Sybil St. Claire -- Production Portfolio

"The quality of Sybil's productions is unequealed by anything I have ever seen in my 20 years of education."

-Sue Schackow, Co-Director, Brentwood School

"Sybil St. Claire knows better than anyone how the theatre works its magic..."

-The Gainesville Sun

"What we need to do is help our students learn to accurately discern the truth, learn to use their critical thinking skills. There is always more than one side to every story and this play has the potential to open student's minds to various perspectives. Sybil St. Claire's play "Woolfie" was presented to thousands of students this week, first as "good art", and like most good theatre there was a meaning to be found in the presentation."

-Will Irby, Superintendent of Schools, North Central Florida

Sybil St. Claire's directing and producing career has spanned almost twenty years. View the photographs from some of her more recent shows, or just browse her portfolio, by clicking on a link below. Browse portfolio.
Bridge to Terebithia. Written by Katherine Paterson and Stephanie Tolan, based on the book by Katherine Paterson. Directed by Sybil St. Claire. Produced by Orlando Repertory Theatre and the University of Central Florida.
When an unlikely friendship is forged between a young boy and girl, it becomes the beginning of a very special story. Inseparable and guided only by their imaginations, they create a magical kingdom in the woods, Terabithia, where they reign as king and queen. When a terrible tragedy happens, one friend is left to deal with life without the other and examine the gifts of friendship.

The Foreigner Written by Larry Shue. Directed by Sybil St. Claire. Produced by Santa Fe Community College.
Winner of two Obie Awards and two Outer Critics Circle Awards as Best New American Play and Best Off-Broadway Production. The Foreigner is an inspired comic romp, equal in inventive hilarity to the author's classic comedy The Nerd. The scene is a fishing lodge in rural Georgia often visited by "Froggy" LeSeuer, a British demolition expert who occasionally runs training sessions at a nearby army base. This time "Froggy" has brought along a friend, a pathologically shy young man named Charlie who is overcome with fear at the thought of making conversation with strangers. So "Froggy," before departing, tells all assembled that Charlie is from an exotic foreign country and speaks no English. Based on what the NY Post describes as a "devilishly clever idea," the play demonstrates what can happen when a group of devious characters must deal with a stranger who (they think) knows no English.

Opal. Written by Robert Nassif Lindsey. Directed by Sybil St. Claire. Produced by Orlando Repertory Theatre and the University of Central Florida.
A tragically beautiful and spiritually inspiring play that changed the face of children's theatre on Broadway, Opal explores one little girl's attempt to "make earth glad" by helping those around her to fulfill their needs and desires. Based on the true story of Francoise D'Orleans, who was shipwrecked as a child off the Oregon Coast, Opal is a bittersweet musical that grew out of Francoise's own diary entries. Sometimes disturbing and sad, Opal carries with it magnificent flashes of insight, and moments of pure joy. After her diary had been pieced together for a BBC broadcast, many began to feel that Francoise's real father had been Henry De Orleans, the onetime heir to the throne of France. Raised as Opal Whiteley, she has since been known in Europe as Princess Francoise Marie De Bourbon Orleans. She died in 1992 in a hospital near London. The importance of Opal and her diary is not the mystery of who she was, fascinating as this is, but in the insight her diary gives to the inner life of young people.

The Yellow Boat. Written by David Saar. Directed by Sybil St. Claire. Produced by ACT with Santa Fe Community College.
Winner of the Winefred Ward "Dare to Dream" Award. Based on the true story of Benjamin Saar, who died at the age of 8 of AIDS-related complications, The Yellow Boat is a glorious affirmation of one child's life, and of the strength and courage of all children. Benjamin had a buoyant imagination and he loved to draw. He transformed his physical and emotional pain into a blaze of colors and shapes through his fanciful drawings and paintings. Though it touches on and explores sensitively issues of death and dying and AIDS, the play is about living. It is about the power of the imagination and art to transform our lives and make them full of color, energy, humor and hope.

Journey to Friday. Written by Woodstock and ACT Teen Companies. Directed by John Pinckard. Produced by Sybil St. Claire and ACT in cooperation with the Woodstock Youth Theatre for the ACT Woodstock Project.
Fresh from the groundbreaking New York International Fringe Festival, The Journey to Friday is a cutting edge rock musical in the tradition of RENT, Tommy, and Godspell. A surprisingly frank and insightful production, it is "a week in the life of" story of seven high school students as they set out Monday morning on another journey to Friday, wrestling with the choices they make and the consequences they bring. The production was workshopped for two months under the supervision of Sybil St. Claire, as company members from the ACT Teen Company adapted the script. The creative team, comprised entirely of New York City professionals, collaborated with Sybil St. Claire to create a groundbreaking production that dazzled audiences and provoked an unprecedented interest from the community. The production, the most successful in ACT's 17 year history, shattered box office records and even inspired a cast recording, also produced by Sybil St. Claire and her ACT Woodstock Project.


The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. Written by C.S. Lewis. Directed by John Pinckard. Produced by Sybil St. Claire and ACT.
This classic children's tale is given a new production by Sybil St. Claire, collaborating again with the New York director behind The Journey to Friday. Join the Pevensie children as they travel through a magical wardrobe into the land of Narnia, where the evil White Witch has held all the land in perpetual winter for a hundred years. But the children's arrival heralds the beginning of change, foretold by a prophecy long ago. Aslan is on the move, and the forces of good and evil are converging on the Deep Magic of the Stone Table to decide who will sit in the four thrones of Cair Paravel.

The Diviners. Written by Jim Leonard. Directed by Sybil St. Claire. Produced at Santa Fe Community College.
Fourteen year old Buddy Layman ain't quite right, but he can divine water and predict the weather in ways that defy the rational. Though Buddy has a touch and a feel for water he won't go near it himself. It's been ten years since the boy has washed, ever since the tragic accident at the river. Into town wanders C.C. Showers, a back-sliding preacher running from his life, his profession, and perhaps himself. Against the backdrop of 1930's Depression-era farm life, these two souls forge an unforgettable friendship. Yet, as they divine that which is sacred in themselves and in each other, they must also face that which they fear most. The show's earthy spirituality, the sheer poetry of its language, and the ties that bind its extremely well-drawn characters have kept the show as fresh and compelling as the day it was written twenty years ago. The Diviners raises questions about issues such as life and death, religion versus spirtuality, courage, faith, redemption, and what it means to be human and thus flawed. Like all truly dynamic art, The Diviners asks us to think, leaving us not with answers but with questions. We must look within to divine the answer...

St. Hugo of Central Park. Written by Jeffrey Kindley. Directed by Sybil St. Claire. Produced by Santa Fe Community College.
Jeffrey Kindley's St. Hugo of Central Park is a unique combination of unapologetic irreverence and spiritual honesty. This tale of a reluctant saint blessed with the power to heal and cursed with the power to hurt is essentially a modern day fable. Hugo's very personal struggle with himself, his family, his society, and his God are our struggles as we "come into our own." As Hugo moves from helpless pawn to seeker of his own truth, he learns--as we all do--that more often than not "even the people who love you most in the world would rather have you go against yourself than go against them." This is the proverbial crossroad in everyone's life: Do we live the life we dreamt or the life others have dreamt for us? Taking a satirical poke at almost every established institution from religion and family to medicine and the media, this tale also explores the Faustian bargain entered into when one worships at the altar of success in a society seduced by consumerism. The central question posed is a simple yet profound one - have we forgotten to be better people in our quest to be better off?
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