含羞草研究所

Rachel Moss

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rmoss

Rachel Moss

Murray W. and Mildred K. Finard Chair in Jewish Studies; Visiting Assistant Professor of Theater

Department/Office Information

Theater
  • R 9:00am - 12:00pm (Charles Dana Arts Center)

Rachel Merrill Moss (she/her) is Visiting Assistant Professor of Theater at 含羞草研究所. A theater historian, dramaturg, critic, and performer, Rachel recently earned her doctorate in the Interdisciplinary PhD in Theatre and Drama at Northwestern University, with research supported by a 2018-2019 Fulbright fellowship in Poland. Her research centers on the performance of Jewish material, identities, and tropes within and outside of theatre and their complex entwinement within broader socio-political narratives in context. Her current book project examines the past century of performed Jewishness in Poland, looking to the ways in which shifting representations of Jewishness from the interwar to post-communist periods engage with changing modes of national identity formation and narratives, politics, and memory work.

In 2022, Rachel was awarded the New Scholars鈥 Prize by the International Federation for Theatre Research. She regularly convenes the Central East European and Eurasian-focused Working Session at the American Society for Theatre Research and has also presented her at work at the Association for Theatre in Higher Education, the Association for Jewish Studies, and the American and British Associations for Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies. Rachel鈥檚 writing has appeared in Theatre Journal, Journal of American Drama and Theatre, Theatre Survey, AJS Review, Culture.pl, and 厂锄铆苍丑谩锄. Rachel is co-editor with Debra Caplan of The Dybbuk Century: The Jewish Play that Possessed the World (University of Michigan Press, Fall 2023). As an educator, she has lectured in a range of locations including Chicago, New York City, Edinburgh, Ho Chi Minh City, and Warsaw, and most recently, in the Boston University School of Theatre.

As a practitioner, Rachel served as company and assistant general manager, and producing associate at the Barrow Street Theatre, a commercial off-Broadway theatre in NYC鈥檚 West Village, published nearly fifty New York theatre reviews between Theatre is Easy and NYTheatre.com, produced and reviewed work at multiple Edinburgh Fringe Festivals, and worked as a freelance dramaturg in NYC. From 2019-2020, she co-devised and performed in the Warsaw-based theatre company Strefa WolnaS艂owa鈥檚 Azyl Warszawa projects, focusing on the dynamics of Poles and migrant experiences in Poland. In December 2020, she co-created and facilitated Dybuk na stulecie, an online and Warsaw-based centenary celebration in honor of S. Anski鈥檚 The Dybbuk, in partnership with Poland鈥檚 Instytut Teatralny. Most recently, Rachel served as the dramaturg for the New York City premiere of Tadeusz S艂obodzianek's Our Class, directed by Igor Golyak (at BAM as part of the Under the Radar Festival, Jan-Feb 2024).

PhD, Interdisciplinary Theatre and Drama, Northwestern University
MA, Theatre History and Criticism, Brooklyn College CUNY
BA, Theater Arts, UC Santa Cruz

Jewish performance, commemorative practices and memory studies, museum studies, nationalism and identity, Polish and Slavic studies, cultural histories, gender and queer studies

  • , co-edited with Debra Caplan, University of Michigan Press (2023). 
  • Skrzypek as Synecdoche: Polish-Jewishness in Fiddler on the Roof,鈥 Theatre Journal, 75 (2023), pp. 143-166.
  •  鈥淧ageants and Patriots: Jewish Spectacles as Performances of Belonging,鈥 co-written with Gary Alan Fine, Journal of American Drama and Theatre, Volume 31, Number 1 (Fall 2018).

Book Reviews:

  • 鈥淕rzegorz Nizio艂ek. Polish Theatre of the Holocaust. Translated by Ursula Phillips. Bloomsbury series of Cultural Histories of Theatre and Performance. London: Methuen Drama, 2019; pp. xii + 308,鈥 Theatre Survey, Vol. 63 (2), pp. 250-252.
  • 鈥淎lyssa Quint. The Rise of the Modern Yiddish Theatre. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2019. Xi, 283 pp.鈥 AJS Review, Volume 44, Number 2 (November 2020)., pp. 49-51. 
  • New Scholars鈥 Prize, International Federation for Theatre Research, 2022.
  • POLIN Museum GEOP Interdisciplinary Research Workshop Award, 2022.
  • Luckens International Essay Prize in Jewish Thought and Culture, U. Kentucky, 2020.
  • Project Grant, U.S. Embassy and Consulate in Poland, 2020.
  • Fulbright Student Research Fellowship, Fulbright Poland, 2018-2019.
  • (co-adaptor and dramaturg). Arlekin Players at The Vilna Shul, Boston, May 30-June 30, 2024. 
  •  (dramaturg). Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM) & Under-the-Radar Festival: Brooklyn, New York, January 12-February 4, 2024; Fall 2024 @ Classic Stage Company (NYC).  
  • J臋zyki Troski (performer and co-devisor). Stefa WolnoS艂owa at Teatr Powszechny: Warsaw, Poland , 2020.
  • Zaczyna si臋 od pszcz贸艂/ It started with Bees (performer and co-devisor ). Stefa WolnoS艂owa at Teatr Powszechny: Warsaw, Poland, 2020.
  • W艂膮cz bojler (performer and co-devisor). Niech czeka na mnie chocia偶 ciep艂a woda. Stefa WolnoS艂owa at Teatr Powszechny: Warsaw, Poland, 2019.