# Terence Clarke (composer)

Terence Osborne Clarke (AM) (born 1935) is a retired Australian theatrical director and composer who also worked as an actor, pianist, musical director, teacher and dramaturg. On Australian Day 2007 he was installed as a Member of the Order of Australia for service to the performing arts as a director, actor, writer, composer and educator.

## Early life

Clarke was born in 1935 in Sydney and educated at Shore and the University of Sydney (resident St Paul's College), graduating BA with first-class honours in Music. While a student he appeared as Robert in the Sydney University Players' rendition of Peter Ustinov's play The Indifferent Shepherd in August 1953. A reviewer for the Sydney Morning Herald observed, "[he] had little to say but said it nicely". One of his fellow students at university was Charles Colman. After graduation Clarke taught at All Saints College, Bathurst (where he had attended primary school) and at Cranbrook School, Sydney, where he became head of mathematics and in charge of drama.

## Career

Terence Clarke's career has alternated between theatre work and teaching. While in England during 1959-1960 he acted at the Marlowe Theatre, Canterbury. In 1970 he left teaching to return to theatre and music. During his theatre career he has worked as an actor, artistic director, composer, musical director, writer and pianist from 1963 to 2016. Early work was as actor and musical director at Nimrod Street Theatre, Darlinghurst. His appointments have included: Associate Director of Perth's National Theatre at the Playhouse where he also acted, composed and played piano; founding Artistic Director of the Hunter Valley Theatre Company, Australia's first professional regional theatre company; Artistic Director of the Australian National Playwrights Conference; and Head of Directing at the National Institute of Dramatic Art, where he continued to teach. He directed the world premieres of A Happy and Holy Occasion (John O'Donoghue) and Backyard (Janis Balodis). He has taught at the West Australian Institute of Technology, the University of Newcastle, and the University of New South Wales, where he held a demi-lectureship for a year.
Clarke wrote three musicals to book and lyrics by Nick Enright: The Venetian Twins (cast album, Folkways Records), produced by all state theatre companies, and toured; Variations (Winner of the Play Award, New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards, 1983) not seen since its original Nimrod Theatre production runs in 1982 and 1983; and Summer Rain, commissioned by NIDA for the graduating class of 1984 and directed by Gale Edwards, later revised three times for productions at the Sydney and Queensland Theatre Companies.
His other compositions include: a ballad opera, Flash Jim Vaux (book and lyrics, Ron Blair). Leonard Glickfeld of The Australian Jewish News reviewed its performance at Russell Street Theatre, Melbourne in December 1973. Glickfeld praised Blair's writing including the ballads' lyrics, which were set to music by Clarke and Colman. However the lyrics "are not always matched by the quality or rhythms of the music... about four tunes which really work." Blair later dropped 'Vaux' from the play's title. Clarke also provided five plays with music - Catspaw and Jarrabin (both Dorothy Hewett), Lysistrata (John Croyston), Henry and Peter and Henry and Me (George Hutchinson), and Gone with Hardy (David Allen); incidental music; and song-settings. Late in 1992 he returned to Canberra to direct the Canberra Theatre's version of The Pirates of Penzance (or The Slave of Duty), which ran from 15 to 30 January 1993. He worked with set and costume designer Tim Kobin to eschew the traditional pantomime renditions and depict the titular pirates as "predators, feral, and at the same time like boys who get dirty, tattooed."

## Honours

On Australia Day (26 January) 2007 Clarke was appointed as a Member of the Order of Australia "for service to the performing arts as a director, actor, writer, composer, and educator." He was presented a Lifetime Achievement Award at the 2023 Sydney Theatre Awards.

