Jim Clayburgh | |
---|---|
Born | 23rd May 1949 New York City |
Occupation | Scenic designer |
Years active | 1973 - present |
Jim (James) Clayburgh (b. 23rd May 1949, New York City, NY) is a scenic designer. He was a founding member of The Wooster Group and served as the group's resident designer from 1975 to 1994. He currently lives in Brussels, Belgium, where he founded the company JOJI INC with choreographer and dancer Johanne Saunier , and continues to design for theatre, film, dance and opera both in the USA and in Europe.
Jim Clayburgh is the brother of actress Jill Clayburgh (1944–2010). With partner Johanne Saunier, he has two sons.
Clayburgh holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from Claremont McKenna College, majoring in design at Pomona College, and a Master of Fine Arts degree in Theatre Design from New York University School Of The Arts. In the USA he has taught masterclasses at MIT, New York Tisch School of the Arts, University of California Santa Cruz, University of Michigan, Hollins University, Simons Rock College of Art. In Europe, he has taught at St Luc's Ecole Supérieur des Arts and the International School of Brussels.
He was part of the design team for the interior renovations of two major concert halls in Brussels: La Maison de la Radio at Flagey, Ixelles, [1] and Le Palais des Beaux Arts.
In 2011 he gave a keynote address at the 41st International Theatre Festival at the Venice Biennale.
In 2013-14 he was a Visiting Artist at the American Academy of Rome.
Clayburgh was a member of the jury and gave a design workshop at Prague Quadrennial of Performance Design and Space in 2019, and he was a key speaker at the 2015 edition.
In 2020, he collaborated with German soprano Sarah Maria Sun on texts for concerts and lyrics for songs.
In conversation with Matthew Maguire:
"It interests me as a designer: looking for subconscious memories of space." [2]
"The distraction of a twenty-minute light change in a concert setting seems to block the ability to listen for some. I find it a form of relaxation, a second track of active involved meditation. I'm surprised how few people shut their eyes when listening." [2]
OBIE award for Sustained Achievement (The Wooster Group) (1991). [3]
OBIE award for Sustained Achievement In Design (1982). [4]
"A Space For Oedipus" – profile in Theatre Design & Technology, by Arnold Aronson (1978). [5]
"Plywood and electronics" – profile in Theatre Crafts, by Tish Dace (1984). [6]
Production | Year | Director | Role |
---|---|---|---|
The Tooth of Crime | 1973 | Richard Schechner | Lighting design |
The Tooth of Crime | 1974 | Richard Schechner | Set and lighting design |
A Wing and a Prayer | 1975 | Ellen LeCompte | Lighting design |
Thirty Years War | 1975 | Richard Schechner | Set and lighting design |
Mother Courage and Her Children | 1975 | Richard Schechner | Set and lighting design |
The Marilyn Project | 1976 | Richard Schechner | Set and lighting design |
Oedipus | 1977 | Richard Schechner | Set and lighting design |
Cops | 1978 | Richard Schechner | Set and lighting design |
Production | Year(s) | Role |
---|---|---|
Sakonnet Point | 1975 | Set co-design, lighting design |
Nayatt School | 1978 | Lighting design |
Rumstick Road | 1979 | Set co-design |
Point Judith | 1980 | Set co-design, lighting design |
3 Places in Rhode Island | 1981 | Set co-design, lighting design |
Hula: a record album interpretation | 1981 | Lighting design |
Routes 1&9 | 1981–85 | Set co-design, lighting design |
North Atlantic | 1984–1986 | Set and lighting design |
L.S.D. (...Just the High Points...) | 1986–1990 | Set and lighting design |
Frank Dell's The Temptation of St Anthony | 1988–1990 | Set design |
BRACE UP! | 1990–1994 | Set design |
Fish Story | 1992–1996 | Set design |
