Rachel Lampert

Last updated

Rachel Lampert is an American playwright, [1] [2] director [3] and choreographer. She served as the artistic director at Kitchen Theatre Company in Ithaca, NY from August 1997 until June 2017 when she retired after a successful twenty-year tenure. [4] [5] [6]

Contents

Early life and education

Lampert was born in Brooklyn, New York. She attended Mount Holyoke College and received her BFA and her MFA from NYU Tisch School of the Arts.

Career

Lampert spent her early career as a dancer [7] and founded a dance company in 1975, Rachel Lampert & Dancers, [8] [9] that toured extensively throughout the US and in Europe for fifteen years.

By 1992 she was an experienced choreographer and theatre writer. [10] Lampert moved from Brooklyn, NY to Ithaca, NY in 1997. The same year she traveled to China to stage West Side Story.

Writing credits at Kitchen Theatre Company include: And, Lately... (2013), In the Company of Dancers (2012), Waiting for Spring book & lyrics with music by Larry Pressgrove (2011), Summers at Rock's Edge (2010), Bed No Breakfast book & lyrics with music by Larry Pressgrove (2007), Tony & the Soprano book & lyrics with music by Larry Pressgrove (2006), The Angle of the Sun book lyrics with music by Larry Pressgrove (2005), Precious Nonsense (2005) a musical with re-purposed music by Arthur Sullivan, The Book Club (2004), Waltz (2001), Lampert Variations (2000); adaptations of Frankenstein (2002) and The Trial (2004). Musicals for family audiences include: I Have a Song to Sing O!, a musical sing-a-long with new and re-purposed music and lyrics by Gilbert & Sullivan and original music by Lesley Greene, Emmett & Ella's Big Apple Escapade book & lyrics with music by Lesley Greene, Winter Tales book & lyrics with music by Lesley Greene, Physics Fair book & lyrics with music & lyrics by Lesley Greene, Fools! Schmools! book & lyrics with music by Lesley Greene and A December Suite, A Christmas Carol, and a musical version of The OdysseyPart I and Part II.

After her trip to China, Lampert wrote The Soup Comes Last, produced off-Broadway at 59E59 Theaters in Fall 2004. The Angle of the Sun (written by Lampert & Pressgrove) was selected by the New York Musical Theatre Festival to be presented in New York City in September 2007.

Lampert is a four-time recipient of NEA Choreography Fellowships and a CAP Individual Artist Grant. She received a SALT Award for Best Actress 2004 in The Soup Comes Last. Her play Precious Nonsense premiered at the Kitchen and had its second production at Circle Bar-B Dinner Theater in Santa Barbara, CA. Other directing and theatrical choreography credits include productions at Cal Rep, Arkansas Rep, Portland Stage Company, New York's Public Theatre, Mill Mountain Theatre and Hawaii Opera Theatre.

Lampert directed David Ives' Venus in Fur in 2014, [11] and 2015 her play Count Me In was performed at Kitchen Theatre Company. [2]

Related Research Articles

American Repertory Theater Professional not-for-profit theater in Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA

The American Repertory Theater (A.R.T.) is a professional not-for-profit theater in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1979 by Robert Brustein, the A.R.T. is known for its commitment to new American plays and music–theater explorations; to neglected works of the past; and to established classical texts reinterpreted in refreshing new ways. Over the past thirty years it has garnered many of the nation's most distinguished awards, including a Pulitzer Prize (1982), a Tony Award (1986), and a Jujamcyn Award (1985). In 2002, the A.R.T. was the recipient of the National Theatre Conference's Outstanding Achievement Award, and it was named one of the top three theaters in the country by Time magazine in 2003. The A.R.T. is housed in the Loeb Drama Center at Harvard University, a building it shares with the Harvard-Radcliffe Dramatic Club. The A.R.T. operates the Institute for Advanced Theater Training.

