Theater director and composer Claire Van Kampen has died of cancer at the age of 71, according to a statement issued by her family.
Her husband, actor and playwright Mark Rylance, and daughter Juliette described Van Campen as one of the “funniest, nastiest and most inspiring women of all time,” the statement said.
Van Kampen died “surrounded by her family” in Germany on her husband’s 65th birthday.
Find out the news with the 7NEWS app: download today
“We thank her for bringing her magic, music, laughter and love into our lives,” the family said.
“Ring the bell, blow the trumpets in your daydreams, something has happened, something has begun. One of the great sages has passed.”
Van Campen has been nominated for five Tony Awards, including a nomination for Best Play in 2018 for her show Farinelli and the King. She has also scored a number of Broadway productions including True West in 2000.
But Van Campen is probably best known for her work in the United Kingdom, where she participated in several productions of William Shakespeare’s plays. She began her theatrical career in 1986 with the Royal Shakespeare Company, according to her biography on the Globe Theater website.
Her biography stated that Van Kampen was the first woman to work as musical director of both the Royal Shakespeare Company and the Royal National Theater.
She met Rylance at the Royal National Theater in 1987, where they were working on a production of The Wandering Jew. The couple told The New Yorker in 2013 that it was Rylance who took an interest in her on the first day of training.
He told the magazine that he was “very impressed with her walk,” but it took a little longer to catch Van Kampen’s attention.
“By about the third month, someone pointed out that this young man was hanging out at the piano a lot, and perhaps had motives other than learning his song,” Van Campen said.
They continued to work together in many productions after that, including Hamlet, As You Like It, and The Tempest. The couple married two years after their first meeting in a ceremony in Oxfordshire, England.
Rylance has also starred in several films, winning the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor in 2016 for his role in Bridge of Spies alongside actor Tom Hanks.
He became a stepfather to Van Kampen’s two daughters, Juliet and Natasha. Natasha van Campen died in 2012 from a brain hemorrhage during a flight from New York to London, according to People magazine.
