RACHEL GREENE

Rachel Greene (she/her) is a fat liberationist playwright, performer, and multi-hyphenate theatre artist with a hunger for explosive, brave, and unapologetic works of theatre. Born and raised in suburban Ohio, she is now based between Boston and NYC.

As a playwright, Rachel lovingly crafts multi-dimensional fat woman characters and put them center stage. And not plucky, saccharine Tracy Turnblad-types; she's talking flawed, endearing, sexual, messy, vengeful, powerful fat bodies. Her work most often wrestles with the thorny intersections of consent, agency, power dynamics pushed to their furthest extremes, fatphobia and fat liberation, academia, and gender an sexual politics. Rachel’s plays have been developed and seen recently with The Lanford Wilson New American Play Festival, Fresh Ink Theater Company, The Tank, Artists’ Theater of Boston, First Kiss Theatre Company (where she is currently in a second-year Artist Residency), and Brandeis University Department of Theater Arts.

As a performer, Rachel is drawn to new plays, Shakespeare (with a fresh twist, please), and adaptations of classical works. Her artistic style is rooted in classical training and ignited by contemporary conversations and influences, specifically the work of female pop and punk music artists. She has performed recently across Boston, NYC, and beyond, at Boston Theater Company, SheNYC Arts Festival, Third Citizen Theatre Co., The Boston Theater Marathon, Commonwealth Shakespeare Company, Rubber City Theater, and more.

Rachel also works throughout Boston as an educator and arts administrator. Her focus is in social media marketing (though she's truly done a little bit of everything), and she currently on staff at the American Repertory Theater and Berklee College of Music.

She has some ambitious long-term goals – Rachel plans to continue creating art that promotes the narratives of fat folks, women, and people of other marginalized bodies and identities. Beyond this, she is a fierce and vocal advocate for actor safety and agency, and aspire to one day earn her certification for intimacy direction. A long-term goal is to develop an intimacy direction practice that focuses on and educates about the intersections of consent/agency with fat and otherwise marginalized bodies.

Rachel holds a BA in Theater Arts from Brandeis University, where she graduated Magna Cum Laude with Highest Honors awarded for her senior acting thesis, Margaret My Name.

WHAT'S COMING NEXT?

XOXOLOLA with LakeHouseRanchDotPng (Playwright)

XOXOLOLA will have its premiere production at Artistic Vibes in Miami, Florida later this summer. Get your tickets today!

2023 Artist Residency with First Kiss Theatre Company (Resident Artist, Playwright)

Rachel is returning this summer for a second residency with FKT, where she will develop her new play, GUTS. The residency will culminate in a reading at The Tank in the early Fall. More on FKT here.

RECENT PROJECTS / UPDATES

Power Play at the Lanford Wilson New American Play Festival (Playwright)

Rachel traveled to Missouri to share a staged reading of Power Play: A Full Length Play about Consent, Bodies, and Fat Liberation.

JOHN DESERVES TO DIE with Fresh Ink Theater Company (Playwright)

JOHN DESERVES TO DIE had its premiere production at the Boston Center for the Arts with Fresh Ink Theatre. The production was directed by Regine Vital with dramaturgy by Hannah Levinson.

2022 Artist Residency with First Kiss Theatre Company (Resident Artist, Playwright)

Rachel recently completed a year in residence with FKT, where she has developed her plays JOHN DESERVES TO DIE, XOXOLOLA, and several others. The residency culminated in a reading of JOHN DESERVES TO DIE at The Tank. More on FKT here.

MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM with BOSTON THEATER COMPANY (Actor)

Rachel spent Spring 2022 touring the greater Boston area as a member of BTC's 2022 educational Shakespeare tour.

POWER PLAY WITH ARTISTS' THEATER OF BOSTON (Playwright):

POWER PLAY received a workshop with Artists' Theater of Boston, culminating in a premier public staged reading at the Boston Center for the Arts (BCA) in March 2022.

The Merchant of Venice YOUTH PROJECT with ACTOR'S SHAKESPEARE PROJECT (Assistant Director)

Rachel developed a performance project based on Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice with a group of phenomenal young artists and director Anneke Reich! Performances Friday 11/19 and Saturday 11/20, 7:30 pm at Charlestown Working Theater. Read more here.

girl power sex positive joy ride with SheNYC Arts Fesitval (Actor)

Rachel made her NYC debut as Karla in the original cast of Zoe Kamil's new play, girl power sex positive joy ride, directed by Sarah Shin at the Connelly Theater! Best friends Mary and Karla are teachers at the same middle class suburban high school they attended together. When straight-laced, insecure Karla sends a tasteful nude that ends up in the wrong hands, old dynamics are called into question and a pair of teens have some very grown-up decisions to make. Read more here.

Amphitrite and Poseidon with Third Citizen Theater Company (Actor, Costume Designer, Props Designer)

Rachel appeared in the title role of Amphitrite in John Minigan's new play Amphitrite and Poseidon: A Memory of Water as part of Third Citizen's Digital Dionysia festival. The performance featured devised dance/movement created in collaboration with director Rose Freudberg.

MARGARET MY NAME WITH Brandeis University Department of Theater Arts (Actor, Playwright):

Rachel spent three years developing MARGARET MY NAME as a senior acting thesis at Brandeis University. Margaret My Name is an adaptation of Shakespeare's Henry VI parts 1, 2, 3, and Richard III refocused on the oft-neglected Queen Margaret of Anjou. Rachel's adaptation strives to tell the gentle, proud, and ruthless Queen Margaret’s story in its entirety, and to explore the capacity of modern artists to reclaim classical narratives for the women who drive them forward. While the original production was cut short several weeks before opening as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, she has been hard at work revamping the piece! In the meantime, feel free to check out some of the work previously generated for and by this project here.