## Theatre roles

| Year | Title | Role | Notes | Ref(s) |
| 1963 | An Ideal Husband | actor | Pocket Playhouse, Sydenham, NSW | |
| 1964 | The Man of Mode | actor (Dorimant) | Union Theatre, Sydney, NSW | |
| 1971–73 1978 1982 | Flash Jim Vaux Flash Jim | actor, composer musical director, pianist | Nimrod Street Theatre, Darlinghurst, NSW Twelfth Night Theatre, Bowen Hills, Qld Claremont Theatre Centre, South Yarra, Vic Nimrod Street Theatre, Darlinghurst, NSW Playhouse Theatre, Perth, WA Theatre 3, Acton, ACT Russell Street Theatre, Melbourne, Vic Q Theatre, Penrith, NSW Bankstown Town Hall, Bankstown, NSW Marsden Theatre, Parramatta, NSW Nimrod Upstairs, Surry Hills, NSW | [17] [18] [19] [20] [21] [22] [23] [24] [25] [26] [27] |
| 1971 | Duke of Edinburgh Assassinated or The Vindication of Henry Parkes | composer | Nimrod Street Theatre, Darlinghurst, NSW | |
| 1972 | The Legend of King O'Malley | musical director, pianist | Civic Theatre Auditorium, Suva, Fiji Mercury Theatre, Auckland, New Zealand Downstage Theatre, Wellington, New Zealand Hunter Theatre, The Junction, NSW | [29] [30] [31] [32] |
| 1973 | The Dumb Waiter | director | Perth, WA | |
| 1973 | The Proposal | director | Perth, WA | |
| 1973 1977 | Hamlet | actor designer, set designer | Nimrod Street Theatre, Darlinghurst, NSW The Playhouse, Civic Square, ACT Hunter Theatre, Broadmeadow, NSW | [35] [36] [37] |
| 1973 | The After-Life of Arthur Cravan | actor | Jane Street Theatre, Randwick, NSW | |
| 1973 | Lysistrata | composer | Parade Theatre, Kensington, NSW | |
| 1973 | The Chocolate Frog | actor | Playhouse Theatre, Perth, WA | |
| 1973 | The Typists | director | Playhouse Theatre, Perth, WA | |
| 1973 | The House of Blue Leaves | actor | Playhouse Theatre, Perth, WA | |
| 1973–74 | Jugglers Three | director | Playhouse Theatre, Perth, WA | |
| 1974 | A Who's Who of Flapland | director | Playhouse Theatre, Perth, WA | |
| 1974 | Antony and Cleopatra | composer, musical director | New Fortune Theatre, Crawley, WA | |
| 1974 | Catspaw | composer, musical director | New Fortune Theatre, Crawley, WA | |
| 1974 | The Prisoner of Second Avenue | director | Playhouse Theatre, Perth, WA | |
| 1974 | Uncle Vanya | actor | Playhouse Theatre, Perth, WA | |
| 1974 | Absurd Person Singular | director | Playhouse Theatre, Perth, WA Theatre 62, Hilton, SA | [49] [50] |
| 1974 | Home | director | The Green Room, Perth, WA | |
| 1974 | See How They Run | actor | Playhouse Theatre, Perth, WA | |
| 1975 | Knuckle | director | The Green Room, Perth, WA | |
| 1975 | Edgar Metcalfe Suggests | actor | The Hole in the Wall Theatre, Leederville, WA | |
| 1975 | Time and Time Again | director | Playhouse Theatre, Perth, WA | |
| 1975 | A Hard God | director | The Hole in the Wall Theatre, Leederville, WA | |
| 1975 | Hello Dolly! | director | Playhouse Theatre, Perth, WA | [57] [58] |
| 1975 | Whitlam Days | director | The Green Room, Perth, WA | |
| 1975 | What If You Died Tomorrow? | director | Playhouse Theatre, Perth, WA | |
| 1976 | The Floating World | director | University of Newcastle Drama Theatre, Callaghan, NSW | |
| 1976 | Hamlet on Ice | director, musical director, pianist | University of Newcastle Drama Theatre, Callaghan, NSW | |
| 1976 | The Glass Menagerie | director | University of Newcastle Drama Theatre, Callaghan, NSW | |
| 1976 | Equus | designer, director | The Griffith Duncan Theatre, Callaghan, NSW | |
| 1976 | A Married Man | designer, director | Newcastle, NSW | |
| 1976 | Four on the Floor | actor, devisor | Hotel Hunter, Newcastle, NSW | |
| 1977 | What the Butler Saw | director | Hunter Theatre, The Junction, NSW | |
| 1977 | The Rip-Roaring Twenties Show | playwright | University of New England Union Bistro, Armidale, NSW Tilly's Tavern, Newcastle, NSW | [68] [69] |
| 1978 | Gone with Hardy | director | Canberra, ACT | |
| 1978 | Sleuth | director | SGIO Theatre, Brisbane, Qld | |
