Terence Clarke (composer)

Clarke was born in 1935 in Sydney and educated at Shore and the University of Sydney (resident St Paul's College), graduating BA with first-class honours in Music. While a student he appeared as Robert in the Sydney University Players' rendition of Peter Ustinov's play The Indifferent Shepherd in August 1953. One of his fellow students at university was Charles Colman. After graduation Clarke taught at All Saints College, Bathurst (where he had attended primary school) and at Cranbrook School, Sydney, where he became head of mathematics and in charge of drama. ==Career==

Terence Clarke's career has alternated between theatre work and teaching. While in England during 1959-1960 he acted at the Marlowe Theatre, Canterbury. In 1970 he left teaching to return to theatre and music. During his theatre career he has worked as an actor, artistic director, composer, musical director, writer and pianist from 1963 to 2016. Early work was as actor and musical director at Nimrod Street Theatre, Darlinghurst. not seen since its original Nimrod Theatre production runs in 1982 and 1983; and Summer Rain, commissioned by NIDA for the graduating class of 1984 and directed by Gale Edwards, later revised three times for productions at the Sydney and Queensland Theatre Companies. His other compositions include: a ballad opera, Flash Jim Vaux (book and lyrics, Ron Blair). Glickfeld praised Blair's writing including the ballads' lyrics, which were set to music by Clarke and Colman. Late in 1992 he returned to Canberra to direct the Canberra Theatre's version of The Pirates of Penzance (or The Slave of Duty), which ran from 15 to 30 January 1993. He worked with set and costume designer Tim Kobin to eschew the traditional pantomime renditions and depict the titular pirates as "predators, feral, and at the same time like boys who get dirty, tattooed." ==Honours==

On Australia Day (26 January) 2007 Clarke was appointed as a Member of the Order of Australia "for service to the performing arts as a director, actor, writer, composer, and educator." He was presented a Lifetime Achievement Award at the 2023 Sydney Theatre Awards. == Theatre roles ==