Episode #18
Producing, Suffs, & The Business of Broadway
In this episode, Jennifer talks to Rachel Sussman about her various creative identities, specifically through the producing lens. Rachel shares her experience of what led her to choose this particular path within the arts, the history, and the creation of the new musical about women’s suffrage called “Suffs,” and why she co-founded The Business of Broadway. She talks about her guiding 3 P’s, clarifies what producing is and can be, and shares wonderful tools & resources specifically (but not exclusively!) for those interested in producing.
About Our Guest
Rachel Sussman (she/her) is a Tony Award-nominated producer, educator, and entrepreneur committed to cultivating collaborative theatrical work built on trust and transparency. A producer with Plate Spinner Productions, she is also a co-founder of The MITTEN Lab, an emerging theatre artist residency program in her native state of Michigan and The Business of Broadway, an educational initiative to democratize knowledge about the commercial theatre industry. Broadway and national tour: Co-producer on Heidi Schreck's Pulitzer Prize finalist and Tony Award-nominated play, What the Constitution Means to Me. Other producing credits include the Obie Award-winning production of The Woodsman (New World Stages/59E59), Saturday Night Seder (Story Course), The Peculiar Patriot (Audible Theater at The Minetta Lane), and Eh Dah? Questions for My Father (Next Door at NYTW). In development: Suffs by Shaina Taub, now premiering at The Public Theater. A past Women's Project Lab Time Warner Foundation Fellow, Rachel was the recipient of the 2018-2019 Prince Fellowship in Creative Producing. She is a graduate of the Commercial Theater Institute and a University Honors Scholar alumna of NYU Tisch. She is an Adjunct Professor at Columbia University’s School of the Arts and New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts.
