What’s up, Doc?: Dr. Charles Leinberry surfing in Avalon, New Jersey

Dr. Charles Leinberry knows every bone and muscle in all 10 of his fingers, but he also knows how to hang 10. A renowned hand and wrist surgeon at the Rothman Institute, Leinberry is also a skilled athlete who spends his precious spare moments outdoors—skiing, biking, snowboarding, and, especially, surfing.

The Philadelphia native has always had an interest in athletics. While an orthopedic resident, he planned to pursue a career in sports medicine before ultimately settling on a specialization in hands. Today, as an inductee to the American Orthopaedic Association, he is highly sought by both professional athletes and lay patients for his expertise, and he uses his vacation time to participate in volunteer initiatives around the world. But in between all of this work, he likes to sneak off to Avalon or Ocean City, New Jersey, to catch a few waves. “If you have a surfboard, you are down the shore, and the waves are good, that is all you need,” he says. “You don’t have to buy a lift ticket. You don’t have to pay any fees. Just sitting there, it’s peaceful. You can reflect.”

The doctor learned to surf the same way he learned the Hippocratic Oath at Thomas Jefferson University—from a book. At age 12, he would practice standing on blue-and-yellow rubber rafts and at 13 graduated to his first board, a 10-foot Greg Noll. Leinberry never took lessons. More than 40 years later, he still hits the surf whenever his schedule allows: At least once a month, he grabs his wet suit and heads to the waves, even in winter, when water temperatures can drop to a spine-tingling 39 degrees.

Leinberry’s physical prowess, however, isn’t limited to surfing, nor to his personal downtime. In 1995 he cycled from Santa Fe to Oklahoma City with Team World, a group of disabled cyclists with amputations and paraplegia that biked across the country. “These people were amazingly strong,” Leinberry recalls. “At first you think of it as, Well, this will be an adventure— and then you realize that we are here to help these people accomplish their goals.” Soon after, in 1996, Leinberry raced along with the US Masters Cycling Team in rural Russia while also providing medical services, donating a significant amount of medicine and equipment to underpaid physicians struggling to provide adequate healthcare. He also witnessed troubling medical conditions during a trip to Guatemala with Surgicorps in 2009, during which he treated poverty-stricken children with orthopedic maladies such as cleft palates and webbed digits. “I think [all doctors] should go once, just to test your skills, push your limits, and see what’s out there—to see how lucky we really are in this country,” he says. “That is why I do the work I do, to give back.”

Photography by Ryan Struck

For two people who spend much of their time on stage, it was only fitting that Julie Diana and Zachary Hench officially began their lives together before hundreds of enamored ballet-goers at the gilded Academy of Music. “We were dancing Cranko’s Romeo and Juliet,” says Hench. “I’d been thinking about proposing for a while, and that ballet came up. It is one of Julie’s favorite Shakespeare plays.” So in a life-imitating-art moment (they were playing the ballet’s star-crossed lovers, naturally), when the curtain came up for them to take their first bows, Hench got down on one knee and proposed. “The audience went wild,” he smiles. Diana, of course, said yes. And now these two principal dancers have gone on to become one of ballet’s most lauded duos, helping solidify Pennsylvania Ballet as one of the world’s premier companies, which will feature the pair throughout December in the much-anticipated performance of George Balanchine’s The Nutcracker. (The Ballet itself is in the process of relocating its headquarters to North Broad Street.)

Both fell in love with dance at an early age—Diana in New Jersey and Hench in central Pennsylvania—and later discovered their love for each other while performing in Barcelona. “We had mutual friends and heard each others’ names over the years, but we never met face to face until Zak joined San Francisco Ballet,” says Diana. “We were on tour in Spain when my partner for Balanchine’s ‘Symphony in C’ got injured. Zak was asked to step in and learn the part at the last minute, so we spent lots of time together in the studio and started to go for sangria after rehearsals.” Fast forward to today, and the pair have created two little masterpieces of their own: three-year-old daughter Riley and their newborn son, Lukas.

