Writer
Rachel writes plays, libretti, adaptations from novels, stories and interviews as well as books on the craft of directing.
Towards Embodied Performance: Directing and the Art of Composition is available for sale now! It is a book that aims to bridge what is often considered “traditional” directing training and training into experimental, devised theatre-making. A guide for the generative director looking to make embodied performance with psychological and compositional truth. And a comprehensive history of Ripe Time’s work and Rachel’s journey as a director. Published by Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group. Here are just a few blurbs from awesome people about the book:
“An original and indispensable guide to the language of the stage for anyone interested in theatrical composition and collaboration. Through a wide range of modes, including memoir, textual analysis, theoretical and activity-based prompts, Towards Embodied Performance offers an immersive and kaleidoscopic approach to theatre making. Smart, wide-ranging, and full of practical advice, Dickstein’s book illuminates a path for all artists towards greater creative engagement and freedom.”
— Charles Mee, Playwright and Professor of Playwriting, Columbia University School of the Arts
“In this compelling new book, the prolific director Rachel Dickstein illuminates the process of transforming text, ideas, and fixed narratives into powerful and fluid stage moments that combine the various languages of the theatre into a unified whole. She provides an alternative to the pervasive hierarchical methods of director training, and she does so in a way that sparks the reader’s imagination.”
— Anne Bogart
“Towards Embodied Performance, by the award-winning director Rachel Dickstein, is an utterly original work. It is both generous and generative; by offering us a window into her creative methodologies, Dickstein also gives us a roadmap for creating our own. This text will prove invaluable for both practitioners (of all levels) and scholars (across artistic disciplines).”
— Dr. Patty Gallagher, Performer and Professor of Performance, Play, and Design, UC Santa Cruz
“Rachel Dickstein’s award-winning work has captivated me, and audiences worldwide, throughout her career. How wonderful, at last, to have a source of inspiration and understanding of her artistry like this one . . . one that captures her theory, practice, and imagination into usable frameworks for generations to come. Towards Embodied Performance: Directing and the Art of Composition is more than just a guide to the visual, sonic, physical and textual world of directors; it is a magnificent blueprint for transformative performance, and what the world requires ofits most visionary artists today.”
— Gabriel Stelian-Shanks, Artistic Director, The Drama League
Rachel also writes for opera and theatre. When adapting novels and stories, she aims to get at the irreducible core of the source text, while extending its story-telling into sonic, visual and phyiscal modalities. In adapting in the rehearsal room, she collaborates with actors, designers, playwrights, composers, lyricists and/or dramaturgs. These trusted co-creators devise with her to filter those source texts into dialogue, and spoken word as well as visual imagery, choreography and design-infused events. Whether writing solo or collaborating with a playwright, Rachel and her creative team and ensemble generate and co-author performative ideas — a kind of three-dimensional writing that tells stories not just in language, but in space, time, and image. Below is a selected list of her writing projects.
Adaptations by Rachel in collaboration with composers:
Salvaged Pages - upcoming
Libretto based on Alexandra Zapruder’s award- winning collection of Holocaust Diaries, Salvaged Pages. Composer Michael Zapruder. Director Omer Ben Seadia.
In[finite] Time - upcoming
Adapted from “Time Passes”/ To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf
Original Score by Rinde Eckert
The Exchange
Short film, screenplay by Rachel Dickstein adapted from Jhumpa Lahiri’s short story from In Other Words
Script Sample
The World is Round
Book by Rachel Dickstein from Gertrude Stein, Music and Lyrics by Heather Christian
Script Sample | Audio Sample
Fire Throws
Adapted from Sophocles’ Antigone with music by Charming Hostess/Jewlia Eisenberg
Script Sample | Audio Sample
Betrothed
Adapted from Jhumpa Lahiri, Anton Chekhov and S. Ansky
Original Score by Vijay Iyer
Script Sample
Innocents
Adapted with Emily Morse from Edith Wharton’s The House of Mirth.
Original Score by Katie Down
Adaptation Collaborations with Writers and Composers:
Compass
Based on interviews and original text by DeLanna Studi and the Compass/Ripe Time company. ASU Gammage World Premiere April 2023. Music by Kamala Sankaram.
Septimus and Clarissa
Written by Ellen McLaughlin in collaboration with Ripe Time. Music by Gina Leishman.
Script Sample
Haruki Murakami’s Sleep
Written by Naomi Iizuka in collaboration with Ripe Time. Music by (and performed live by) NewBorn Trio (Katie Down, Jeffrey Lependorf, Miguel Frasconi).
Script Sample
Note: Scripts may not be used for public performances without express permission of the authors. They are provided here only for offering context on each production. If you are interested in producing one of these scripts please reach out through the contact link on this site.
Background image featuring Kristen Sieh in The World is Round at BAM-Fisher. Photo by Todd France Photography.