Stephanie Sinclaire - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Stephanie Sinclaire also known as Stephanie Crawford, is a painter

Painting

Painting is the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a surface . The application of the medium is commonly applied to the base with a brush but other objects can be used. In art, the term painting describes both the act and the result of the action. However, painting is...

and director in theatre

Theatre

Theatre is a collaborative form of fine art that uses live performers to present the experience of a real or imagined event before a live audience in a specific place. The performers may communicate this experience to the audience through combinations of gesture, speech, song, music or dance...

and film

Film

A film, also called a movie or motion picture, is a series of still or moving images. It is produced by recording photographic images with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or visual effects...

.

She was born Stephanie Anne Weiss in Boston, Massachusetts on February 28, 1954 to Harvard Law graduate and Naval officer Howard A Weiss and singer and painter Bernice Joan Smith. Her parents divorced and when she was three years old and her mother married Joseph DiLalla, a small band leader, who played with ‘Baby’ Rose Marie, Jimmy Durante

Jimmy Durante

James Francis "Jimmy" Durante was an American singer, pianist, comedian and actor. His distinctive clipped gravelly speech, comic language butchery, jazz-influenced songs, and large nose helped make him one of America's most familiar and popular personalities of the 1920s through the 1970s...

, Louis Armstrong

Louis Armstrong

Louis Armstrong , nicknamed Satchmo or Pops, was an American jazz trumpeter and singer from New Orleans, Louisiana....

and others in Las Vegas and elsewhere, travelling continually around America. She is one of nine siblings.

In 1968 she attended Windsor Mountain High School

Windsor Mountain School

The Windsor Mountain School was a coeducational boarding high school in Lenox, Massachusetts.The school was established in Lenox in 1944 by German Jewish educational reformer Max Bondy and his wife Gertrude Bondy. The Bondys had earlier established an international school in Germany, initially in...

in Lenox, Massachusetts

Lenox, Massachusetts

Lenox is a town in Berkshire County, Massachusetts, United States. Set in Western Massachusetts, it is part of the Pittsfield, Massachusetts Metropolitan Statistical Area. The population was 5,077 at the 2000 census. Where the town has a border with Stockbridge is the site of Tanglewood, summer...

, a utopian experiment that began in Europe. In 1972 she enrolled in the California College of Art and Craft in Oakland, California

Oakland, California

Oakland is a major West Coast port city on San Francisco Bay in the U.S. state of California. It is the eighth-largest city in the state with a 2010 population of 390,724...

, where she studied literature with absurdist playwright Michael McClure

Michael McClure

Michael McClure is an American poet, playwright, songwriter, and novelist. After moving to San Francisco as a young man, he found fame as one of the five poets who read at the famous San Francisco Six Gallery reading in 1955 rendered in barely fictionalized terms in Jack Kerouac's Dharma Bums...

and painting while working for Laurel Burch

Laurel Burch

Laurel Burch was an American artist, designer and businesswoman.As a 20-year-old single mother she found metal in junkyards to hammer into jewelry to support her two children, and went on to launch her business, now called Laurel Burch Artworks, in the late 1960s with the help of a small staff...

jewellery design. Siclaire married Matthew Eliot Kastin in 1980. They have one daughter, Katherine Kastin, a zoologist, actress and therapist.

In 1985 she married Daniel Frank Crawford, founder of The Kings Head Theatre, London. A painter and a poet at the time of their marriage, she became increasingly involved with the theatre, first as Literary Manager and then as Associate Artistic Director. During that time she assisted in the production of over 60 plays and musicals many of which were award winning or transferred to London’s West End or Broadway.

She continued to paint, exhibit and curate exhibitions under the banner of Archangel Exhibitions. She has exhibited her paintings internationally and was curator of two international exhibitions in London, American's Abroad at Smith’s Gallery Covent Garden, London, examining the work of artists born or raised in America who had deeply influenced European culture such as Cy Twombly

Cy Twombly

Edwin Parker "Cy" Twombly, Jr. was an American artist well known for his large-scale, freely scribbled, calligraphic-style graffiti paintings, on solid fields of mostly gray, tan, or off-white colors...

, Man Ray

Man Ray

Man Ray , born Emmanuel Radnitzky, was an American artist who spent most of his career in Paris, France. Perhaps best described simply as a modernist, he was a significant contributor to both the Dada and Surrealist movements, although his ties to each were informal...

