Rachel Ropella is a director from rural Wisconsin, now based out of Minneapolis. Primarily collaborating with emerging Queer and Gen Z playwrights, she is deeply committed to advancing new play development and reimagining the theatrical canon through a sharp, feminist lens. ​​​Be it through Beanie Babies or 14th century Italian texts, Rachel highlights the joyful and the terrifying absurdities of being human through mess and play.

 

Since 2019, Rachel has served as the Artistic Director and Co-Founder of Melancholics Anonymous, a Minneapolis-based theater company (as seen in MPR, Pioneer Press, and BroadwayWorld). She's spent the past five years directing/writing award-winning new plays in the Minnesota Fringe and Edinburgh Fringe Festivals, with subsequent remounts in London and Sibiu. In her plays, Rachel writes about the horrors of girlhood, climate crisis, and our current cultural obsessions. Read a sample of one here.

 

Regionally, she’s assisted at Hartford Stage, Portland Stage, Dorset Theatre Festival, and Milwaukee Rep. Rachel is an alumni of St. Olaf College, DirectorWorks, and the National Theatre Institute Advanced Directing program. ​

 

Proud Associate Member of SDC​

Currently: Directing Resident at Milwaukee Rep