Meet Claire Martin-Reed | Theater Director, Playwright, & Actor

We had the good fortune of connecting with Claire Martin-Reed and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Claire, how do you think about risk?
To me, “risk” is a matrix of a concept that depends as much on privilege, luck, and timing as it does on courage…and sometimes, even more so. Because all creative work is inherently vulnerable (we put a piece of ourselves into our art every time we engage with it), I believe ALL creatives are inherently “risk-takers.” But there are other, more fiscally uncertain risks—like starting a theater company, self-producing public performances, and hosting workshop staged readings—that I have been able to take as an artist only because I am couched in tremendous privilege and good fortune. I have two parents who have always supported my ambitions as a theater artist, both spiritually and financially; they paid for me to get a theater degree in undergrad and helped defray the costs of living abroad when I went for my first Master’s in Theatre Directing in London. Now I am married to a wonderful man who also undergirds my dreams with his own love and labor: he works a full-time, high-pressure job in broadcast news so that I can be a full-time freelance creator. So the creative “risks” I have taken since moving to Atlanta have been enabled and empowered by my circumstances, my luck of family/connections, and (of course) my own implicit white, cis, educated privilege. It’s a complicated thing.

Alright, so let’s move onto what keeps you busy professionally?
I am, first and foremost, a multi-hyphenate theater artist. Rather than branding myself solely as a director, playwright, actor, or dramaturg, I brand myself as a feminist storyteller who can wear any of those hats at a give time…and sometimes, more than one! Before anything else, I live to tell stories about women. The mission of my fledgling theater company, Belle Esprit, is to tell stories by, for, and about people of marginalized genders throughout history. There are so many excellent contemporary plays about 21st century women, but historically located plays that can cross over commercially and be enjoyable for the masses is rather more rare, so that’s the niche I am trying to carve for myself. I consider my ministry the work of combining my passion for history with feminist sensibility to tell stories that prove that full, flawed, brilliant, scared, strong, dazzling, multi-dimensional women have ALWAYS existed. There is precedent for every woman who blazes a trail. As women, we stand on the shoulders of giants, but so many of those giants remain unknown today because their names and deeds have been sidelined, stolen, diminished, or simply erased by systemic patriarchy (which itself is compounded by racism, xenophobia, homophobia, etc.). All I wish for as an artist is to shine a spotlight on some of those heroines, while also inventing new stories and adapting classic stories with a decidedly, defiantly feminist bent.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
Breakfast —– Sugar Cakes Patisserie & Bistro

Morning walk —– Botanical Gardens, Piedmont Park

Coffee break —– Bellwood Coffee

Thrifting —– Little 5 Points

Afternoon out —– Georgia Aquarium

Catch a show —– Theatrical Outfit, Synchronicity, Out Front Theatre, Horizon, etc.

Wine tasting —– 3 Parks Wine at Old Fourth Ward

Dinner —– Bread & Butterfly

Bar Crawl —– Ponce City Market/Beltline

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
There are too many people to count who have helped me get to where I am today, but I need to particularly shout out Claire Rooney (professional name: Claire Wittman), my new-play dramaturg and best friend of the past six years. Claire has—with inimitable grace, generosity, and wisdom—dramaturged all 21 plays in my playwriting canon. Whatever extent to which my plays succeed as living, breathing, onstage stories is the result of Claire’s artistry; her keen insight, expansive imagination, fastidious precision, and effervescent enthusiasm are the stars by which I chart my storytelling. She is incredible.

Website: https://www.belleespritcollective.com/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/claire.f.martin/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/claire.martin.357/

Image Credits
All photos taken by Nicholas Tycho Reed