Hope Clarke

Hope Clarke (born March 23, 1941) is an American actress, dancer, vocalist, choreographer, and director. Clarke, a Tony Award nominee, made history in 1995 when she became the first African-American, as well as the first African-American woman, to direct and choreograph a major staging of the classic opera, Porgy and Bess. Clarke began her career as a principal dancer with the Katherine Dunham Company and the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, and as an actress appeared in many stage, film, and television productions. As a choreographer, Clarke is credited with staging and movement for more than 30 shows on and off Broadway.

Early life and education

Born in Washington, D.C. to Maurice Aloysius Clarke And Hope Aldridge, Clarke was raised with her sister, Barbara, in a middle class Black community, a place where people shopped through mail-order catalogues in order to purchase clothes offered in stores where they were not welcomed. “The black community, as I remember it, was very closely knit," Clarke said in the San Francisco Examiner: "Before the fabric of this society was torn by racism and lack of education, we all took care of each other. We all watched each other's children."

Clarke began studying dance with her sister at the Alma Davis Dance School in Washington, DC. She attended Spingarn High School, and graduated in 1959. In her senior year, she was a lead dancer with Doris W. Jones and her company.

Clarke worked as a summer employee for the CIA.

Career

West Side Story to Don’t Bother Me, I Can’t Cope

In 1959, Clarke landed a role in the original touring cast of West Side Story. At the urging of her sister, she auditioned for the role, got it, and joined the touring company while it was in Chicago, and remained in the cast until April 23, 1960. In 1961, Clarke appeared in the interracial love story Kwamina starring Brock Peters and Robert Guillaume, and featuring the choreography of Agnes de Mille. In 1967, she played a minor role and was part of the ensemble in Hallelujah, Baby!, which received five Tony Awards, including Best Musical.

In 1966, Clarke appeared in the Metropolitan Opera's first production, Antony and Cleopatra. In 1968, she played Mamselle Tulip in the House of Flowers at the Lucille Lortel Theatre. In 1969, Clarke had a role in Douglas Turner Ward’s “The Reckoning” at the St. Mark’s Playhouse, an off-off Broadway theater that showcased the work of the Negro Ensemble Company.

In 1970, Clarke was a dancer in “Purlie,” a musical that nominated for five Tony Awards. In 1972, she was in the musical “Don’t Bother Me, I Can’t Cope,” which was the first Broadway musical to be directed by an African American woman, Vinnette Carroll.

Alvin Ailey, Katherine Dunham, and 5 Plus

Clarke served as a principal dancer in the Katherine Dunham Company and the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater. In the Ailey company, she toured internationally and received positive reviews and audience ovations. In addition to dancing with Dunham and Ailey, Clarke performed with the companies of Tally Beatty, George Faison, and Louis Johnson.

Clarke, along with Michael Blake, Carmen de Lavallade, Sheila Rohan, and others, co-founded the former 5 Plus Ensemble (New Beginnings Theater), a dance company created to showcase the work of dancers, choreographer, and musicians who are older than the age of 50.

Film and television

After appearing on Broadway and around the world as a dancer, Clarke moved to Hollywood, California with the help of actor and friend Raymond St. Jacques. Her most memorable film roles were co-starring with Sidney Poitier in A Piece of the Action (1977); working with St. Jacques and Philip Michael Thomas on the A Book of Numbers' set in Dallas; and portraying Jean-Michel Basquiat's mother, Matilde, in Basquiat (1996). Clarke has had a variety of guest roles on tv shows, such as Hill Street Blues, Amen, Another World, As the World Turns, Beat Street, Hart to Hart, Into the Night, The Jeffersons,The Ropers, Sex and the City, Three's Company. She appeared in the TV miniseries King (1978), which was based upon the life of Martin Luther King Jr., the slain civil rights leader.

Collaborations with George C. Wolfe

In 1986, Broadway director and producer George C. Wolfe hired Clarke to create movement and staging for The Colored Museum, the pair began a long-term theatrical collaboration. Wolfe and Clarke directed and choreographed 10 plays and musicals together, including the opera Amistad, the Off-Broadway play, Spunk, and several Broadway shows, such as Jelly's Last Jam, Caroline, Or Change, and A Free Man of Color.

