Rachael Warren is a Rhode Island treasure. She has been a company member of Trinity Repertory Company since 2002 after dazzling Providence audiences with her debut performance as Eliza Doolittle in My Fair Lady. Since then she has embodied a wide variety of roles on the iconic stage and never disappoints.
Growing up as a Trinity RepTheater Goer, this assignment was a dream. When I excitedly called my mom to tell her, she immediately responded: “You get to interview Eliza?” Eighteen years have passed but to many Rhode Islanders, Rachael will always be Eliza.
I met Rachael in the upstairs lobby at the theater. Even sporting workout gear with her short hair slicked back in a headband, she radiates energy and warmth. We chatted for over an hour about her unique career and her favorite audience members, her sons, Felix and Theo.
A Twist of Fate Brought her to Rhode Island
Rachael grew up in a tiny farm town in Kansas. (Population: “750 people depending on the day, how many people go shopping at the Walmart in Marysville.”) She saw her first play as a child at Summer Stock in Kansas City and fell in love with the theater. After receiving her undergraduate degree in Musical Theater in Illinois she headed to Massachusetts and received her masters from Harvard. Rachael then moved to New York to perform in tours and regional theater.
Around this time Trinity Rep was staging a production of My Fair Lady. The musical was being planned around a current, exceptional cast member playing Eliza. Once the show was already in production they lost their lead. “It was lucky timing for me,” Rachael explained. “I had just gotten back in New York City. I had just gotten off the road from a tour. And it turned out the women directing the show was Amanda Dehnert, who I went to college with… We hadn’t been in contact in several years but we worked together a lot in school. And I walked into the audition room and we were finishing each other sentences, we’re kind of artistic soulmates and we just really knew what the other one was after with the women and with this story.”
Rachael got the job. My Fair Lady went on to be one of the biggest hits Trinity Rep ever produced, and she was asked to join the company. She’s been a Rhode Islander ever since.
Favorite Things About Rhode Island
One of the things Rachael loves most about being a Rhode Islander is the size. Having grown up in a tiny Kansas town and gone on to live in LA, Chicago, New York, and Boston – Providence is the happy medium. “This feels like the right size for me. This feels small enough that there’s a community I can be part of.” This also allows audience members to build relationships with Rachael and share their feelings on her work – sometimes when she’s just out running errands at the supermarket. When asked if that can be intrusive she replied, “I love that part of it. It feels like something I can contribute to in a meaningful way.”
Other things she loves about Rhode Island: the ocean is a still a novelty after all these years, the high level of art in the state as a whole and the caliber of the people. “I love the people in Rhode Island. I feel like there’s a real blue collar work ethic kind of ownership of our stuff – where we have a pride in it. We feel somehow we’re a part of each other’s successes and failures and embarrassments.”
Kids and the Theater
When the conversation turns to Rachael’s sons, Theo, 8, and Felix, 6, she lights up (a feat, considering she glows when discussing breastfeeding and pumping in a theater bathroom.) Like their parents, they are very interested in the arts. They love to write and draw and they’d like to make movies one day.
The boys love watching Rachael on stage. Some people may consider some of Trinity Rep’s content to be inappropriate for a 6-year-old and an 8-year-old. Rachael has to address this question a lot with audience members. “Parents ask me all the time ‘Oh is this show appropriate for kids?’ and I refuse to answer the question because what’s appropriate in my family may not be appropriate in your family. For me, if they see a boob – that’s okay. I’d rather them not see someone shot with a gun. But you might have a totally different feeling and that’s fair. So what I do, is I tell people what’s in it.”
Rachael is a huge advocate for theater education -Trinity Rep’s programs specifically and just theater programs in general. “Most of the kids you teach aren’t going to grow up to be professional actors. All of them with grow up to need good communication skills, how to collaborate, how to think outside the box, how to problem solve, how to have empathy – and these are all things that theater does.”
A Family Within a Family
The theater is Felix and Theo’s second home. The boys often come and explore what they call the “secret passageways” and stairwells of the hundred-year-old theater. And Rachael is grateful for them to be surrounded by her colleagues. “It’s a building of artists. And so people are big-hearted and whacky and accepting. There’s a comfort level as a parent, especially when our schedules can be so unstable and fluctuating. There’s such comfort in knowing that everyone here knows my family and understands it.” Even when life happens, school is called off and they can’t get a sitter, the kids can sit in the Green Room with a coloring book. “We’re family. And people get it.”
Dual Roles – Actor and Mom
It’s clear that her profession effects Rachael’s parenting style and vice versa. Growing up in the arts has made her the definition of a “fun mom”. She is wacky and weird and creative. They do lots of creative things as a family and are always telling stories and encouraged to use their imagination. On the flip side of that, Rachael acknowledges that she needs to check in and make sure the boys are getting enough structure.
Rachael also credits her career with her ability to understand where her children are coming from. “At its best, acting teaches empathy. My job is to put myself in other people’s shoes. So I think that makes me good at understanding what my kids are going through. When they’re mad, when they’re sad, when they’re angry. I can recognize it and understand and talk to them about how I understand how I got there.”
She is also quick to point out how her career has made parenting more challenging. “At its worst, actors worry too much about what other people think of them and as a mom, you can’t. Me worrying about how I appear to you does not serve my kid if your kid is bullying my kid on the playground.” She goes on to explain that learning to advocate for her children strongly and clearly is one of her biggest challenges as a parent. “I can’t just worry about being liked. That doesn’t help my kid.”
Becoming a mom has had a strong impact on her work. In general, performers are trained to feel lucky for any work they are given. They know for every job they get there are a thousand people who wanted that job. And rejection is a constant part of the gig. “You say, ‘Yes. Yes. Yes.’”, she explains. “Once I had my children the way I spent time away from children suddenly mattered so much more. If I’m going to be away from my children this better be worth it. That has made my work better.” She also describes her decrease in patience since becoming a mother as an asset to her career. She tends to speak her mind more and have stronger opinions. “Everything matters more now that my kids are in the world…. I care more deeply about this world not going to hell. That helps my work.”
