About the Instructor

Director and Dramaturge Che’Rae Adams has been the Development Executive for Playhouse Pictures Studios, Co-Artistic Director of the Road Theatre Company and Managing Producer for The Los Angeles Women’s Theatre Festival. She has also worked in development for Showtime Networks, Alliance/Atlantis Film & TV, and Two Girls Productions. She has worked on several award winning plays, including The Cider House Rules, at The Seattle Repertory Theatre; Angels in America, Part II: Perestroika at the Mark Taper Forum (which recently had its TV premiere on HBO); and the 20th anniversary production of Tracers at the Odyssey Theatre. Che'Rae has directed the West Coast premiere productions of several new plays, including Chesapeake, by Lee Blessing for Venice Theatre Works; Freak of Nature by Ken Hanes at The Road Theatre Company; Back Bar by Steve Simon and José Gregorio, both at the Lee Strasberg Theatre; Fixing Frank by Ken Hanes at the Celebration Theatre (recently premiered as a feature film); Pandora's Trunk at LATC and the National Black Theatre Festival, starring Kim Fields and Tonya Pikins; co-authored and directed Fish Stories, which premiered at the HBO Workspace and went on to the Duplex Cabaret in New York; From Bonkers to Botox, at the HBO Comedy Festival and the Stella Adler Theatre (recently sold to Universal TV); Carlos Alazraqui’s Nothing to See Here at the Comedy Central Space (based on his character from Reno 911) and Alexandra McHale's Flying Stand By at the John Anson Ford Theatre. She is currently developing a project with John DiFusco (Tracers) and John Densmore (The Doors). She has also directed for Cincinnati Opera Outreach, Disney/ASCAP Musical Theatre Workshop, Highways Performance Space, and the Los Angeles Theatre Festival. She has been on the faculty at UCLA Extension, and has taught acting and writing workshops at various institutions, such as Catholic University; The Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University; The University of Cincinnati, College Conservatory of Music; California State University, Fullerton; The Los Angeles Women's Theatre Festival; The California African American Museum; The Susan McIntyre Playwrights Festival; The Lankershim Arts Center; and The Learning Annex. She has an MFA in directing from The University of Cincinnati, College Conservatory of Music.