, Niki de Saint Phalle

Niki de Saint Phalle

Niki de Saint Phalle, born Catherine-Marie-Agnès-Brandon Fal de Saint Phalle was a French sculptor, painter, and film maker.-The early years:...

and others (catalogue by art historian Keith Wheldon) and The London Influence, an examination of International artists living in London including Susan Hiller

Susan Hiller

Susan Hiller is an American-born artist who lives in London, UK. Her art practice encompasses installation, video, photography, performance and writing.-Early Life and Education:...

, John Kirby, Rachel Whiteread

Rachel Whiteread

Rachel Whiteread, CBE is an English artist, best known for her sculptures, which typically take the form of casts. She won the annual Turner Prize in 1993—the first woman to win the prize....

and Jacqueline Moreau, at The Slaughterhouse Gallery, Smithfields, London.

In early 1990s Sinclaire began writing for theatre and latterly directing, including Parallel Vision (writer), Dance with the Devil (writer), The Famous Five (co-writer and co-lyricist) a musical based on The Famous Five
The Famous Five (series)
The Famous Five is the name of a series of children's novels written by British author Enid Blyton. The first book, Five on a Treasure Island, was published in 1942....

which premiered in London, toured the UK and later published on VHS and DVD under the title The Famous Five – Smuggler’s Gold – The Musical (1997).

Dear Brutus (adapter/ director/ producer), began her love affair with J. M. Barrie

J. M. Barrie

Sir James Matthew Barrie, 1st Baronet, OM was a Scottish author and dramatist, best remembered today as the creator of Peter Pan. The child of a family of small-town weavers, he was educated in Scotland. He moved to London, where he developed a career as a novelist and playwright...

. The highly lauded production resulted in the Barrie estate awarding her the much coveted film rights. Her subsequent screenplay, called The Shadow Master, is in development for a feature film starring Richard Attenborough. In 2006 she adapted and directed Peter Pan.

Stephanie directed The Shadow Master (top five critics choice, The Times, Benedict Nightingale

Benedict Nightingale

Benedict Nightingale is a British journalist and a regular theatre critic for The Times newspaper. He was born in 1939 and educated at Charterhouse and Magdalene College, Cambridge...

) late summer 2008 as a unique stage to screen project, directing the screenplay fully underscored on stage at the Kings Head Theatre. The Shadow Master will be filmed Summer 2010.

In 2002 she was co-recipient, with Dan Crawford, of Her Majesty the Queen’s Golden Jubilee Award for ‘contribution to the arts and pursuit of excellence’ in the field of direction for the Kings Head Theatre and its young director’s trainee programme presented by the Queen and Lord Attenborough

Richard Attenborough

Richard Samuel Attenborough, Baron Attenborough , CBE is a British actor, director, producer and entrepreneur. As director and producer he won two Academy Awards for the 1982 film Gandhi...

. The programme mentors young theatre directors in an apprentice setting at the Kings Head theatre and was the largest and most successful of its kind for over a decade introducing as many as 12 trained professionals into various aspects of the industry yearly.

Sinclaire made a move from theatre to film in the late 1990s but returned to maintain Dan Crawford’s estate after his death in 2005 and has run the theatre as Artistic Director since then. She also became the licensee and publican of the Kings Head Theatre Pub. The Kings Head was founded by Dan in 1970 and has therefore been under the directorship of one family for 40 years. Kings Head Theatre Patrons include Sir Alan Parker

Alan Parker

Sir Alan William Parker, CBE is an English film director, producer, writer and actor. He has been active in both the British cinema and American cinema and was a founding member of the Directors Guild of Great Britain.-Life and career:...

and Sir Tom Stoppard

Tom Stoppard

Sir Tom Stoppard OM, CBE, FRSL is a British playwright, knighted in 1997. He has written prolifically for TV, radio, film and stage, finding prominence with plays such as Arcadia, The Coast of Utopia, Every Good Boy Deserves Favour, Professional Foul, The Real Thing, and Rosencrantz and...

, Joanna Lumley

Joanna Lumley

Joanna Lamond Lumley, OBE, FRGS is a British actress, voice-over artist, former-model and author, best known for her roles in British television series Absolutely Fabulous portraying Edina Monsoon's best friend, Patsy Stone, as well as parts in The New Avengers, Sapphire & Steel, and Sensitive...

, Maureen Lipman

Maureen Lipman

Maureen Diane Lipman CBE is a British film, theatre and television actress, columnist and comedienne.-Early life:Lipman was born in Hull in the East Riding of Yorkshire, England, the daughter of Maurice Julius Lipman and Zelma Pearlman. Her father was a tailor; he used to have a shop between the...

