I am a non-binary, multi-disciplinary theater and performance artist. I believe collaborative art making helps people practice world-building. I seek collaborations that value process over product. My priority is care for viewers, makers, and collaborators–human and non-human. Art and performance helps me deepen my understanding of the world and others around me through reflection, play, association, experimentation, and deep listening. I hope it helps collaborators and viewers to do the same. I try to approach my work with delight, transparency, and to sustain the spirit of “staying with the trouble.”
As a collaborator and maker, I work as a performer and singer, director, playwright/lead artist, production designer, mask & puppet designer, video editor/designer, and lighting technician. Since 2010, my work has been seen around New York City at the Bushwick Starr, the Doxsee Theater, Dixon Place, Abrons Arts, JACK, BAX, The Public Theater, Lincoln Center, La Mama Etc., Cathedral St. John the Divine, Bushwick Open Studios, Theater for the New City, 3LD, the Vorhees Theater, galleries, bars, cars, and on the street. I am proud to be a Target Margin Theater Associated Artist, Mettawee River Theater company member, and a Core Member of Superhero Clubhouse. I hold a B.A. in Theater from Bard College and spend a good deal of time thinking about compost.
In 2020, I relocated from Brooklyn to Kingston, NY where I am deepening my relationship with land and place by working as a seed farmer with Four Fold Farm and the Hudson Valley Seed Company.
ORIGINAL WORKS AND COLLABORATIVE PROJECTS
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Some other fun stuff:
In 2014, Claire was a fellow in the first year of Target Margin Theater’s Institute where they pursued theatrical existentialism in Performance Research Sessions: Form & Function. You may explore that research and findings here. Now, Performance Research Sessions has evolved into a public art practice that seeks to create community around sites of loneliness by offering artistic encounters around topics like “home” or “consumer choices”
Before moving to Brooklyn, Clay worked as a farm hand, electrician, dry stone wall builder, archeologist, and puppeteer in California, France, Scotland, Jordan, New York, and Vermont.
As a lighting technician, Clay has worked with many companies including Prospect Lighting, Steve Brady Lighting Design, IMCD, Strohmeier Lighting, Production Glue, Kelson, and Tinc on fashion shows and events throughout the New York City area. Claire also has worked with many theaters, museums, and galleries including Lincoln Center, The Public Theater, Second Stage, The Bushwick Starr, Abrons Arts, Bard Summerscape, Columbia’s Miller Theater, American Folk Art Museum, New York Historical Society Museum, Staten Island Museum, and Sotheby’s.
claymoodey 