Kevin Clarke started
out as a fan of Art Street Theatre. After attending three seasons of
Art Street shows, Kevin wrote a letter to Mark Jackson requesting an
audition for the upcoming Messenger #1. He was cast as Agamemnon/Orestes
in the show and has been working with Mark and company ever since. Kevin
originated the roles of Shostakovich in The Death of Meyerhold,
Prometheus in Io - Princess of Argos!, Happy Man in The
Lost Plays of Jacques du Bon Temps, Don Juan/Scanarelle in workshop
productions of Don Juan, and Lord Kain, bad guy supreme,
in The Forest War. He directed Jackson in his one man show, I
Am Hamlet. Other Bay Area roles include Tristan Tzara in Tom Stoppard’s Travesties and
Del in David Mamet's The Cryptogram at Shotgun Players,
and Horst in Bent at Theater Rhinoceros.
Kevin co-directed the maverick performance duo Hagen & Simone with Monique Jenkinson from 2001-2007. Their work was seen locally in theaters, on nightclub platforms and in store windows. They received great acclaim for Future Perfect – an evening-length piece about style and editing as distilled from two vastly different texts: the eclectic memos of fashion grand dame Diana Vreeland and Strunk & White’s The Elements of Style, the father of all grammar guides.
Kevin first hit the San Francisco stage in the work of Chris Black (POTRZEBIE Dance Project) and continues to perform in many of the company’s dances. In Mark Jackson’s absence, he supervised the 2004 revival production of Black’s Izzy-nominated The Ecstasy of St. Whatshername, a solo originally created with and directed by Jackson. He has performed with First Seen, Huckabay McAllister Dance, Joe Goode Performance Group, OnSite Dance Co., SQUAD, STEAMROLLER and Stephen Pelton Dance Theater.
Kevin has appeared in several independent short films by Kia Simon, most notably her beautiful The Dive, which was in rotation on MTV2. He also worked with Kia on developmental stages of her feature, Alice, where he played opposite actress Rosanna Arquette. He is a part of a group of core extras in Gus Van Sant's Milk. His design work has been included in Print Magazine’s 2003 Regional Design Annual and in Two-Color Graphics: Unlimited Design Solutions (Templin Brink Design).
 |
Production Photos click any image to enlarge |
 |
Messenger
#1 Orestes stabbing Clytemnestra “The creation of this particular murder with Michelle Talgarow set the standard for virtually all of Kevin’s collaborative work as an actor.” |
 |
Jacques
du Bon Temps “Happy Man is not looking so happy as he is swallowed by a mob after another failed cleaning experiment.” |
 |
Io,
Promethius bound “On nights when these ropes weren’t tied exactly right, this scene was excruciating!” |
 |
Kevin,
left, in one of his most cherished roles: Flunky #2. His skillful
manipulation of manila folders had critics aflutter. |
 |
The
Death of Meyerhold Shostakovich flips out: “I only want to make music. And to LIVE!” |
http://www.sneakylittlesister.com/movies/dive/dive_about.html
www.alicefilm.com/movies/parents_scene.mov
On Pastime
“Clarke gives a stupendous performance to make passers-by stop and stare,
so that when he's borne casket-like by his teammates to the strains of "America" ("My
Country, 'Tis of Thee"), you wonder if this is just a game after all.”
-San Francisco Chronicle
On
Messenger #1
“Kevin Clarke, as Agamemnon, is swaggering and fey--like a blend
of David Bowie and Jack Nicholson.”
-Backstage West
On
The Death of Meyerhold:
“…the composer Shostakovich has a panic attack in Meyerhold's
flat. Crawling on both horizontal and vertical surfaces like a gecko,
Kevin Clarke recalls a photo from Meyerhold's production of The Magnanimous
Cuckold”
-East Bay Express
On
Bent:
“In a standout performance, Kevin Clarke delivers a pitch-perfect
portrait of Horst, an older, openly gay man who, despite his most appalling
and inhumane treatment, hangs onto his shredded pride, diginity and sense
of humor. Clarke's slow, silent shuffle through a food line reveals more
about Horst's history in the camp than any words put to paper.”
-KQED Arts
“This
is an amazing performance by the two actors [Clarke and Hodges] …
Kevin Clarke gets the full potential of his demanding role of Horst in
the second act. Both give mesmerizing performances as they carry the rocks
back and forth across the barren stage.”
-Talkin Broadway
On
Travesties:
“Clarke imbues Tzara with a Chaplinesque charm, and his unhinged
tantrums (in the face of Carr's stubborn Victorian defense of modernity)
have a revealing poignancy to them (Dada's irrationalism and nihilism
seeming more than reasonable under the circumstances).”
-SF Bay Guardian
“Last
year's Shostakovich [Death of Meyerhold], Kevin Clarke, gets
to be just as agile and twice as tough as the tantrum-prone Tzara, who
exclaims that "It's too late for geniuses. Now we need vandals."
-East Bay Express
“Kevin
Clarke as Tzara is especially untethered, as though his dadaism were a
denial of physical reality as well as philosophical certainty.”
-The Rubicon