Despite the enchantingly intense characters they embody onstage, these two have a decidedly normal existence once the stage lights dim and the slippers are taken off. “We tend to keep our work at the studio and not to bring it home. But they are intertwined, and therein lies the balance,” admits Hench. Adds Diana: “We challenge each other in rehearsals and are very supportive of one another, but when we come home, it is mostly about life outside the ballet, and our children become the focus.” Unlike Romeo and Juliet, their tragic counterparts, it is this roundness of existence that enables them to choreograph their own happily-ever-after ending.

Charlie Saxton

Charlie Saxton plays angst-ridden teenager Damon Drecker on the hit HBO series Hung. And although the show, now in its third season, has propelled the Philadelphia native into TV stardom, Saxton has remained grounded. The 20-year-old recently wrapped the play End Days at LA’s Odyssey Theatre Ensemble and will soon return to the East Coast to spend the holidays with his family. We caught up with Saxton to chat about the upcoming season of Hung, navigating LA and rocking out with the band.

So what can we expect from your character this season?
CHARLIE SAXTON: Damon and his sister start a band. They’ll be writing a new song or jamming in the living room so that’s what he’s focusing most of his time and energy on. They’re also prepping for college this year so there’s the whole frustration of the SATS and the excitement that goes along with getting ready for college.

Did you know how to play any instruments prior to shooting the band scenes?
CS: I’ve played the drums since I was eight years old. At 12 I picked up the bass, and then a couple years after that took up the guitar. I was in a band in high school and we toured around the tri-state area and played local shows. That was a good time. 

Did your musical background play a part in the show’s storyline?
CS: When I first started the show they asked if I had any special talents. It’s pretty cool because both Sianoa [Smit-McPhee], who plays my sister, and I both play instruments so [Hung creators] Colette [Burson] and Dmitry [Lipkin] really liked that idea and they said, “Why don’t the kids start a band this year?”

Damon is a typical, insecure teen. Can you relate?
CS: Totally, absolutely. Even if people say that they can’t relate there are some aspects of themselves that they totally see in Damon—even if it’s not being sure of what to wear, what to think, how to act. It’s all part of puberty and growing up. Me personally, there were definitely times where I was like, man, I don’t know who I am or who I want to be. And you kind of realize you have to stop stressing over the same stuff and not worry about what others think of you and just be yourself. There is a famous quote by Dr. Seuss that says, “The people who matter won’t mind and the people that mind won’t matter.”

With the success of Hung, how have you dealt with fame especially as a young actor in Hollywood?
CS: It’s really weird but it’s also very exciting and cool. It just shows that people really like the show and really like what I do on it. As an actor that makes me feel great. It was really weird because I got stopped by TMZ last year when I was walking around the shopping mall, and I thought to myself: Why do they care about me? Why do they care what I’m doing?

Was it difficult adjusting to life in LA given your upbringing in Philadelphia?
CS: It took awhile to adjust because the East Coast and West Coast are such different worlds. I was only 19 when we started shooting, and it went from living at home with my parents, not sure if [the show] was going to get picked up and thinking about going to community college, to moving to Los Angeles to be on a television show. I didn’t have a car the first year I was in LA. I rode my bike everywhere. It was tough to adjust but I definitely settled very nicely.

What do you think is one of the most underrated things about LA?
CS: There are so many great places to watch really good films. I know that’s sort of obvious but you just don’t realize how many awesome places there are until you come here and experience it for yourself. I go to the New Beverly Cinema, and this past summer my girlfriend and I would go the Hollywood Cemetery to see movies there. It’s an awesome experience.

Esperanza Spalding

When the winner of the Best New Artist category was announced at this year’s Grammy Awards, some music-industry executives were left reaching for Google. Who was this sumptuously Afro-ed jazz musician named Esperanza Spalding who bested heavy favorites Drake and Justin Bieber? Jazz devotees and supporters of quality music around the globe, however, applauded the selection of the 27-year-old bandleader as a win for creativity and craftsmanship, both of which Spalding has in spades.