Michael Kidd American choreographer

Michael Kidd was an American film and stage choreographer, dancer and actor, whose career spanned five decades, and staged some of the leading Broadway and film musicals of the 1940s and 1950s. Kidd, strongly influenced by Charlie Chaplin and Léonide Massine, was an innovator in what came to be known as the "integrated musical", in which dance movements are integral to the plot.

Jerome Robbins American choreographer, director and dancer

Jerome Robbins was an American dancer, choreographer, film director, theatre director and theater producer who worked in classical ballet, on stage, film, and television.

Anna Sokolow American dance artist

Anna Sokolow was an American dancer and choreographer known for the social justice focus and theatricality of her work, and for her support of the development of Modern Dance in Mexico and in Israel. At the beginning of her career, Anna Sokolow was a principal dancer in the Martha Graham Company (1930-1938) and she soon became an independent choreographer who went on to form multiple dance companies throughout her life beginning with “Dance Unit” in the 1930s and later The Player's Project which launched in 1971 and re-launched in the 1980s. Sokolow choreographed for and set her work on companies around the world, including major companies such as Batsheva Dance Company, Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, The Jose Limón Dance Company, Joffery Ballet and the Daniel Lewis Dance Company. Her work continues to be performed by the Sokolow Theatre/Dance Ensemble in New York City. Her work is preserved and set by the Sokolow Theatre/Dance Ensemble and the Sokolow Dance Foundation in Massachusetts. 

Michael Bennett (theater) American choreographer

Michael Bennett was an American musical theatre director, writer, choreographer, and dancer. He won seven Tony Awards for his choreography and direction of Broadway shows and was nominated for an additional eleven.

Susan Stroman

Susan P. Stroman is an American theatre director, choreographer, film director and performer. Her notable theater productions include The Producers, Crazy for You, Contact, and The Scottsboro Boys. She is a five-time Tony Award winner, four for Best Choreography and one as Best Director of a Musical for The Producers. In addition, she is a recipient of two Laurence Olivier Awards, five Drama Desk Awards, eight Outer Critics Circle Awards, two Lucille Lortel Awards, and the George Abbott Award for Lifetime Achievement in the American Theater. She is a 2014 inductee in the American Theater Hall of Fame in New York City.

Michael John LaChiusa American musical theatre and opera composer

Michael John LaChiusa is an American musical theatre and opera composer, lyricist, and librettist. He is best known for musically esoteric shows such as Hello Again, Marie Christine, The Wild Party, and See What I Wanna See. He was nominated for four Tony Awards in 2000 for his score and book for both Marie Christine and The Wild Party and received another nomination in 1996 for his work on the libretto for Chronicle of a Death Foretold.

Lee Chamberlin was an American theatrical, film and television actress.

Martha Clarke is an American theater director and choreographer noted for her multidisciplinary approach to theatre, dance, and opera productions. Her best-known original work is The Garden of Earthly Delights, an exploration in theatre, dance, music and flying of the famous painting of the same name by Hieronymus Bosch. In 1990, Clarke received a MacArthur Award, better known as the Genius Grant.

Thomas Joseph "Thommie" Walsh III was an American dancer, choreographer, director, and author.

Graciela Daniele is an Argentine-American dancer, choreographer, and theatre director.

Warren Carlyle is a British director and choreographer who was born in Norwich, Norfolk, England. He received Drama Desk Award nominations for Outstanding Choreography and Outstanding Director of a Musical for the 2009 revival of Finian's Rainbow.

Andy Blankenbuehler is an American dancer, choreographer and director primarily for stage and concerts. He has been nominated for the Tony Award for Best Choreography five times, and has won three times: for In the Heights (2008), Hamilton (2016), and Bandstand (2017). Blankenbuehler's other Broadway choreography work includes 9 to 5, Bring it On: The Musical, and the 2016 Cats revival. Blankenbuehler was awarded the Kennedy Center Honor in 2018 for his work on Hamilton. He also choreographed the movie adaptation of Cats.

