Rachel Sussman is a Tony-Nominated Creative Producer of critically acclaimed productions such as Pulitzer Finalist ‘What The Constitution Means To Me’ (Now Streaming on Amazon Prime Video), The Woodsman, and Endlings at NYTW. This is our first episode in conjunction with the Kennedy Center’s American College Theatre Festival, with the goals that holding conversation with artists native to each region of students, demonstrates that theatre knows no bounds, can be made wherever you make space to let it. She is a co-founder of The MITTEN Lab, an emerging artist residency program in her native state of Michigan focused on nurturing the next generation of theatre artists. She is also a co-founder of The Business of Broadway, a new educational venture with the aim of democratizing commercial producing knowledge in an effort to develop more transparency between artists and producers.
Chapters:
0:00 Introduction
2:00 Insurrection of the Capitol/Racism/Anti-Semitism
9:30 Rachel’s Start in the Theatre
13:00 New Play Development
13:50 Why Asking Questions Is Important
15:50 Learning from your mistakes
16:20 Now Is the Time To Reach out to Artists For Advice! Be Brave.
18:10 Co-Founding The Mitten Lab/The Regional Theatre Renaissance
23:20 Democratizing Theatre/Dismantling Hierarchy in the Producing Model
25:25 Theater Producers of Color
26:35 Industry Standard Group/The Antiquated System of 3 Old White Dudes Running Broadway
28:25 We are Pushing for a More Equitable Theater Community
30:00 Mean Girls in the AUGUST WILSON Theater...bruh.
31:30 Thoughts of a Colored Man/Moving a Production to Broadway
34:00 Theatrical Work Should Speak for Itself/Being Mindful in Anti-Racism
36:00 Marketing Commercial Hits/Co-Producing What the Constitution Means to Me
40:00 The Concept of A Penumbra Is SO CURRENT- We are stuck between what we can see what we cannot see
41:45 Putting What the Constitution Means to Me on Amazon Prime/ If you love theatre when it is on streaming, you’ll want to see it live and view it in a more meaningful way
45:10 The Power of Accessibility/Questioning the rhetoric of theater existing solely as a live experience
47:00 Theater as a tool for Activism/Tikkun Olam- Leave the World Better Than You Found It
49:00 Theater Being Created during the AIDS Epidemic/Developing A Suffragist Musical
51:00 Highlighting The 24 Hour Plays: Nationals
