This month on Overheard at Chica’s Café, we welcome Che'Rae Adams. Che’Rae is the Artistic Director of PlayPen in Philadelphia and the founding director of LA Writer’s Center. We discuss the current state of theater after the pandemic and what’s to come for this creative community. Che’Rae gives us an insight into her journey as a full-time artist; from an actor, to director, dramaturge, and now Artistic Director. Listen in to hear her words of wisdom about the future of theater.
Che’Rae has been the Producing Artistic Director of the LA Writers Center since 2006 where she develops new work with local writers. She was the Director of Operations and Programming for the Moss Theater in Santa Monica for seven years and has been the Development Executive for Playhouse Pictures Studios, Co-Artistic Director of the Road Theatre Company, and Managing Producer for the LA Women’s Theatre Festival.
She began her career as the Assistant to the Staff Producer at The Mark Taper Forum where she worked on the writing workshop of the Pulitzer Prize winning Angels in America, Part II: Perestroika. As you can imagine, this was like a master class in new play development for her. Bitten by the new play bug, she went on to do other projects for the Taper that supported playwrights such as coordinating the Taper Lab Series and Mentor Playwright’s Series. There she worked with writers such as Luis Alfaro, Anthony Clarvoe, Han Ong, Oliver Mayer, Ellen McLaughlin, Alice Tuan and Mac Wellman.
She has a master’s degree from the University of Cincinnati, College Conservatory of Music (CCM) and a Bachelor of Arts Degree from California State University, Northridge. For almost two decades, she has produced the Directors Lab West which takes place at the Pasadena Playhouse annually.
Che’Rae has developed and directed the West Coast premiere productions of several new plays including plays by Lee Blessing, Ken Hanes, Tim Toyoma, Patricia Cardosa, John DiFusco, Jon Bastian, and Abi Morgan. She has also provided direction and/or dramaturgy for productions with Cincinnati Opera Outreach, Disney/ASCAP Musical Theatre Workshop, Highways Performance Space, and Troupe Vertigo at the John Anson Ford Amphitheatre. She has worked with prominent performers such as Tonya Pinkins, Lynn Redgrave, Kim Fields, and Carlos Alazraqui; as well as award winning directors and choreographers such as Vincent Paterson, Tom Hulce, Jane Jones, Bonnie Story, Kitty McNamee, and Tina Kronis; and distinguished designers such as Sara Clement, Cricket S. Myers, and Ming Cho Lee.
As a producer for Directors Lab West she has curated close to two decades of programming (workshops, panels, and master classes) at the Pasadena Playhouse. This annual event hosts fifty international midcareer directors free of charge. Highlights include Vincent Paterson, Moises Kaufman, Jason Alexander, Martin Benson, Marc Masterson, Todd London, Sheldon Epps, George Furth, Anne Cattaneo, Des McAnuff, Jessica Kubzansky, Chay Yew, Jack O’Brien and Bill Rausch.
Che’Rae is an advocate for diversity, equity, and inclusion. She spent the last two years of the pandemic producing diverse online programming with HowlRound TV in response to the social inequity taking place in our society. Recently, she curated Breathe: A BIPOC Reading Series in response to George Floyd’s murder; Home: Asian Voices Reading Series to amplify Asian-American stories; and The Voices of Afghanistan project where monologues were constructed from interviews with Afghan artists in hiding.
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