| 1979 | Treasure Island | actor (Squire Trelawney) | Clark Island, Sydney, NSW | |
| 1979 | Romeo and Juliet | director | Canberra Theatre, Canberra, ACT | |
| 1979 | Flexitime | director | Newcastle, NSW | [74] [75] |
| 1979 1981-82 1990–91 1993 1996–97 2000 2004–05 | The Venetian Twins | composer, fight director, musical director, pianist | Drama Theatre (Sydney Opera House), Sydney, NSW York Theatre, Chippendale, NSW Canberra Theatre, Canberra, ACT Festival Theatre, Adelaide, SA Her Majesty's Theatre, Melbourne, Vic Geelong, Vic La Boite Theatre, Milton, Qld Playhouse, Newcastle, NSW Suncorp Theatre, Brisbane, Qld Footbridge Theatre, University of Sydney, NSW Playhouse, Melbourne, Vic Peacock Theatre, Hobart, Tas Newcastle Civic Theatre, Newcastle, NSW The Playhouse, Adelaide, SA Playhouse, Melbourne, Vic Playhouse, South Bank, Qld Pavilion Theatre, Castle Hill, NSW Wesley Institute Theatre, Drummoyne, NSW | [76] [77] [78] [79] [80] [81] [82] [83] [84] [85] [86] [87] [88] [89] [90] [91] [92] [93] [94] |
| 1980 | The Sunny South | musical arranger | Drama Theatre (Sydney Opera House), Sydney, NSW | |
| 1980 | Backyard | director | Nimrod Downstairs, Surry Hills, NSW | |
| 1981 | Pal Joey | director | The Playhouse Theatre, Perth, WA | |
| 1981 | You Never Can Tell | director | Marian Street Theatre, Sydney, NSW | |
| 1981 | One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest | director | NIDA Theatre, Kensington, NSW | |
| 1982 | Annie | director | Canberra Theatre, Canberra, ACT | |
| 1982 | Jonah | director | Parade Theatre, Kensington, NSW | |
| 1982 | Night and Day | director | Marian Street Theatre, Sydney, NSW Canberra Theatre, Canberra, ACT | [102] [103] |
| 1982 | A Happy and Holy Occasion | director | Drama Theatre (Sydney Opera House), Sydney, NSW | |
| 1982–83 | Variations | composer | Nimrod Upstairs, Surry Hills, NSW Seymour Centre, Chippendale, NSW | [105] [106] [107] |
| 1983 | Madame Butterfly | director | Opera Theatre, Adelaide, SA | |
| 1983 1989 1991 1997 2001 2004–05 2007 2016 | Summer Rain | composer, musical director | Parade Theatre, Kensington, NSW Drama Theatre (Sydney Opera House), Sydney, NSW Inverell Town Hall, Inverell, NSW Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts, Mount Lawley, WA Suncorp Theatre, Brisbane, QLD Spotlight Theatre, Benowa, QLD Mittagong Playhouse, Mittagong, NSW Performance Space, Wollongong, NSW Sydney Theatre, Millers Point, NSW Wagga Wagga Civic Theatre, Wagga Wagga, NSW New Theatre, Newtown, NSW | [109] [110] [111] [112] [113] [114] [115] [116] [117] [118] [119] |
| 1984 | The Servant of Two Masters | translator | Nimrod, Surry Hills, NSW | |
| 1986 | The Foreigner | director | Footbridge Theatre, Glebe, NSW Regal Theatre, Subiaco, WA Opera Theatre, Adelaide, SA Noarlunga College Theatre, Noarlunga, SA | [121] [122] [123] [124] |
| 1988 | The Touch of Silk | director | Playhouse, Melbourne, VIC | |
| 1989 | Too Young for Ghosts | director | Parade Theatre, Kensington, NSW | |
| 1990 | Woman in Mind | director | Playhouse, Melbourne, VIC | |
| 1990 | The Man from Mukinupin | director | Parade Theatre, Kensington, NSW | |
| 1991 | Pest House | director | Parade Theatre, Kensington, NSW | |
| 1993 | The Pirates of Penzance (or The Slave of Duty) | director | Canberra Theatre, Canberra, ACT | |
| 1994 | Anything Goes | director | Canberra Theatre, Canberra, ACT | |
| 1994 | Oscar Wilde at the Cafe Royal | director | Mietta's, Melbourne, VIC | |
| 1995 | The School for Scandal | director | Suncorp Theatre, Brisbane, Qld | |
| 2000 | Playboy of the Western World | director | The Playhouse, Kingswood, NSW | |
| 2000 | Studio Nights | composer | The Studio, (Sydney Opera House), Sydney, NSW | |
| 2001 | Plenty and The Sea | director | NIDA Theatre, Kensington, NSW | |
| 2003 | The Accrington Pals | director | Parade Theatre, Kensington, NSW | |
| 2003 | The Comedy of Errors | director | Seymour Downstairs, Chippendale, NSW | |