White Homeland Commando (film) | 1993 | Art direction |
Emperor Jones | 1993–1996 | Set design |
The Hairy Ape | 1994 | Set design |
Production | Year | Director | Producer |
---|---|---|---|
Marie and Bruce | 1979 | Wilford Leach | NY Shakespeare Festival |
Mary Stewart | 1981 | Des McAnuff | The Public Theatre |
My Sister In This House | 1981 | Iverna Lockpez | Second Stage |
The Confessions of a Dopefiend | 1982 | Matthew Maguire | Creation Company |
Necessary Ends | 1983 | Jim Milton | NY Shakespeare Festival |
Something Different | 1983 | Michael Kahn | Second Stage |
Miss Universal Happiness | 1985 | Richard Foreman | Ontological-Hysteric Theatre |
North Atlantic (remix) | 2001 | Elizabeth LeCompte | The Wooster Group |
BRACE UP! (2003) | 2003 | Elizabeth LeCompte | The Wooster Group |
In The Wind Of Time | 2005 | Isabella Soupart | Kunstenfestival des arts |
KOD | 2007 | Isabella Soupart | Kunstenfestival des arts |
Production | Year | Director/Choreographer | Producer |
---|---|---|---|
Erts | 1993 | Anne-Terese de Keersmaeker | Rosas |
Philoctetes Variations | 1994 | Jan Ritsema | Kaaitheater |
Solo | 1995 | Michèle Anne de Mey | Company M.A. de Mey |
Cahiers | 1996 | Michèle Anne de Mey | Company M.A. de Mey |
De l'air et du vent | 1996 | Pierre Droulers | Company P. Droulers |
Petites formes | 1997 | Pierre Droulers | Company P. Droulers |
Katamenia | 1997 | Michèle Anne de Mey | Company M.A. de Mey |
Sans les voix des maîtres | 1997 | Johanne Saunier | JOJI INC |
Charms | 1997 | Judith Vindevogel | Walpurgis |
Jewish Songs | 1997 | Douglas Becker | Conservatoire de Paris |
Multum in Parvo | 1998 | Pierre Droulers | Company P. Droulers |
Soon | 1998 | Hal Hartley | Salzburg Theatre Festival |
The Day of Heaven and Hell | 1998 | Wim Vandekeybus | Royal Flemish Theatre |
Choree | 2000 | Renaud de Putters | Bureau des pianos |
Ma | 2000 | Pierre Droulers | Company P. Droulers |
Mo-ten-tion | 2001 | Istok Kovacs | En Knap |
Rappresentazione di Anima et di Corpo | 2002 | Pierre Droulers | La Monnaie |
Apparitions | 2003 | Renard de Putters | Bureau des pianos |
Each To His Own | 2003 | Douglas Becker | Ballet de Genève |
Inoui | 2004 | Pierre Droulers | Company P. Droulers |
Production | Year | Director / Choreographer | Producer | Role | Notes |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Visions of Don Juan | 1987 | Matthew Maguire | Pepsico Summerfare Festival | Set and lighting design | NYC |
Nightcoil | 1989 | Matthew Maguire | Creation Company | NYC | |
Goose and Tom-Tom | 1986–90 | David Rabe | NY Shakespeare Festival | NYC | |
Seventy Scenes of Halloween | 1992 | Matthew Maguire | Creation Company | NYC | |
An Evening of Music and Video | 1994 | Kit Fitzgerald | On The Boards | Seattle | |
Adventures | 1999 | P. Droulers / J. Clayburgh | La Monnaie | Brussels | |
Final Scene | 2000 | JOJI INC | JOJI INC | Direction, set and lighting design | Brussels |
Landscape with four figures | 2001 | Johanne Saunier | JOJI INC | ||
It's Like | 2002 | Johanne Saunier | JOJI INC | ||
Cara Lucia | 2003/2007 | Sharon Fogarty | Mabou Mines | NYC | |
It's Like (installation) | 2004 | Johanne Saunier | JOJI INC | ||
Erase-E(x) parts 1–6 | 2004–2007 | The Wooster Group, Anne Teresa de Keersmaeker, Isabella Soupart, Kurt D’Haeseleer, Georges Aperghis, Johanne Saunier | JOJI INC | Various | |
In The Wind Of Time | 2005 | Isabella Soupart | Kunstenfestival des arts | Set design | Brussels |
Mozart Choreographies | 2007 | Salva Sanchez et al. | Mozarteum | Saltzburg | |
Im-Agined | 2007 | Jim Clayburgh | JOJI INC/STRP Festival Eindhoven | Direction, set and lighting design | Eindhoven |
Lolita, an imagined opera | 2008 | Jim Clayburgh | GMEM | Direction, set and lighting design | Marseille |
Walking On Rocks | 2008 | Jim Clayburgh | JOJI INC/Scène Nationale de Cavaillon | Direction, set and lighting design | |
