Claire Van Kampen is an English playwright, composer, and director.
Van Kampen was born in November, 1953 in Marylebone, London, England. She trained as a pianist for five years at the Royal College of Music, and studied 20th-century and Renaissance music.
In 1986, Claire Van Kampen became musical director of the Royal Shakespeare Company and the Royal National Theatre; she was the first woman to occupy the post for both companies. Since 1997, she has been the Director of Theatre Music at Shakespeare's Globe Theatre, composing period and contemporary music for over 30 productions.
In 2007, Van Kampen was awarded the Vero Nihil Verius Award for Distinguished Achievement in the Arts from Concordia College in Oregon, United States. That same year, she (along with Mark Rylance and Jenny Tiramani) received the Sam Wanamaker Award for their founding work during the first 10 years of Shakespeare's Globe Theatre.
Van Kampen's historical play, Farinelli and the King, opened at the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse in February 2015. After playing for two months there, it transferred to the Duke of York's Theatre in the West End from September to December 2015, then played on Broadway at the Belasco Theatre from December 2017 to March 2018. The play was nominated for 6 Olivier Awards, including Best Play.
Van Kampen is also the wife of acclaimed actor and director Mark Rylance, and mother of actress Juliet Rylance and the late filmmaker Nataasha van Kampen.
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