Photo by Laurie Tennent
RACHEL SUSSMAN is a Tony Award-nominated creative producer, educator, and entrepreneur committed to cultivating collaborative theatrical work built on trust and transparency. She believes deeply in elevating human stories that challenge existing systems and create more space for inquiry, empathy, and action.
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, an educational venture with the aim of democratizing commercial producing knowledge in an effort to develop more transparency between artists and producers. She has been a guest lecturer and educator at The New School, Fordham University, and New York University among others. She is currently an Adjunct Assistant Professor at Columbia University's School of the Arts.
In addition to working independently as a freelance producer, Rachel is a Producer at Plate Spinner Productions. She has previously worked with such companies as Audible Theater, The Sundance Institute Theatre Lab, Second Stage Theatre, RKO Stage, the New York Musical Festival (NYMF), Lincoln Center's American Songbook, and CREATE-Ireland in Dublin, Ireland.
Broadway and national tour: Co-producer on Heidi Schreck's Pulitzer Prize finalist and Tony Award-nominated play, What the Constitution Means to Me. Other producing credits include the Obie Award-winning production of The Woodsman (New World Stages/59E59), Saturday Night Seder (Story Course), The Peculiar Patriot (Audible Theater @ The Minetta Lane), Eh Dah? Questions for My Father (Next Door at NYTW), The Rug Dealer (Women's Project Pipeline Festival), The Sweetest Life (New Victory LabWorks), and Talk to me about Shame (FringeNYC, Overall Excellence Award).
With a passion for working at the intersection of theatre and social justice, Rachel has produced and participated in theatrical events supporting non-profit organizations including: Donor Direct Action, Covenant House International, TDF Open Doors, Safe Horizon, She Should Run, Everytown, the ACLU/NYCLU, March For Our Lives, and the CDC Foundation's Coronavirus Emergency Response Fund. She is a proud member of the Covenant House Sleep Out: Stage and Screen Executive Committee, an Artist Ambassador for the New York Civil Liberties Union (NYCLU), a member of Broadway Advocacy Coalition's Artist Impact Team, and sits on the Board for WP Theater and Advisory Board of Detroit Public Theatre. She is a trustee emeritus of The Awesome Foundation and has served on award and grant panels for the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) and the American Theatre Wing, the Princess Grace Foundation, and the Fred Ebb Award.
A former WP Theater Lab Time Warner Foundation Fellow, Rachel was the recipient of the 2018-2019 Geraldine Stutz T. Fellowship in Creative Producing, founded by Hal Prince in conjunction with Columbia University. She is a graduate of the Commercial Theater Institute and a University Honors Scholar alumna of New York University's Tisch School of the Arts.
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, an educational venture with the aim of democratizing commercial producing knowledge in an effort to develop more transparency between artists and producers. She has been a guest lecturer and educator at The New School, Fordham University, and New York University among others. She is currently an Adjunct Assistant Professor at Columbia University's School of the Arts.
In addition to working independently as a freelance producer, Rachel is a Producer at Plate Spinner Productions. She has previously worked with such companies as Audible Theater, The Sundance Institute Theatre Lab, Second Stage Theatre, RKO Stage, the New York Musical Festival (NYMF), Lincoln Center's American Songbook, and CREATE-Ireland in Dublin, Ireland.
Broadway and national tour: Co-producer on Heidi Schreck's Pulitzer Prize finalist and Tony Award-nominated play, What the Constitution Means to Me. Other producing credits include the Obie Award-winning production of The Woodsman (New World Stages/59E59), Saturday Night Seder (Story Course), The Peculiar Patriot (Audible Theater @ The Minetta Lane), Eh Dah? Questions for My Father (Next Door at NYTW), The Rug Dealer (Women's Project Pipeline Festival), The Sweetest Life (New Victory LabWorks), and Talk to me about Shame (FringeNYC, Overall Excellence Award).
With a passion for working at the intersection of theatre and social justice, Rachel has produced and participated in theatrical events supporting non-profit organizations including: Donor Direct Action, Covenant House International, TDF Open Doors, Safe Horizon, She Should Run, Everytown, the ACLU/NYCLU, March For Our Lives, and the CDC Foundation's Coronavirus Emergency Response Fund. She is a proud member of the Covenant House Sleep Out: Stage and Screen Executive Committee, an Artist Ambassador for the New York Civil Liberties Union (NYCLU), a member of Broadway Advocacy Coalition's Artist Impact Team, and sits on the Board for WP Theater and Advisory Board of Detroit Public Theatre. She is a trustee emeritus of The Awesome Foundation and has served on award and grant panels for the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) and the American Theatre Wing, the Princess Grace Foundation, and the Fred Ebb Award.
A former WP Theater Lab Time Warner Foundation Fellow, Rachel was the recipient of the 2018-2019 Geraldine Stutz T. Fellowship in Creative Producing, founded by Hal Prince in conjunction with Columbia University. She is a graduate of the Commercial Theater Institute and a University Honors Scholar alumna of New York University's Tisch School of the Arts.