Rachel Rosenthal (1926–2015)

Rachel Rosenthal was born in Paris to a prosperous and cultured Russian Jewish family.

She developed a love of performing at an early age, and often entertained the guests at family events. At age six, she began taking ballet lessons under the guidance of Olga Preobrajenska. During World War II, the family fled the Nazis via Portugal and Brazil to New York City. There Rachel graduated from the High School of Music and Art and became a naturalized USA citizen. She continued to study art, theater, and dance in Paris and NYC with such teachers as Merce Cunningham and Jean-Louis Barrault.
Her circle of friends included John Cage, Sari Dienes, Robert Rauschenberg, and Jasper Johns. In 1955, Rachel moved to California, where she created the experimental Instant Theatre, performing in and directing it for 10 years. She was a leading figure in the L.A. Women's Art Movement in the 1970s, and a pioneer of performance arts. After 1975, she focused primarily on creating new works for the theater, writing, touring and performing with her own company, and teaching. She was the author of four published works, Tatti Wattles: A Love Story (1996); the monograph Rachel Rosenthal (Johns Hopkins University Press);
Rachel's Brain and Other Storms, an anthology of 13 of her performance texts; and the improvisational work The DbD Experience (Chance Knows What It's Doing), edited by Kate Noonan (2009).