John Christopher MARTIN "Kip"

Chris Martin

Chris's 2011 Autobiography

After Staples I was off on the road with my band, The Ramblers, first for Alan Freed, then Cousin Brucie, playing alongside Chuck Berry, Danny and the Juniors, Dion and the Belmonts, Del Vikings, Rubie and the Romantics, and the Tokens. (Talk about nostalgia!) A stint as assistant to director Ralph Nelson on pre-production of REQUIEM FOR A HEAVYWEIGHT taught me that Hollywood was not for me, and I returned to New York to enroll in acting classes at HB Studio while playing guitar for Ronnie Speeks and the Elrods at the Metropole at 7^th and 48th (remembered chiefly for their drummer Dino Danelli, later of the Young Rascals). Four years and a pair of degrees from NYU as a teaching fellow followed, working nights with the big bands of Ben Cutler and Skitch Henderson.

In 1967/68, I was producer of the Electric Circus on WPIX-TV with John Zacherley as host (remember Shock Theatre?), booking live acts every week like James Brown, Johnny Maestro and the Brooklyn Bridge, the McCoys, and the Beach Boys. Then, as founding artistic director of the Classic Stage Company, over the next two decades I mounted a hundred productions of Shakespeare, Chekhov, Ibsen, Strindberg, Aeschylus, Sophocles, Goethe, Genet, and Pinter, playing almost as many roles from Falstaff to Faust. By the end of the 80’s I’d moved on, working as a freelance director/designer and composer for National and State Theatres abroad, living in Paris, London, Berlin, Warsaw, Helsinki, Stockholm, Riga, Minsk, Ankara, Istanbul, Belgrade, Seoul, and Singapore; even dusting off the old guitar from time to time to hit the blues clubs in New York, London, and the old Soviet Union.

Nowadays, I divide my time between writing international crime novels, translating, composing theatre scores, and teaching Shakespeare at HB Studio (where I began as a young actor) down the block from my longtime digs in the West Village. And, I share my now less hectic life with dialect coach Patricia Fletcher and our bulldog daughter, Double, chasing back and forth between the city and our cozy A-frame in the Catskills near Woodstock--although neither of us has found the time to ski.

Chris’ Update (2021)

I still live in the same places with the same wonderful lady, Patricia Fletcher, only the bulldog has changed. Done a slew of German poetry translations, including a volume of 99 German Haiku (I kid you not). Finally put my

25 years research on the identity of Jack the Ripper into a fact-based historical novel. Re-arranged CHESS for Tim Rice into a through-composedrock opera with a score by Benny Andersson and Bjorn Ulvaeus (chessconcert2012.com). Currently at work on a series of Youtube videos, Shakespeare Short Cuts, aimed at making the Bard hands on for American actors (website: christophermartinshakespeare.com).

Keep busy, stay out of trouble.