In 1992, Clarke earned a Tony Award nomination for “Best Choreography” for her work in Jelly's Last Jam. The show grew from New York workshops and a Los Angeles production at the Mark Taper Forum to a Broadway show.

In November 2003, she started work on Caroline, or Change, a musical that features spirituals, blues, Motown, classical music and Jewish Klezmer. Clarke was responsible for the choreography of the show that began as an Off-Broadway production, received a Broadway production of 126 performances in 2004, received six Tony Award nominations, and had a two-month run at the Lyttleton Theatre, National Theatre in London, winning the Olivier Award for Best New Musical.

In 2010, Clarke choreographed A Free Man of Color.

More Broadway, Off Broadway, and Regional Theater

In 1985, Clarke played “Ruby” in the musical Grind and worked with Lester Wilson.

In 1995, Clarke choreographed “The Tempest.”

In 1997, Clarke adapted and directed Nobody Says Baby Like A Black Man, a dramatic collage of African American love poems, at the American Place Theater in New York.

In 2017, she choreographed, Fly, a play about the Tuskegee Airmen. The show was produced by the Lincoln Center Institute and toured to several venues, including Alabama Shakespeare Festival, Pasadena Playhouse, Florida Studio Theatre, St. Louis Rep, Cincinnati Playhouse, Ford's Theatre, Vineyard Playhouse, and Crossroads Theatre.

In 2025, Clarke choreographed Blues in the Night at the Arizona Theatre Company.

Porgy & Bess: The Opera

In 1995, Clarke directed the Houston Grand Opera production of Porgy & Bess, the first African American to stage a major professional U.S. staging of “Porgy and Bess. Regarded as America’s greatest opera, the two million dollar Houston Grand production toured throughout the United States, as well as performances in Italy and Japan.

In 2012, Clarke directed a Morgan State University production of Porgy & Bess at the Murphy Fine Arts Center.

Quotable

• “I want African Americans who come to see the opera to be proud that an African American is directing the production and to recognize the people on stage.”
• "Blacks and women have been locked out of directing major productions for too long. It's time for us not only to tell our stories but to direct them."
• "As a director, I guess I bring in the female sensibilities. Since I'm also an actress, I've really tried to develop the characterizations so that the performers don't do a little singing here, and some acting there. And coming from a black perspective, I know how we think, how we feel, what we do. I understand the little things. That makes a difference."
• “In my production, everybody works. Everybody has some type of job. Just because you are poor doesn't mean you have to be slovenly or ignorant."

Honors and Awards

• 2020 -- Society of Stage Directors and Choreographers, elected to a three-year term to the Board of Directors.
• 2018–3rd Annual Project1VOICE HONORS, “to celebrate and honor artists whose talents continue to shape and enrich American culture.”
• 2015 - 2018 Broadway seasons, Tony Awards Nominating Committee.
• 2009 - 2012 Broadway Seasons, Tony Awards Nominating Committee.
• 2004—Lucille Lortel Award, Outstanding Choreographer, Caroline, Or Change
• 2001—AUDELCO Recognition Awards for Excellence in Black Theatre (nomination), Choreographer, A Prophet Among Them
• 1998—Society of Stage Directors and Choreographers, elected to Board of Directors.
• 1993—Tony Award (nomination), Best Choreography (with Gregory Hines and Ted Levy), Jelly's Last Jam
• 1993—Outer Critics Award, Best Choreography (with Gregory Hines and Ted Levy), Jelly’s Last Jam (with Gregory Hines and Ted Levy)
• 1992—Drama Desk Award (nomination), Outstanding Choreography (with Gregory Hines and Ted Levy), Jelly's Last Jam
• 1991—NAACP Image Award, Best Choreography, Jelly's Last Jam
• 1988—Drama Logue Award, Outstanding Choreography, The Colored Museum

Credits

Stage

TV and Film