Opera, New Music and Spoken Word projects

In recent years, Rachel has collaborated with such artists as Vijay Iyer, Mike Ladd, Kamala Sankaram, Hannah Lash, Jack Quartet, and Garrett Fisher on a host of chamber opera, and new music/spoken word events. Rachel brings her signature visual and physical aesthetic to embodying the incredible sonic landscapes of these groundbreaking artists. Below is a sampling from productions from LA Opera, Prototype, the Miller Theatre at Columbia and the Asia Society. Visit Rachel’s personal website for more information on her work as a freelance director and educator!

Academic Theatre

Rachel is a lifelong educator. She worked for ten years as a core teaching artist at Lincoln Center Education (1997-2007), developed an after school High School film education program with the Film Society of Lincoln Center (2006-09), and taught directing at the New School and Fordham University before joining the faculty at Purchase College, SUNY in 2011 where she is currently Co-Chair of the Theatre and Performance Department and an Associate Professor.

Alongside teaching directing and ensemble creation and devising, she regularly directs undergraduate productions.  These are a few of the projects she's created with the student actors, designers and stage managers at Purchase in recent years. Plays include: Dance Nation by Clare Barron (2020), Revolt She Said, Revolt Again by Alice Birch (2018), Apparition by Anne Washburn (2016), Three Sisters by Chekhov in a new version by Sarah Ruhl (2015), Machinal by Sophie Treadwell (2014), Anon(ymous) by Naomi Iizuka (2013), Eurydice by Sarah Ruhl (2013), The Trojan Women by Euripides in a new version by Ellen McLaughlin (2012). Rachel also directed an earlier production of The Trojan Women at Fordham University in 2003 featuring then undergraduates Taylor Schilling and Heather Lind.

Guest professional designers Jane Shaw, Obadiah Eaves, Stowe Nelson, Hannah Wasileski and Keaton Comiskey joined student BFA designers on these productions.