Line Of Oblivion | 2010 | Jim Clayburgh | JOJI INC | Direction, set and lighting design | |
Collision(s) | 2010 | Isabella Soupart | MadeInBruxelles | Set and lighting design | Brussels |
Lear, A King | 2010 | François Sarhan | CNN de Havre Haute Normandie / SN Chalon-sur-Saône | Set and lighting design | Rouen / Chalon-sur-Saône |
Musée en chantier | 2011 | JOJI INC | Théâtre des tanneurs | Set and lighting design | Brussels |
Modern Dance | 2012 | JOJI INC | SN Chalon-sur-Saône | Set and lighting design | Chalon-sur-Saône |
Man of La Mancha | 2012 | Sybille Wilson | Festival de Wallonie | Set and lighting design | Brussels |
Le Maître des illusions | 2012 | Sybille Wilson | Théâtre du parc | Set and lighting design | Brussels |
Words | 2012 | Isabella Soupart | H&B Films | Set and lighting design | (film) |
SpiderNight | 2014 | EU Dance Project | Dans Centrum Jette | Lighting design | Brussels |
I Love My Family I Don't Like | 2014 | Isabella Soupart | MadeInBruxelles | Lighting design | Brussels |
Steve Reich Project | 2014 | Isabella Soupart | Beyond+Between asbl | Lighting design | Brussels |
After Words | 2015 | Isabella Soupart | MadeInBruxelles | Lighting design | Brussels |
La Digitale | 2015-2017 | Sybille Wilson | Musicatreize | Set and lighting design | Marseille, Paris, Bogotá |
Tutti Colori | 2016 | Roxane Huilmand | Dans Centrum Jette | Lighting design | Brussels |
Urban Bubbles | 2016 | JOJI INC | JOJI INC/Salzburg International Performing arts | Lighting design | Saltzburg |
C'est ici que le jour se lève | 2016 | Isabella Soupart | Théâtre Publique | Lighting design | Brussels |
How To Act | 2017 | Isabella Soupart | H&B Films | Lighting design | (film) |
La Légende du Roi Dragon | 2018 | Johanne Saunier | Opéra de Lille / Opéra de Bordeaux | Set and lighting design | Lille, Bordeaux |
Short Films | 2018 | Isabella Soupart | H&B Films | Lighting design | (film) |
Faust 2.0 | 2019 | Sharon Fogarty | Mabou Mines | Set and lighting design | NYC |
Carlotta's Room | 2019 | Arturo Fuentes | Festival Verticé UNAM | Lighting design and staging advice | Mexico City |
Dans un train | 2020 | Eléonore Lemaire | JOJI INC/Corps à son | Lighting design | Toulouse, Varron |
Julie Taymor is an American director and writer of theater, opera and film. Since her stage adaptation of The Lion King debuted in 1997, 24 global productions have been seen by more than 90 million people in over 100 cities in 19 countries, earning it the highest worldwide gross of any entertainment title in box office history. Lion King also received 11 Tony Award nominations, earning Taymor Tony Awards for Best Director and Costume Designer, and was honored with more than 70 major arts awards worldwide. In 1998, she became the first woman to win the Tony Award for Direction of a Musical with her staging of the theatre adaptation of The Lion King.
The Wooster Group is a New York City-based experimental theater company known for creating numerous original dramatic works. It gradually emerged from Richard Schechner's The Performance Group (1967–1980) during the period from 1975 to 1980, and took its name in 1980; the independent productions of 1975–1980 are retroactively attributed to the Group.
Scenic design is the creation of theatrical, as well as film or television scenery. Scenic designers come from a variety of artistic backgrounds, but in recent years, are mostly trained professionals, holding a B.F.A. or M.F.A. degrees in theater arts. Scenic designers design sets and scenery that aim to support the overall artistic goals of the production. There has been a consideration that scenic design is also production design; however, more accurately, it is a part of the visual production of a film or television.
