Biography
Claudia Wicki (Fenton) began by studying ballet, piano and violin. In her teens, she performed with the Wisconsin Ballet Company. A scholarship took her to Harkness House for Ballet Arts in New York where she Classical Ballet, Classical Spanish dance, Afro-Modern and Jazz. Over the years, Claudia continued to study with many renowned teachers in New York, Chicago, Tucson, Kansas City and Los Angeles.
She later entered the University of Arizona, Tucson to study Drama Production. A BFA in Production involved learning all aspects of the craft including properties, lighting, sound, set-design, costumes and make-up, directing and even box-office!
Upon graduation, Claudia was singing in small clubs in Las Vegas when she was hired by a Top-40 Band and traveled the mid-west. After a year, she returned Los Angeles to study dance and acting.
Back to New York, as an actress/performer, she played the comedy clubs and did Summer Stock at the Palace Theater, Manchester New Hampshire. She toured again with a pop band, and then ended up back home in Madison Wisconsin to perform in a dinner theater. The Producer/Director later hired her at a pair of Equity dinner theaters in Kansas City. She returned to LA to choreograph and act in the summer season at Occidental College, realizing such roles as Nellie in South Pacific, the Fairy Queen in Iolanthe, Adelaide in Guys & Dolls, Mad Margaret in Ruddigore. This Gilbert & Sullivan experience proved helpful later when while touring with Carmen Zapata’s Bi-Lingual (English Spanish) Children’s Theater, she was rushed in to replace an actress in Pirates of Penzance at a large Equity dinner theater in Orange County California.
Claudia also worked out at the Group Repertory Theater (GRT), founded by Actors Studio alumni and Academy of Motion Pictures Arts & Sciences member, Lonny Chapman. She performed with an improvisational comedy group at the company prior to being cast in many original productions working directly with the writers. One of these productions was a new musical called RolePlay. The GRT opened this show for a 6-week run; it ran for over four months. In 1994, a New York production company requested more re-writes, new songs, title change - Inside Out, and then it ran off-Broadway at the Cherry Lane Theater.
Claudia brought this show to Zurich for its European Debut. David Smith was musical director.
Here in Switzerland, Claudia played the lead role of Lillie/Kate in Kiss Me Kate, and a role in Company at the English Theatre Group of Zug. With the Zurich Comedy Club, she starred in the Pulitzer prize winning play, The Effect of Gamma Rays on Man-in-the-Moon Marigolds, appeared in Steve Martin's Picasso at the Lapin Agile and performed to sold out crowds in the internationally famous The Vagina Monologues.