Michael Kushner Photography
RACHEL SUSSMAN is a Tony Award-winning creative producer, educator, and entrepreneur. She believes deeply in elevating human stories that ask hard questions and don't have easy answers.
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 UPenn, The New School, Fordham University, University of Michigan, Juilliard, and the University of Southern California, among others. She serves as an Adjunct Professor at Columbia University's School of the Arts, New York University's Tisch School of the Arts, and BerkleeNYC.
In addition to working as an independent producer, Rachel is a Producer with the entertainment company 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 producing credits include: Alex Edelman's Just for Us, Parade (Tony, Drama Desk, OCC Award), What the Constitution Means to Me (Tony nomination and Pulitzer Prize finalist), and Prima Facie. Off-Broadway: Lead Producer on the Obie Award-winning production of The Woodsman. Additional productions include: Dylan Mulvaney's Day 365 Live! (with Plate Spinner Productions at The Rainbow Room), Lightning Rod Special's The Appointment (WP Space Program), 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), and Talk to me about Shame (FringeNYC, Overall Excellence Award). Coming to Broadway, Spring 2024: Suffs at the Music Box Theare.
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, The Trevor Project, and the CDC Foundation's Coronavirus Emergency Response Fund - she was one of the producers of Saturday Night Seder, a virtual Passover seder during the pandemic that raised over $3.5M for the CDC Foundation. 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 and the Phenomenal Theatre Fund. She is a trustee emeritus of The Awesome Foundation, the Chair of the Princess Grace Foundation's Theatre Panel, and has served on award and grant panels for the Fred Ebb Award, the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) and the American Theatre Wing.
A former WP Theater Lab Time Warner Foundation Fellow, Rachel was the recipient of the 2018-2019 Prince Fellowship in Creative Producing, founded by Hal Prince in conjunction with Columbia University and listed "10 to Watch on Broadway in 2023" by Variety. She is a graduate of the Commercial Theater Institute, a former Columbia University Research Scholar, 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 UPenn, The New School, Fordham University, University of Michigan, Juilliard, and the University of Southern California, among others. She serves as an Adjunct Professor at Columbia University's School of the Arts, New York University's Tisch School of the Arts, and BerkleeNYC.
In addition to working as an independent producer, Rachel is a Producer with the entertainment company 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 producing credits include: Alex Edelman's Just for Us, Parade (Tony, Drama Desk, OCC Award), What the Constitution Means to Me (Tony nomination and Pulitzer Prize finalist), and Prima Facie. Off-Broadway: Lead Producer on the Obie Award-winning production of The Woodsman. Additional productions include: Dylan Mulvaney's Day 365 Live! (with Plate Spinner Productions at The Rainbow Room), Lightning Rod Special's The Appointment (WP Space Program), 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), and Talk to me about Shame (FringeNYC, Overall Excellence Award). Coming to Broadway, Spring 2024: Suffs at the Music Box Theare.
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, The Trevor Project, and the CDC Foundation's Coronavirus Emergency Response Fund - she was one of the producers of Saturday Night Seder, a virtual Passover seder during the pandemic that raised over $3.5M for the CDC Foundation. 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 and the Phenomenal Theatre Fund. She is a trustee emeritus of The Awesome Foundation, the Chair of the Princess Grace Foundation's Theatre Panel, and has served on award and grant panels for the Fred Ebb Award, the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) and the American Theatre Wing.
A former WP Theater Lab Time Warner Foundation Fellow, Rachel was the recipient of the 2018-2019 Prince Fellowship in Creative Producing, founded by Hal Prince in conjunction with Columbia University and listed "10 to Watch on Broadway in 2023" by Variety. She is a graduate of the Commercial Theater Institute, a former Columbia University Research Scholar, and a University Honors Scholar alumna of New York University's Tisch School of the Arts.