Victor Pierre Horta was a Belgian architect and designer, and one of the founders of the Art Nouveau movement. His Hôtel Tassel in Brussels built in 1892–1893, is often considered the first Art Nouveau house, and, along with three of his other early houses, is listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The curving stylized vegetal forms that Horta used influenced many others, including architect Hector Guimard, who used it in the first house he designed in Paris and in the entrances he designed for the Paris Metro. He is also considered a precursor of modern architecture for his open floor plans and his innovative use of iron, steel and glass.
The Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts (WAAPA) at Edith Cowan University (ECU) was established in 1980 to provide performing arts tuition. WAAPA operates as a part of ECU, located at the ECU campus of Mount Lawley, a suburb in Perth, Western Australia.
Elizabeth LeCompte is an American director of experimental theater, dance, and media. A founding member of The Wooster Group, she has directed that ensemble since its emergence in the late 1970s.
The Performance Group (TPG) was a troupe of experimental theater started by Richard Schechner in 1967 in New York City. TPG's home base was the Performing Garage in the SoHo district. After 1975, tensions led to Schechner's resignation in 1980, and the troupe reinvented itself as The Wooster Group under the leadership of director and theatre artist Elizabeth LeCompte.
John Collins is an American experimental theatre director and designer. He is the founder and Artistic Director of Elevator Repair Service (ERS) and has directed or co-directed all of its productions since 1991. Most notable among his work with ERS is Gatz, a verbatim performance of the entire text of F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby.
Joshua Fineberg is an American composer of contemporary classical music.
Boris Aronson was an American scenic designer for Broadway and Yiddish theatre. He won the Tony Award for Scenic Design six times in his career.
Lee Breuer is an American playwright, theater director, academic, educator, film maker, poet, and lyricist.
Mac Wellman, born John McDowell Wellman on March 7, 1945 in Cleveland, Ohio, is an American playwright, author, and poet. He is best known for his experimental work in the theater which rebels against theatrical conventions, often abandoning such traditional elements as plot and character altogether. In 1990, he received an Obie Award for Best New American Play. In 1991, he received another Obie Award for Sincerity Forever. He has received a Lila Wallace-Readers' Digest Writers Award, and the 2003 Obie Award for Lifetime Achievement, as well as the Foundation for Contemporary Arts Grants to Artists award (2003).
Ming Cho Lee was a Chinese-American theatrical set designer and professor at the Yale School of Drama.
Kevin Adams is an American theatrical lighting designer. He has earned four Tony Awards for lighting design.
Christopher Akerlind is an American lighting designer for theatre, opera, and dance. He won the Tony Award for Best Lighting Design for Indecent. He also won the Tony Award for Best Lighting Design and the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Lighting Design for Light in the Piazza and an Obie Award for sustained excellence for his work Off-Broadway.
Roger Morgan is a pioneer in the world of theatre design consulting. He became interested in theatre architecture while a student at Carnegie Mellon University, and worked as an assistant to the scenic designer Jo Mielziner who became the primary influence on his career. He is the Tony Award-winning lighting designer of over 200 plays on and off Broadway and in regional theater. He founded Sachs Morgan Studio in 1976 to provide comprehensive theatre planning and design services to the performing arts community.
Allen Moyer is an American set designer particularly known for his work in operas and Broadway musicals. He grew up in Schuylkill Haven, Pennsylvania After two years at Albright College, he transferred to Pennsylvania State University where he earned a Bachelor of Arts degree followed by a Master of Fine Arts degree from New York University/Tisch School of the Arts where he studied with Oliver Smith and John Conklin. His designs have appeared in celebrated productions at the New York City Opera, the San Francisco Opera, the Santa Fe Opera, the Opera Theatre of Saint Louis, and the Seattle Opera. He notably staged the world premiere of Ricky Ian Gordon's The Grapes of Wrath at the Minnesota Opera in 2007. He designed his first set for the Metropolitan Opera for their new production of Gluck's Orfeo ed Euridice which premiered on May 2, 2007.
Dane Laffrey is an American scenic designer best known for Broadway shows Once on This Island (2017), Spring Awakening (2015), and Fool for Love (2015), and Off-Broadway shows The Christians (2015), Cloud Nine (2015), and Rancho Viejo (2016).
Laura Jellinek is a New York City based scenic designer known for her work on A Life at Playwrights Horizons.
Jan Versweyveld is a Belgian theatre set designer, scenographer and lighting designer.