Meet Claire van Kampen
Claire van Kampen famous husband is renowned actor, theatre director and playwright, David Mark Rylance Waters better known in the business as Mark Rylance.
Her husband was born January 18, 1960 in Ashford, Kent, England. Claire and her husband must be in celebrating mode after Mark took home the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his work in the film, Bridge of Spies.
It’s his first Oscar win, but Mark is no stranger to being recognized for his work. He attended the University School of Milwaukee after his parents moved to the U.S. in the ealry 60’s; and made his professional debut at the Citizens Theatre, Glasgow in 1980.
He went on to win the Olivier Award for Best Actor for Much Ado About Nothing in 1994, Jerusalem in 2010, the Tony Award for Best Actor in a Play for Boeing Boeing in 2008 and Jerusalem in 2011. In 2014, he won a third Tony Award for Twelfth Night. On television, he won the BAFTA TV Award for Best Actor in the 2005 Channel 4 drama The Government Inspector and was nominated for Emmy, Golden Globe and Screen Actors Guild Awards for the 2015 BBC Two miniseries Wolf Hall.
Mark being ‘married to his art’ met his wife, Claire, while working on a production of The Wandering Jew at the National Theatre. At the time they met, the composer and playwright Claire, was a divorced mother of two. She was first married to architect Chris van Kampen.
She told the New Yorker about meeting Rylance: “It took me quite a while to notice him, because my job on that show was so difficult” She noticed Mark three months later.
Claire van Kampen and Mark began dating in 1987 and were married by December 1989. Mark became a stepfather for her two daughters, Juliet Rylance and Nataasha van Kampen –who lost her life in 2012, at age 28. Her daughter Juliet is an actress.
Lovely Claire van Kampen was born Claire Louise on November 1953 in London, England. She grew up to be a musical director, director, composer and playwright. She has served as her hubby’s frequent collaborator through the years.
She originally trained at the Royal College of Music, where she was awarded a John Land Scholarship. Claire also specialized in the performance of 20th century music. Claire van Kampen developed an international career as a composer/performer, writing and playing for theatre, television and film soundtracks and the concert hall. Since the opening of Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre in London in 1997, she was Mark Rylance’s Associate Artistic Director. In addition, she is the Founding Director of Theatre Music. She has continued to be the Globe Associate for early Modern Music since 2007, and has created music for 8 productions directed by Dominic Dromgoole.
She has become a theatre specialist on music and text of the 16th and 17th centuries, on which she lectures and broadcasts regularly for television and radio. During her time at Shakespeare’s Globe, van Kampen has continued to work in the U.S.
She has also been commissioned to write a full-scale orchestral ballet on Macbeth for the Carolina Ballet, a world premiere of the play in ballet form. Claire van Kampen has received a number of awards for her work.
The couple resides in London, with their Jack Russell terrier, Apache, and their cat, Ethel.
You can find Claire van Kampen on Twitter here.
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