, Don Black and Victoria Wood

Victoria Wood

Victoria Wood CBE is a British comedienne, actress, singer-songwriter, screenwriter and director. Wood has written and starred in sketches, plays, films and sitcoms, and her live stand-up comedy act is interspersed with her own compositions, which she accompanies on piano...

. It is a well loved and Internationally known theatre that has enjoyed over 40 transfers to the West End in Broadway.

Sinclaire’s first film, as co-producer, The Dance of Shiva was an Academy Award Finalist in 2000 and featured Kenneth Branagh

Kenneth Branagh

Kenneth Charles Branagh is an actor and film director from Northern Ireland. He is best known for directing and starring in several film adaptations of William Shakespeare's plays including Henry V , Much Ado About Nothing , Hamlet Kenneth Charles Branagh is an actor and film director from...

, Sam West

Sam West

Samuel Filmore West was a center fielder in Major League Baseball who played for three different teams between and . Listed at 5' 11", 165 lb., West batted and threw left handed. He was born in Longview, Texas....

, Sanjeev Bhaskar

Sanjeev Bhaskar

Sanjeev Bhaskar, OBE is a British Indian comedian, actor and broadcaster, best known for his work in the BBC Two comedy series Goodness Gracious Me and as host of The Kumars at No. 42...

and Paul McGann

Paul McGann

Paul McGann is an English actor who made his name on the BBC serial The Monocled Mutineer, in which he played the lead role...

with Director of Photography Jack Cardiff

Jack Cardiff

Jack Cardiff, OBE, BSC was a British cinematographer, director and photographer.His career spanned the development of cinema, from silent film, through early experiments in Technicolor to filmmaking in the 21st century...

behind the camera. Stephanie adapted, directed and produced The Tell Tale Heart, based on Edgar Allan Poe

Edgar Allan Poe

Edgar Allan Poe was an American author, poet, editor and literary critic, considered part of the American Romantic Movement. Best known for his tales of mystery and the macabre, Poe was one of the earliest American practitioners of the short story and is considered the inventor of the detective...

’s short story, with Jack Cardiff again as cinematographer and Production Designer Peter Murton which opened the Art Institute of Chicago

Art Institute of Chicago

The School of the Art Institute of Chicago is one of America's largest accredited independent schools of art and design, located in the Loop in Chicago, Illinois. It is associated with the museum of the same name, and "The Art Institute of Chicago" or "Chicago Art Institute" often refers to either...

’s 7th European Film Festival. She wrote, directed and produced Silence Becomes You, a feature film with Alicia Silverstone

Alicia Silverstone

Alicia Silverstone is an American actress, author, and former fashion model. She first came to widespread attention in music videos for Aerosmith, and is perhaps best known for her roles in Hollywood films such as Clueless and her portrayal of Batgirl in Batman & Robin .-Early life:Silverstone...

and Sienna Guillory

Sienna Guillory

Sienna Tiggy Guillory is an English actress, and former model. She is known for playing the title role in the TV miniseries, Helen of Troy, her portrayal of Jill Valentine in the science fiction action horror film Resident Evil: Apocalypse, and as elf princess Arya Dröttningu in fantasy-adventure...

. She wrote, co-directed (with award-winning Director Jason Figgis of October Eleven Pictures) and produced A Maverick in London, a documentary about Kings Head founder, her late husband, Dan Crawford and The Kings Head Theatre, featuring Joanna Lumley, Alan Rickman

Alan Rickman

Alan Sidney Patrick Rickman is an English actor and theatre director. He is a renowned stage actor in modern and classical productions and a former member of the Royal Shakespeare Company...

, Sir Tom Stoppard, Steven Berkoff

Steven Berkoff

Steven Berkoff is an English actor, writer and director. Best known for his performance as General Orlov in the James Bond film Octopussy, he is typically cast in villanous roles, such as Lt...

, Sir Antony Sher

Antony Sher

Sir Antony Sher, KBE is a double Olivier Award winning South African-born British actor, writer, theatre director and painter.- Early years :...

and many others.

Stephanie Sinclair is the director of Dragonlady Films and Theatre, formerly called Dragonfly Films and the author of Burnt Offering (poetry) and The Shores of Grace an odyssey, which has been distributed to all the UK prisons through the Prism Project and the US women’s prisons through the Edgar Cayce Foundation.

External links

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