Sue Jane Stoker Dies At 48

Sue Jane Stoker

Sue Jane Stoker, an associate director, stage manager, dramaturge, and theater collaborator of Robert Wilson and André Gingras, died in New York City sometime overnight between Saturday night and Sunday morning, February 11 and 12, of heart failure. She was 48.

Born on December 1, 1963, in White Plains, she attended Huntington High School. After graduating from Carnegie Mellon University in 1984 with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in theater and business, she began working as a stage manager at various theaters in New York City, including the Pan Asian Repertory Theater and La MaMa E.T.C.

Ms. Stoker met Robert Wilson in the summer of 1994 at the Watermill Center while working as the stage manager for Mr. Wilson’s production of “The Meek Girl.” This was the first of 18 summers that she spent at Watermill Center collaborating with Mr. Wilson and international artists of the center’s annual International Summer Program. For four years, she acted as the Center’s summer program director, coordinating the many workshops held for the 80 to 100 visiting artists. She recently co-edited and contributed to the publication, “The Watermill Center, A Laboratory for Performance: Robert Wilson’s Legacy,” chronicling the first 20 years of the center’s history.

“Sue Jane was exceptionally brilliant,” Mr. Wilson said. “She put drama, rhythm, and humor in the work of theatre with direction, lights, dramaturgy, coordination, and with the best sense of timing. I cannot imagine my work without her.” For 18 years, she worked as his associate director and stage manager. Ms. Stoker’s most recent project with Mr. Wilson was his highly anticipated revival tour of the opera he created with Philip Glass in 1976, “Einstein on the Beach,” for which she was production stage-manager for the preview performances in Ann Arbor, Michigan in January.

Since 1994, she was also a central collaborator for Change Performing Arts, contributing to countless theater productions, art installations, and exhibitions in more than 30 countries. Her other principal collaborations were with choreographer André Gingras, whom she met through Mr. Wilson, and with whom she worked for the first time in 2000 as dramaturge and associate director for the solo dance and video performance CYP17. Since then, she collaborated with him on more than 20 dance projects, most recently at Dance Works Rotterdam, as well as on video projects with Fabio Laquone.

“Sue Jane was an inspiration, a remarkable combination of scholar, theater artist, dramaturge, and visionary,” Mr. Gingras said. “Her humor and sensitivity were balanced by an exceptional professionalism and a fierce dedication to the art form.”

In her vast and varied career in the performing arts, Ms. Stoker also worked with such artists as Marina Abramovic, Lucinda Childs, Willem Dafoe, Peter Greenaway, Antony Hegarty, and Isabella Rossellini.

“She was unflappable,” said Willem Dafoe, who along with Ms. Abramovic and Mr. Hegarty worked with Ms. Stoker on “The Life and Death of Marina Abramovic” last July at the Manchester International Festival. “Her intelligence, humor, and warm calm often saved us when we were lost in the woods of making the piece.”

Until recently, Ms. Stoker resided in Rotterdam, the Netherlands. She is survived by her mother, Muriel Stoker of Seattle; siblings, Gillian Stoker of Arizona and James Stoker of Atlanta; and an extended family of artists. She was predeceased by her father, James J. Stoker.

A memorial service will be held in her honor this summer at the Watermill Center.

Cards may be sent to the Watermill Center, c/o Muriel Stoker, 115 West 29th Street, 10th Floor, New York, NY 10001.