Claire's focus as a director is on creating a strong sense of ensemble and interconnectedness between performers, and using the physical body to deepen the audience's absorption of the music itself. In 2022, they joined the faculty of both Northeastern Illinois University and Roosevelt University as an opera director. This past year at NEIU, Claire led the students in a reimagined production of Handel's Semele, in which "the gods" are really aliens who have colonized a willing cult of Earthlings. At Roosevelt, Claire spent the 2022-2023 school year devising a new pastiche opera in collaboration with Juniors and Seniors in the Vocal Music Performance program, culminating in a 90-minute long, fully staged and costumed production in the O'Malley Theatre.

 

Claire's largest body of directorial work is in contemporary works, much of it with their home organization, Thompson Street Opera Company, Claire feels equally at home in screwball comedies and experimental non-linear narratives, and particularly enjoys creating performances in intimate spaces where the audience is an arms length from the performers.