Rachel Sussman
Rachel Sussman is a Tony Award-nominated theater producer who believes in hope, not optimism.
Rachel has been on my radar for a while and our interview was almost a year in the making. She got busy, then I got busy, and then the universe finally carved out a time for us to record last Saturday, after Covid-19 turned our world upside down.
She also happens to be in quarantine with her BFF, the Marvelous Mrs. Maisel herself, Rachel Brosnahan. She is a delight of a human who radiates positivity. She is exactly what the show (and I) needed this week.
The world is a bit scary right now, so how are you doing? How are you feeding your soul? Normally, we try to take life one moment at time. Right now it’s more like one breath at a time.
So, no matter what you are feeling during this uncertain time, know that it's OK. I'm here for you. I got you. And we will all get through this together.
If you are a freelance artist, here is a wonderful resource guide.
Now back to Rachel. She was born in Detroit and raised by a family of artists. Theatre has always been a tremendous part of her life, and lead her to study acting at NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts.
Shortly into her journey, she realized creative producing was the jam. In our chat, she outlines what a creative producer does in the theatre world.
A co-producer of the Tony-nominated play WHAT THE CONSTITUTION MEANS TO ME, she illuminates the process of taking a show from concept to Broadway. She breaks down the responsibilities of a lead producer vs a co-producer.
In light of Covid-19, this season of Broadway and many other art forms are being called The Lost Season. WHAT THE CONSTITUTION MEANS TO ME has paused its National tour and the run of her other show, ENDLINGS, at the New York Theatre, is currently canceled.
They are generously offering the play of ENGLINGS for free! DM @sammi.cannold on Insta for the PDF.
Here’s a description:
On the Korean island of Man-Jae, three elderly haenyeos—sea women—spend their dying days diving into the ocean to harvest seafood. Across the globe on the island of Manhattan, a Korean-Canadian playwright, twice an immigrant, spends her days wrestling with the expectation that she write “authentic” stories about her identity. This “fascinating, audacious and deftly satirical” new play by Celine Song, directed by Sammi Cannold, questions what we inherit and challenges who dictates the terms.
Oh, and check out the new Instagram account Theatre Without Theatre, a nightly theatrical broadcast aiming to fill the current artistic void at curtain time.
This week, we discuss democratizing the knowledge of producing in theater, the challenges Rachel faced to be taken seriously as a queer, young woman, and the abundance mentality.
She also reveals her pinch me moment of attending the Tony Awards’s last year as a nominee with Rachel Brosnahan as her plus one.
This tumultuous time reminds me that I love producing. I love other producers, and I love getting to share these conversations with you all. I know I say it every week, but thank you thank you thank you for doing this life thing with me…it keeps me sane through the madness.
Can’t wait to hear what you think of this week’s episode!
Beijos, Caca
"Your job is leadership. Trust your instincts and balance that with being a good collaborator, but you don’t have to wait for someone else to tell you that you get to be in charge. You are in charge of your own life and you’re in charge of the work that you do.”
-Rachel Sussman
Rachel Sussman is a Tony Award-nominated producer and a co-founder of The MITTEN Lab, an emerging theatre artist residency program in her native state of Michigan. She has worked with such companies as Audible Theater, The Sundance Institute Theatre Lab, Second Stage Theatre, RKO Stage, and Lincoln Center's American Songbook.
Producing credits include: Heidi Schreck's Pulitzer Prize finalist and Tony Award-nominated play, What the Constitution Means to Me (Broadway/National Tour), the Obie Award-winning production of The Woodsman (Off-Broadway), and Eh Dah? Questions for My Father (Next Door at NYTW). In development: The Suffragists by Shaina Taub, Devotion by Mark Sonnenblick.
A past Women's Project Lab Time Warner Foundation Fellow, Rachel was the recipient of the 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 NYU Tisch. www.rachel-sussman.com