Camille A. Brown American dancer

Camille A. Brown is a dancer, choreographer, director and dance educator. She is the Founder & Artistic Director of Camille A. Brown & Dancers, and has congruently choreographed commissioned pieces for dance companies, Broadway shows, and universities. Brown started her career as a dancer in Ronald K. Brown’s Evidence, A Dance Company, and was a guest artist with Rennie Harris Puremovement, and Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater. Brown has choreographed major Broadway shows such as Choir Boy, Once on This Island and Jesus Christ Superstar Live in Concert! that aired on NBC. Brown also teaches dance and gives lectures to audiences at various universities such as Long Island University, Barnard College and ACDFA, among others.

Kitchen Theatre Company (KTC) is a non-profit professional theater company in Ithaca, New York that focuses on making “bold, intimate, and engaging" theater. The Kitchen was founded in 1991 and is now in its 27th season. KTC is a member of the Theatre Communications Group and operates under a Small Professional Theater contract with the Actors’ Equity Association.

Lindsay Shearer-Nelko is a Canadian-born choreographer of such television shows as FOX's 'So You Think You Can Dance' and 'The X Factor'.

Lorin Latarro is a Broadway choreographer whose work has been seen on Broadway and in dance companies internationally. She began her career as a dancer who performed in fourteen Broadway shows and toured with world renowned dance companies.

Sarah Michelson is a British choreographer and dancer who lives and works in New York City, New York. Her work is characterized by demanding physicality and repetition, rigorous formal structures, and inventive lighting and sound design. She was one of two choreographers whose work was included in the 2012 Whitney Biennial, the first time dance was presented as part of the bi-annual exhibition. Her work has also been staged at The Walker Art Center, Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival, The Kitchen, and the White Oak Dance Project. She received New York Dance and Performance awards for Group Experience (2002), Shadowmann Parts One and Two (2003), and Dogs (2008). She has served as associate director of The Center for Movement Research and associate curator of dance at The Kitchen. Currently choreographer in residence at Bard's Fisher Center, she is the recipient of their four-year fellowship to develop a commissioned work with Bard students and professional dancers.

Jeremiah Valentino Porter mostly known on Instagram for dance videos and his performance at the Barclays Center with Barbra Streisand in 2012. Porter was recently cast in the world premiere of 'Birds of East Africa' directed by Rachel Lampert, but is now attending Texas State University's Musical theatre program being led by actress Kaitlin Hopkins.

Harriet "Quicksand" Browne was an American tap dancer, educator and choreographer who was best known for her innovation in sanding. Browne got a job dancing in the chorus but shortly afterwards got pregnant and had a son, which put a temporary stop to her dancing career. After the birth of her son, she resumed dancing as a soloist and as a member of the chorus in clubs around Chicago. During the 1950s, she toured with Cab Calloway's band. After she got a job in the chorus at a club in Greenwich Village, although she continued to tour, she settled in New York City.

References

  1. "Physics takes center stage in theater collaboration". by Linda B. Glaser, Cornell News.
  2. 1 2 "When the Past Comes Calling". Ithaca Journal.
  3. New York Theatre Review. New York Theatre Review. 1977.
  4. Turning 21: A conversation with Rachel Lampert, artistic director of The Kitchen Theatre - Ithaca Times : Arts And Entertainment
  5. 14850 Magazine - Opening Night: "From White Plains" at the Kitchen Theatre - 14850 - Ithaca News
  6. "Kitchen Theatre dives into mysterious 'Body of Water'". Ithaca Journal, Jim Catalano, February 18, 2015
  7. The Crisis Publishing Company, Inc. (March 1986). "The Crisis". The New Crisis. The Crisis Publishing Company, Inc.: 168–. ISSN   0011-1422.
  8. Anderson. "The Dance: Rachel Lampert". New York Times, 2 February 1988
  9. Gerri Reaves (2012). Legendary Locals of Fort Myers. Arcadia Publishing. pp. 62–. ISBN   978-1-4671-0018-2.
  10. Dance in Review – New York Times
  11. "Top 2014 highlights in local theater". by James MacKillop, Syracuse News Times, December 31, 2014