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In June Clara will be returning to one of her favorite roles, Puck. The Thyme of the Season, the sequel to A Midsummer Night's Dream that Clara co-conceived with Duncan Pflaster, will receive a full production as part of the Planet Connection Theatre Festival. Thyme takes place on Halloween, and deal with themes of transformation and loss.
In December Clara directed and appeared in a staged reading of her own adaptation of Charles Dickens's beloved holiday classic A Christmas Carol. For the third Christmas in a row she will be collaborating with The Theatre Company of Hoboken, and many past cast members from the past two years will be included, including Michael Clay as Scrooge (Marley in A Christmas Carol '07 and Friar Laurence in Holla Holla Productions' Romeo and Juliet. In addition, other familiar faces included Ashley Johnson (Specialty Choir in A Christmas Carols '07 and '08, and Heidi in "Patrick and Lisa's Wedding") and Ben Dellabella (Cratchit Boy in A Christmas Carol '08) as well as Courtney Kochuba (Lisa in "Patrick and Lisa's Wedding").
In October Clara collaborated with The Theatre Company on a Halloween fundraiser, writing and performing several ghost stories along with other cast members at Sybil's Cave along the Hoboken waterfront.
In September, Clara directed a reading of Shakespeare's Anthony and Cleopatra for Moonbeam.net's classic series "Shakespeare Saturdays."
In August Clara performed several songs for a fundraiser for the newly formed The Theatre Company (TTC), formerly the Theater Company of Debaun. Clara sang "Gooch's Song" and "Someone Else's Story"; other performers included Leah Greenhaus of Broadway's Shrek.
In July and August, Clara performed in an encore run of "Shakespeare Saturdays Songs in Concert" as part of the Midtown International Theatre Festival. SSSiC is a program of original settings of Shakespearean songs, including "Come Away, Death" and "The Willow Song."
In May, Clara appeared as Tara, a WASPy, truth-seeking model who is re-thinking her life's direction, in Ore, or Or at the Workshop Theatre.
In April, Clara appeared in "Shakespeare Saturdays Songs in Concert" at the Inwood Library.
Clara is now on iTunes! In February, Clara recorded "Up, Up, Up in the Sky" as part of the group Donna Stearns and the Big Bangers. "Up, Up..." was written to honor the International Year of Astronomy: the 400th anniversary of Galileo's looking through the telescope. The song is available for purchase and download on iTunes as well as on CD Baby. The Big Bangers have been performing "Up, Up..." throughout the Manhattan area, as part of the IYA.
In December Clara directed her own adaptation of A Christmas Carol at The Center for the Performing Arts at DeBaun Auditorium in Hoboken, New Jersey. Her version sought to honor Dickens's original text, and Clara chose all the music to be as authentic as possible, including such pieces as "Gabriel's Message," the Coventry Carol, and the 19th-century Anglican hymn "Once in Royal David's City." A Christmas Carol ran the second and third weekends in December for 6 performances.
NEW! Clara's original adaptation of A Christmas Carol has been spotlighted in Michael Dale's Showtime blog on BroadwayWorld.com!
Playgoers who enjoy having the Dickens scared out of them should find it worthwhile to make their way out to Hoboken this holiday season for the historic DeBaun Center for Performing Arts' production of A Christmas Carol. Adapter/director Clara Barton Green has taken great care to see that her text is accurate to both the spirit and letter of the great Charles Dickens novel and that includes an appreciation for its appeal as a good ol' fashioned ghost story.
And just as NEW! Clara and A Christmas Carol have been profiled in the Hudson Reporter!
"It's an all original script this year," said Executive Director of the Center David Zimmerman, and probably the closest thing to the actual book that you can get."
Delving deep into the Dickensian period, Green worked on the play for many months to create the right feel for the audience.
"Green is a very hands-on director," said Zimmerman. "She has a vision she expects to see on stage and is very good working with a variety of actors."
In November Clara appeared in a staged reading of My Name is Gary Cooper as part of the New Indigenous Voices 2008 Reading Series, presented by the Australian Aboriginal Theater Initiative. My Name is Gary Cooper is a roller-coaster ride through cultural appropriation and the impact of the American film industry on the South Pacific (and vice-versa), and is written by the award-winning New Zealand playwright Victor Rodgers.
In September Clara appeared as Mercutio in Shakespeare's timeless tale of first love pitted against a deadly family rivalry, Romeo and Juliet, produced by Holla Holla Productions. Jason Specland directed.
Also in September Clara directed "Patrick and Lisa's Wedding," DeBaun's entry for the Hudson County One-Act Festival in September.
In July and August, Clara appeared as Princess Lana in Duncan Pflaster's play Prince Trevor Amongst the Elephants, as part of the Midtown International Theatre Festival. Prince Trevor received rave reviews and was also featured on BroadwayWorld.com. It was also nominated for 9 MITF Awards, including Outstanding Ensemble.
Also in July, Clara also directed Maurice Martin's one-act play "Pi Yao and the Farmers' Daughters" for the Samuel French Off-Off Broadway Festival. In 2002 Maurice's play "Three Questions," also directed by Clara, went on to win the competition and was published. "Pi Yao..." was performed at the Peter Jay Sharp Theater, on 416 W. 42nd Street.
Congratulations to Tony Chiroldes, currently on Broadway in the hit musical In the Heights, which just won the Tony for Best Musical! Clara directed Tony last spring in Duncan Pflaster's play Admit Impediments.
NEW! Fare for All has been spotlighted in Michael Dale's Showtime blog on BroadwayWorld.com!
Several years before Urinetown's Mark Hollmann began writing satirical songs about the public's right to pee he teamed up with playwright Jennifer Fell Hayes to pen a delightful musical for young audiences about one of New York's lesser known cultural landmarks. Fare For All at The Mount Vernon Hotel takes us back to 1830...The strong singing and dancing cast performs with gusto, but the real fun comes when the actors use audience volunteers to help demonstrate life in the 1830's.
In March and April, Clara performed again in Fare for All at the Mount Vernon Hotel, Mark Hollman's interactive children's musical. This time she played the role of Sarah, the teenage daughter of the Woodhull family who helps to run the hotel. Fare for All played mostly to student groups but had one public performance on Sunday, March 30.
In February, Clara appeared in longtime collaborator Duncan Pflaster's new play "The Fugly Train" as part of the Art Show Act One in Hoboken.
In January, Clara directed Elana Gartner's new play Because of Beth, a finalist in the Open Book 2007 Playwrighting Competition and a winner in the Pen and Brush Playwriting Contest. Beth played to full houses throughout January.
In December Clara directed the well-received A Christmas Carol at The Center for the Performing Arts at DeBaun Auditorium in Hoboken, New Jersey. A Christmas Carol ran December 14-16 and was well-attended for all four performances.
NEW! Clara and A Christmas Carol have been profiled in the Hudson Reporter!
David Zimmerman, executive director for the center, said that theatergoers can expect a brand new show with this year's performance.
"It's fabulous! I feel that this is artistically the strongest production in the [past] three years," said Zimmerman. "We've spent a lot of time trying to get the Dickens feel, and the language."
He said that is due in part to the talent of the director, Clara Barton Green, who is very passionate about the show....
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