Theater director Claire van Kampen dies at 71
getty imagesBritish theater director and composer Claire van Kampen has died aged 71, her husband, actor Sir Mark Rylance, has confirmed.
A statement shared on behalf of Sir Mark and his daughter Juliet said Van Kampen, who was the first female music director at both the Royal Shakespeare Company and the National Theatre, died on Saturday after suffering from cancer.
He described her as “one of the funniest and (most) inspirational women I have ever known”.
Her theater credits also include writing the play Farinelli and the King, which starred her husband and was nominated for several Olivier Awards, including Best New Play, and several Tony Awards.
He died surrounded by his family in the German city of Kassel, the statement said. Saturday was also Sir Mark’s 65th birthday.
“We thank him for filling our lives with his magic, music, laughter and love,” it said.
“Ring the bells, blow the trumpets, believe, something has happened, something is beginning. One of the great wise has passed away.”
Van Kampen and Sir Mark married in 1989, the same year he composed the music for the Royal Shakespeare Company production of Hamlet, in which he starred.
pa mediaHe composed original scores for Broadway productions including True West, Boeing-Boeing and La Bête, as well as adaptations of Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night and Richard III.
After training at the Royal College of Music in London, where she studied music theory and piano, Van Kampen joined the Royal Shakespeare Company in 1986.
She joined the Royal National Theater the following year, working as artistic assistant to Sir Mark at Shakespeare’s Globe Theater in the capital.
Most recently, van Kampen was Globe associate and senior research fellow for early modern music at the Globe, as well as a creative associate at the Old Vic Theater in London.
He also acted as Tudor musical consultant and arranged for BBC television series Wolf Hall.
Van Kampen had two daughters with her previous husband, the architect Christopher van Kampen.
Their daughter Natasha, a film producer, died in 2012 at the age of 28. After suffering a brain hemorrhage.
