about
Hi, I'm Rainah and thank you for being here today.
I was born in Alice Springs, Australia and grew up in a small town called Harrogate in North Yorkshire, England. After sixteen years in England (where I watched a LOT of West End Theatre) I moved to New York to attend the American Musical and Dramatic Academy, graduating from the Integrated Program in February 2017. Just over a year later, I decided to continue my schooling and moved to Virginia where I attended Piedmont Virginia Community College and then transferred to the University of Virginia. At UVA I began my studies as a Drama Major and American Sign Language and Deaf Studies Minor. My goal is to work with both Deaf and hearing artists. I have taken American Sign Language classes for almost five years as well as classes in Deaf History, Contemporary Deaf Studies, Deafness in Literature and Film, and Contemporary Disability Theory.
I fell in love with directing after taking a class with Dave Dalton at UVA. I went on to direct student written work, Watch Me by Caky Winsett and the musical Piece by Peace by Vaheed Talebian, both through the Virginia Players Lab Series. I have also taken several classes in screenwriting and playwriting with Doug Grissom. In 2021, I wrote and directed my first short film, So I Guess We're Doing This, through the UVA Overcranked film class with Doug Grissom and Paul Wagner.
I believe in a "Human First" mentality. We are all humans first, then artists, students, workers.
I do not believe in the
"Show Must Go On" mentality where we are forced to compromise our mental and/or physical health in favor of the work. I say this to every person that I work with - "Your mental and physical health are priority before anything else; let me know how I can support you."
Through UVA, I applied for the Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival (KCACTF) two years in a row. In 2021, I was named the national SDC Directing Fellow and in 2022 was a regional finalist for the Region IV Ten Minute Play Festival as a playwright for my short play, Bake for Life. Through KCACTF, I was able to become an associate member of the Society of Directors and Choreographers (SDC).
In the summer of 2021, I was accepted into and completed a two-week directing intensive through Yale called A Practical Approach to Directing where I was fortunate to learn from Evan Yanoulis, and Patric Madden.
To me, directing is a collaborative field. Theatre should be like a rainforest, an ecosystem that works together, rather than an orchard where no cross pollination is allowed - this was my primary takeaway from a workshop I had with director Will Davis last year. This principle informs my approach to theatre at a foundational level.
During the directing portion of KCACTF, we had a discussion about the "why now" question that directors are often faced with. When it was my turn to speak, I shared that I like to answer this with another question - "why not?" We can make anything relevant and there are universal themes found in many shows that are timeless. To me, "why not?" frees the director and team to put on something they are passionate about. Doesn't that make the best theatre?
