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Martha Clarke is an American theater director and choreographer noted for her multidisciplinary approach to theatre, dance, and opera. A founding member of Pilobolus Dance Theatre and Crowsnest, Martha Clarke has choreographed for Nederlans Dans Theater, American Ballet Theatre, Rambert Dance Company, and The Martha Graham Company, among others. As a director Ms. Clarke’s many original productions include “Garden of Earthly Delights”; “Vienna: Lusthaus”; “Miracolo d’amore”; “Endangered Species”; “An Uncertain Hour”; “The Hunger Artist”; and “Vers La Flame.” She directed the premiere of Christopher Hampton‘s “Alice’s Adventures Underground” at the Royal National Theatre in London. In opera, Ms. Clarke has directed “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 Eurydice” for the English National Opera and New York City Opera. She directed “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” for The American Repertory Theatre and a new music/theatre work, “Belle Epoque,” based on the life of Toulouse-Lautrec at Lincoln Center Theatre. “Kaos,” an evening of Pirandello’s short stories presented at New York Theatre Workshop, was granted the first Tony Randall Foundation Award in 2006.
Clarke is the recipient of a MacArthur “Genius” Award in addition to fellowships from the NEA and Guggenheim Foundation. She has received the Drama Desk Award, two Obie Awards and the LA Critics Award. In 2007, she received an NEA grant to re-envision “Garden of Earthly Delights” under a program dedicated to the remounting of American masterworks. It opened at the American Dance Festival and received an extended commercial run in New York. For “Garden” she received the Joe A. Calloway award for choreography in 2009, and in 2010 the Samuel H. Scripps/American Dance Festival Award. This spring (2012) she will premiere a new full-evening work at La Scala Opera in Milan, Italy.
