Cliff Fannin Baker

Cliff Fannin Baker died peacefully in Mt. Sinai Hospital in New York City on Sept. 6, 2018, after suffering a brain aneurysm on August 27. He was 70. Baker was born on Sept. 13, 1947 in Jefferson City, Mo., to Rudolph and Ruby Riek Baker of Gasconade, Mo. He was named for Cliff Fannin, the St. Louis Brown's pitcher who hit a grand slam home run on the day Cliff was born. Cliff Baker graduated from Hermann High School in Hermann, Mo., and attended the University of Missouri, where he studied journalism and theatre. In 1969, he moved to Little Rock to study theatre at the Arkansas Arts Center's short-lived BFA Program. He and Robert Roberts ran an antique shop, Madame Flora's, and at the same time started a theatre called the Theatre of the Arkansas Philharmonic in a storefront on Kavanaugh Boulevard. In 1976, he and a group of 15 community leaders founded the Arkansas Repertory Theatre, located in the former Hunter Memorial Methodist Church on McAlmont Street, east of the Arts Center. The theater moved to its current downtown location at 601 Main Street in 1987. As Founder and Producing Artistic Director of Arkansas Rep, Baker developed a resident company of actors, designers, technicians and interns. He directed over 300 shows. His passion was creating new plays, which included Lola, Lola, with composer/lyricist Sharon Douglas; The Good Woman of Setzuan, a musical adaptation of the Bertolt Brecht play by Michael Rice; Pageant, a musical by Michael Rice with script by seven known American playwrights; and Chaffee, a new musical about the influx of Cuban refugees into Fort Chaffee in Fort Smith while Bill Clinton was Governor of Arkansas. Baker directed at the Alley Theatre in Houston, Portland Centre Stage in Oregon, and at American University in Washington, D.C., as well as in Dunedin, New Zealand and at Peking University in Beijing, China. In 1999, after 23 years as Producing Artistic Director, Cliff Baker left Arkansas Rep and began working as a corporate consultant and executive coach with Goss-Reid Associates. His work with Tracy Goss and Sheila Reid's Executive Re-Invention Program took him to New York, London, Amsterdam, Paris, San Antonio and Monterrey, Mexico. Cliff developed a performance component in this work that allowed corporate executives to experience leadership breakthroughs by performing at a professional level. Between 2007 and 2013, Baker was Executive Director of Wildwood Park in Chenal Valley. He re-invented the Park with seasonal festivals (HARVEST!, LANTERNS!, BLOOMS!). He was also a frequent guest director at The Rep, directing Sister Act in the winter of 2017, his last show in Little Rock. He was predeceased by his parents, a nephew, Stuart Baker (Sharon), and a grandnephew Riley Baker, who was killed in action in Iraq in 2006. Surviving him are his brother Channing Baker (Margaret), nephews Grier Baker (Lisa), Michael Baker (Joann) and several grandnephews and grandnieces. He is also survived by his partner of 42 years and husband, Guy Couch, and the extended Couch family. In 2016, Baker and Couch purchased a 5-acre farm in Faulkner County, on the Arkansas River. His ashes will be scattered on both the Arkansas River and the Missouri River in Gasconade, where he grew up. Donations in his memory may be made to the Cliff Fannin Baker Artistic Director's Fund at the Arkansas Repertory Theatre, 610 Main St., Little Rock, Ark. 72201. A memorial service in his honor is planned for later this fall at The Rep.