Tamsin Hurtado Clarke
Performer, Theatre Maker & Movement Director
Photo by Jack Offord
Tamsin Hurtado Clarke is a British-Venezuelan performer, theatre-maker and movement director. She studied at Ecole Internationale Jacques Lecoq in Paris under Paola Rizzi and Jos Houben from 2006-2008. After leaving she set up her own theatre company, Popelei, under which she writes, performs and tours her work. Through Popelei she also curates PAPAYAFest, a biennial Anglo-Latinx performing arts festival in her home town of Bristol. Tamsin is the creator of The Popelei Naked Podcast and hosts Papaya Radio every month on BCFM.
Popelei's first production, ‘Knowledge of Angels’ was a stage adaptation of the Booker-nominated novel by Jill Paton Walsh staged at St Leonard’s Church in London. ‘Manuelita’ followed, premiering at the Edinburgh Festival in 2014 where it won a Three Weeks Editors’ Award (‘Top 10 Shows of the Fringe’) and critical acclaim (‘a wonderful, warm performance that will have you leaving on a high’ The Stage, ****). The Spanish translation toured Latin America in 2017 - 2019, visiting 6 countries where it was seen by over 3500 people. '100 Years' followed in 2019 and was performed at CASA Festival 2019 - Arcola Theatre in London.
Popelei's next show PUSH previewed at VAULT Festival 2020. PUSH was reimagined for film during lockdown and presented it at Edinburgh Fringe Festival Digital Programme in August 2021. Popelei returned to the Fringe in 2022 with the live version.
2023 saw Tamsin develop her practice as Movement Director working alongside Sean Holmes for his productions of The Winter's Tale, The Comedy of Errors and Much Ado About Nothing at Shakespeare's Globe. In 2024, she worked with Tom Morris for his remount of Touching The Void in Tokyo, Japan bringing her expertise to an international stage.
Outside of Popelei, credits include The Wardrobe Ensemble - The Great Gatsby (2021), Bristol Old Vic - Touching The Void (2021), Theatre Ad Infinitum - Bucket List (2017), DreamThinkSpeak - In The Beginning Was The End (2013), PopUp Theatrics - Long Distance Affair (2014).
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'As a dancer, she is precise yet playful, her movements fluid and faultless. As an actor, she has compelling command of posture and accent...an impressive performance. ' - The Stage on PUSH, Fergus Morgan
'Clarke is as at home with the physical as she is the words that pour out of her...I'd go out of my way to catch Popelei's next show.' - Lyn Gardner (Stage Door on PUSH)
‘Tamsin Clarke is an exceptional, exciting and skilled performer and I look forward to following the development of the company’s work into the future.’ — Toni Racklin, Head of Theatre, Barbican Theatre