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Theatre, dance and opera career

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Clarke is renowned not only as a choreographer and avant garde creator of new theatre works, but also as a director of operas and plays in the classic repertoire, such as the stage works of Mozart and Shakespeare. Even when serving as director in productions of well-known classics, her approach is frequently unconventional and ambitious.

She has choreographed for the Nederlands Dans Theater, the Joffrey Ballet, American Ballet Theatre, Rambert Dance Company, and The Martha Graham Company, among others.

As a director, Clarke’s many original productions include The Garden of Earthly Delights (with musical score by Richard Peaslee),[2][3] Vienna: Lusthaus[4] Miracolo d’Amore, Endangered Species, An Uncertain Hour, The Hunger Artist, and Vers la Flamme. She directed the premiere of Christopher Hampton’s Alice’s Adventures Underground at the Royal National Theatre in London. Angel Reapers (with text by Alfred Uhry) had its New York premiere at the Joyce Theater November 29 – December 11, 2011. In spring 2012 she created the full-evening work L’altra metá del cielo at La Scala Opera in Milan, Italy.

In opera, Clarke has directed Mozart's The Magic Flute for the Glimmerglass Opera and the Canadian Opera Company, Cosi fan tutte for Glimmerglass, Tan Dun’s Marco Polo for the Munich Biennale, the Hong-Kong Festival, and the New York City Opera, and Gluck’s Orfeo and Euridice for the English National Opera and the New York City Opera.

She directed A Midsummer Night’s Dream for the American Repertory Theater and a music/theater work, Belle Epoque, based on the life of Toulouse-Lautrec at Lincoln Center Theater. She has collaborated with Richard Greenberg and Charles L. Mee, among many others.

Chéri, inspired by the classic 1920 novella by controversial French author Colette, ran from November 19, 2013 to Dec. 29, 2013 at the Signature Theatre Company (New York City). It featured dancers Herman Cornejo & Alessandra Ferri, actress Amy Irving, and pianist Sarah Rothenberg. A world tour occurred in 2014 - 2015.

Her production of Kurt Weill's The Threepenny Opera ran at the Atlantic Theater Company in NYC from March 12 to May 11, 2014. The production featured F. Murray Abraham and Laura Osnes.

Clarke's latest production, Angel Reapers, a collaboration with Pulitzer prize-winner Alfred Uhry, ran at the Signature Theatre Company from February 2 - March 20, 2016. This production won two Lucille Lortel Awards for "Outstanding Alternative Theatrical Experience" and for "Outstanding Choreography". Angel Reapers had its New York premiere at the Joyce Theater November 29 – December 11, 2011 and also toured New England.

While Clarke does not compose the musical scores or texts (when present) for her original works, her creative work shapes all aspects of production and direction, from conception and structure to details of music, text, lighting, and costumes. Britannica Online summarizes her wide-ranging choreographic approach in saying that her "emotionally evocative work draws extensively on theatrical elements."[5]

Of the many disciplines beyond dance from which Clarke's work draws inspiration, perhaps the most prominent influence comes from the visual arts, especially painting. In this, Clarke shares a sensibility that connects such disparate artists as Peter Sellars, Pina Bausch, and Robert Wilson. New York Times critic Michael Kimmelman wrote of her Miracolo d'Amore in 1988 that it "... can be counted among the recent opera productions, films and theatrical presentations that in one way or another emulate painting. Franco Zeffirelli, George Lucas, Pina Bausch, Andrew Lloyd Webber, Robert Wilson and Peter Sellars share with Clarke this striking characteristic: They view the performing arts as a pretext for staging visual spectaculars."[6]

Honors and critical recognition

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In addition to the MacArthur Award, Clarke has received two grants from the Guggenheim Foundation as well as fifteen grants from the NEA. She has received the Drama Desk Award, two Obie Awards, and the Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle Award.

Her work Kaos, adapted from stories by Luigi Pirandello, received the first Tony Randall Foundation Award and was presented at the New York Theater Workshop (2006). In 2007, the NEA awarded her a grant for a new production of The Garden of Earthly Delights under a program dedicated to the remounting of American masterworks.

In 2009 Clarke won the SDC's Joe A. Callaway award for choreography, honoring excellence in direction and choreography in New York non-Broadway productions, for Garden of Earthly Delights and in 2014 for Chéri. She is the only person to have received two Callaway awards for choreography.

In June 2010, Clarke received the 2010 Samuel H. Scripps/American Dance Festival Award for Lifetime Achievement.[7] The award is considered the most important lifetime award for choreographers.[citation needed] She is the recipient of the 2013 Dance Magazine Award.[8]

In 2016, Clarke won two Lucille Lortel Awards for Angel Reapers: one for "Outstanding Choreography" and another with collaborator Alfred Uhry for "Outstanding Alternative Theatrical Experience".

In July 2019, Clarke received the Flora Roberts Award, administered by the Dramatists Guild Foundation. The award is presented to a dramatist in recognition of distinguished work in the theater and to encourage the continuation of that work.

She was the subject of the film Martha Clarke: Light and Dark for PBS,[9][10] and her Garden of Earthly Delights has been filmed by the BBC.

References

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  1. ^ Mandel, Paul W. (13 March 1952). "U.S.A. Confidential". The Harvard Crimson. Retrieved 7 May 2023.
  2. ^ Stanley Kauffman wrote in The New Republic, "Garden transformed 'our whole notion of theater'. It epitomized everything that is unique and imitable about the theater".
  3. ^ Smith, Dinita. "Martha Clarkes Midlife Dream". New York Times.
  4. ^ Rich, Frank (April 21, 1986). "The Stage: 'Vienna' from Martha Clarke". Archived from the original on July 18, 2012. Retrieved February 4, 2012.
  5. ^ "Martha Clarke". Retrieved February 4, 2012. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |encyclopedia= ignored (help)
  6. ^ Kimmelman, Michael (July 6, 1988). "Critic's Notebook". The New York Times. Retrieved February 4, 2012.
  7. ^ "Martha Clarke to receive the 2010 Samuel H. Scripps/American Dance Festival $50,000 award". Triangle Arts & Entertainment. March 26, 2010. Retrieved February 4, 2012.
  8. ^ 2013 Dance Magazine Award
  9. ^ Martha Clarke: Light and Dark
  10. ^ Mannikka, Eleanor. "Martha Clarke, Light and Dark". AllRovi. Retrieved February 4, 2012.
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