An anomaly even in the jazz world, Spalding plays the upright and electric bass, violin, oboe, and clarinet; sings, in three languages; and composes and produces. With her current album, Chamber Music Society, becoming a number-one Billboard jazz recording that also enjoyed a post-Grammy sales boost, she is quick to shrug off her relative anonymity. “If your fans are that adamant and supportive of you, your career is probably going to be just fine,” says Spalding, the first jazz musician to win Best New Artist.

Spalding’s career certainly looks primed to continue its upward trajectory. She is working on her third album, Radio Music Society, due out next year, and touring around the world with saxophonist Joe Lovano. She has performed for the Obamas, both at the White House and at the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize ceremony in Oslo, Norway—the only time jazz has usurped the traditional classical music. And she has been hailed as a musical savior ever since her acclaimed 2008 self-titled debut. But Spalding does not subscribe to the stereotypes of a typical jazz purist. In fact, she has her detractors, who criticize her work for its fusion-based sound. Undeterred, her upcoming album features a collaboration with hip-hop artist Q-Tip, formerly of A Tribe Called Quest, a group well known for its own mix of hip-hop and jazz stylings.

“Sometimes when I am working on a piece of music, it is strictly for the joy of creating. I have no end in mind, no fans, no performance space... There are no lyrics yet, no title,” Spalding says. “You feel like you are the conduit for this idea, and you are using your skills to breathe life into it and to keep it evolving. Other times you imagine a goal. You want to have this sound or do this kind of performance for people. Little by little, you piece together all the necessary elements to realize that.”

Spalding will play at the Zoellner Arts Center in Bethlehem on October 11 and at the Merriam Theater on October 14. For tickets, visit zoellnerartscenter.org or kimmelcenter.org

Kathryn Hahn and How Do You Know director James L. Brooks

With a new baby on board and two major 2011 films in the works (Wanderlust, starring Jennifer Anniston and My Idiot Brother, starring Paul Rudd) Kathryn Hahn has plenty on her plate. We caught up with the quick witted comedic actress to talk about her latest role in How Do You Know—filmed right here in Philly.

Tell us about your role in How Do You Know.
I play George’s [Paul Rudd] secretary and main executive assistant who also functions as his confidant. She’s very pregnant, as I was at the time. She has all this last trimester maternal energy and she channels it onto her boss.

Did you enjoy filming Philadelphia?
Philly has such a huge presence [and] such a gorgeous history. You can’t walk anywhere without seeing a plaque. It’s so moving to me.

Did you discover any favorite restaurants or local haunts while you were here?
Every day, on the way to work, my driver would take me to these ridiculously fattening places—iced pound cake from some Italian bakery, amazing burgers near Rittenhouse Square. Thank God I was pregnant because all I did was eat.

I’m sure you have plenty of fond pregnancy memories from Philly.
We walked up and down the steps at the Art Museum to try to jump-start the labor; my husband was singing the Rocky song. [Then] I got home one night and my water broke in our Four Seasons hotel room. My daughter was born at Penn Hospital after a long labor, but it was one of those profound experiences in my life.

For Marlton, New Jersey, native Brit Morgan, landing a role in HBO’s megahit True Blood wasn’t just good for her acting résumé—it was a chance to run wild on set. “I get to go absolutely crazy and just completely let go,” says the 23-year-old thesp of her role as the deranged werewolf Debbie Pelt. “There are so many levels to this character, and the things I did and the places I went were just incredible for me.”

Strung out, pissed off and addicted to V (vampire blood, for you non-fangbangers out there), Morgan’s Pelt terrorizes the dead and undead in equal measure, and in general wreaks havoc on anyone who stands in her way—quite a departure from her last role, as Lacey Thornfield on ABC Family’s wholesome, short-lived drama The Middleman. It’s a style the young and hungry Morgan far prefers. “I’ve learned how to be truly uninhibited and free to fly with my instincts, which is really crucial for this role,” she says. “Playing this type of character is what I’ve been preparing for all along. It’s a dream job for me.”