıcıoğlu as Akbaba. That performance was dedicated to the memory of the choreographer Hugo Wolff.

Between the two festival dates it toured domestically. At the Erzincan Municipality Culture and Art Centre on 17 February 2026 the hall was close to full and the applause ran long; local coverage read the staging less as a love story than as an argument about decayed public ethics and lost plain dealing, which is roughly how Başar himself frames it.

The rest of the shelf

Kaktüs Çiçeği, the Paris-set comedy with Korel Cezayirli and Lale Başar, has been the company's other prize magnet, taking production of the year, best director and best costume design, with choreography by Nikolay Manolov and a set by Murat Gülmez. It played MOİ Sahne in Istanbul on 12 June 2026.

Tut Elimden Rovni, drawn from Aziz Nesin and staged with music by Can Atilla, is the one that went east: two tours of South Korea and a special play award from the Korean drama association, with Savaş Alp Başar and Lola Polat as the acrobat couple whose marriage survives on balance rather than conversation. It closed the season at Şişli Habitat Sahne on 17 June 2026.

Alongside those sit Çılgın Zamanlar, a comedy with Hazım Körmükçü that took best production of the year at the New Theatre Awards, and a set of lecture-performances that Başar uses to argue his method in public rather than in interviews — Shakespeare İle İçimize Yolculuk, Neden Minimalizm, and the concert piece No Filter. He delivered a talk under the Why Minimalism title on the South Korean festival trip.

Autumn 2026: a new room in Maslak

Tiyatro Keyfi announced on 6 September 2026 that it has opened its own multi-purpose space, Tiyatro Keyfi Lab – Savaş Başar Sahnesi, in Maslak, kitted for performance, filming, concerts and events. The stage carries the name of the actor Savaş Başar.

Two premieres open it on consecutive nights. Yapraklar, by the Greek playwright Andreas Flourakis, translated and directed by Başar and performed by Bahtiye Özgür, opens on 8 October 2026 and is billed as the first piece out of the Lab, cast from graduates of the company's own workshops. Matei Vişniec's war play Penceredeki Atlar follows on 9 October 2026, directed by Savaş Alp Başar with Lola Polat, Ömer Köse and the director himself. Murat Gülmez designs the sets for both, Zeynep Yaylıcıoğlu the costumes.

Still to land this season is Son Matador, written by Ekin Deniz Kuzu from a story by Başar, with Başar directing and on dramaturgy and the flamenco guitarist and composer Burak Altuni performing. The children's titles İnatçı Keçiler and Merhaba Gölgem continue. The company is also running a founding-supporter scheme: from October, supporters can reserve and attend Cyrano Rock, Tut Elimden Rovni, Penceredeki Atlar, Yapraklar and Son Matador without paying for tickets.

In 2024, Tiyatro Keyfi recorded a lifetime honour award for Başar. In 2026 the İsmet Küntay best director prize came round again, this time for Kaktüs Çiçeği.

The screen work

Başar's filmography runs from 1994 to 2021 and functions mostly as the day job that funds the stage one. He has appeared in Eşkıya Dünyaya Hükümdar Olmaz, Kurtlar Vadisi Pusu, Mucize Doktor, Kuruluş Osman and Leyla ile Mecnun on television, and in the films Signora Enrica, 72. Koğuş and Göl Zamanı, with a voice credit as well. None of it has displaced the directing.