My mother, Stephanie Sinclaire Lightsmith, who has died aged 67 of a sudden heart arrhythmia while swimming in the ocean in New Zealand, was a screenwriter, theatre practitioner and filmmaker, as well as a published poet and novelist. She was also an artistic director of the King’s Head theatre in London, which was founded by her husband, Dan Crawford.
She was born in New York to Howard Weiss, a lawyer, and Bernice Smith, an artist. After her parents divorced, her mother married a jazz musician, Joseph diLalla, heralding a peripatetic lifestyle that saw the family move continually across the US.
Stephanie attended high school at Windsor Mountain in Massachusetts and then went to the California College of Art. After returning to New York, she reunited with her high school friend Matthew Kastin, whom she married in 1980. The couple moved to the Berkshires in Massachusetts, where I was born in 1982.
In 1984 we all moved to London to reunite with Matthew’s former stepfather, Dan Crawford, who had founded the King’s Head in Islington in 1970. Dan met us at the airport, whereupon Stephanie fell in love with him at first sight.
After a divorce from Matthew in 1985, Stephanie married Dan the same year, and thus he became my stepfather. She set up a company called Archangel Exhibitions that curated large themed art shows in London, and in 1990 she was appointed associate artistic director of the King’s Head. After a time, she changed her surname to Sinclaire, and recently extended it to Sinclaire Lightsmith.
Stephanie had an anthology of her poetry, Burnt Offering, published in 2002, as well as a novel, Shores of Grace (2002). In addition she founded her own film company, Dragonfly Films, and directed her adaptation of Edgar Allen Poe’s The Tell Tale Heart (2004).
In 2005 Stephanie produced the feature length documentary A Maverick in London, co-directed with Jason Figgis, which told the story of Dan and the King’s Head, and was shown on Channel Four. Soon after, Stephanie secured finance for her feature film Silence Becomes You (2005), a psychological thriller that she wrote, produced and directed. After it had been filmed, Dan died from liver cancer, and Stephanie took over artistic directorship of the King’s Head.
In 2012 she left the theatre and moved to New Zealand to be with me and my daughter. We co-founded Sea Star Creations, which produced two short films: Goblin Market and Tears of Valhalla.
She also wrote her second novel, Creative Alchemy – The Science of Miracles (2021), and at the time of her death had many projects in development. She was a generous and gracious spirit, with a deep appreciation for the beauty of the world, who dedicated her life to the creation of authentic, ensouled art.
She is survived by me, her siblings, Rebecca, Jody, Jennifer, Jeffrey, Giuseppe, Mari, Gina and Joanie, and her grandchildren, Arielle, Corin and Casey.