Rob Clare

Rob Clare was originally an actor with the Royal Shakespeare Company, before becoming a Staff Director at the UK National Theatre, and then both acting and directing for the major UK touring company, Compass. Becoming increasingly interested in differing approaches to Shakespeare, and especially to working with Shakespearean verse, he completed a doctorate in the subject at Oxford University, and has since become an internationally recognized specialist helping actors of all levels to make Shakespeare’s texts their own. He established the MA Classical Acting course at London’s Central School of Speech and Drama, and led it for its first three years.

Since resuming his freelance career he has directed and/or taught Shakespeare in Ireland, Austria, Germany, Australia, and the USA. In India, he directed Hindi productions of A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Julius Caesar, and
Romeo and Juliet. For most of the past decade, he also worked regularly as a freelance specialist verse and text coach with the RSC’s core acting ensemble, leading annual workshops and master classes, and working in and alongside rehearsals for productions of Richard III, Richard II, Henry IV, Parts 1 and 2, Henry V, and Hamlet. In the USA, he has worked as visiting faculty at The Juilliard School, Yale Drama, and NYU Tisch. He has also directed productions of Richard III (Idaho Shakespeare Festival), Twelfth Night (American Shakespeare Center, Blackfriars Playhouse), Henry IV, Parts 1 and 2 (Marin Shakespeare Company), King Lear (Luna Stage, Orange NJ), and As You Like It (Kentucky Shakespeare).

He works regularly at the NYC Actors Center, the Academy for Classical Acting in Washington DC, the University of Southern California in Los Angeles, and with the Steppenwolf Theatre Company, Chicago, for whom he provided specialized verse and text work for the acclaimed director Tina Landau’s production of The Tempest. As an internationally recognized Artist and Educator of Extraordinary Ability, he is the recipient of a long term O1 visa enabling him to work freely in the US. He now lives and works mainly in New York City.