Kanbar Institute of Film & Television
 | Rae C Wright |
Courses
Freshman Colloquium
Actors Craft
Acting and Direction
Directing the Actor
Education
American University, Washington, D.C.
Biography
In New York Rae C Wright has worked doing principal post-production work with directors Milos Foreman, Griffin Dunn, Paul Auster, James Lapine, Brian De Palma, Kenneth Lonergan, Tim Robbins, David Lynch and many others doing background vocals for their films.She had a featured role in the cockroach comedy "Joe’s Apartment" which found it’s way to the cutting room floor…Steve Busemi plays her jilted lover in the film "Borders", and she’s acted in numberless odd, obscure, and wonderful indies including "The Big Giver", "Saturday", "Nomadic Lives", (a German film by Mark Obenhaus), and "Shelter" by NYU alum Regina Conroy which received 11 film awards including two for Best Actress. She's performed in a dozen comedy shorts for VH1. She did a film version of "The Shawl" which featured a script by David Mamet and direction by NYU alum Gerald Saldo, and performed a leading role in "Gold", a docu-drama produced by NYU’s Lynne McVeigh. She also did a featured role in one of Czech director Jan Kadar's last films, an CBS made-for-TV adaptation of a Stephen Crane short story, "The Blue Hotel".
For the filmscript written and developed by two-time Academy Award Winner Barbara Koppel, Ms Wright helped develop and performed the lead role of Crystal Lee Jordan, the textile mill worker who became a union leader, in a presentation of that work done in conjunction w/The Theatre Guild.
In NYC she directed "BarNone" at TNC, a workshop production of Thulani Davis’s "Everybody’s Ruby" at The Public Theatre, and Lisa Lerner’s work on the stage at Cooper Union. She’s acted regionally in John Guare’s "House of Blue Leaves", played the StageManager in Greensboro’s Triad Stage production of "Our Town", Arkadina in Chekhov’s "The Seagull" at ShowWorld in NYC, and most recently the 67-yr old Argentinean Jewess in Sarah Ruhl’s "The Clean House" at Actors Theatre of Louisville. She also created the role of Miss Thorn in the musical hit "Ruthless!"
Her texts have been published in: Central Park Magazine, a quarterly edited by Eve Ensler -- "Autobiographical Performance & Carnivorous Knowledge: Rae C. Wright's Animal Instincts" in the Text and Performance Quarterly; and by Dr. Ginger Strand at the Performance & Text Conference held at Columbia University, "The One-Person Shows of Danny Hoch, Rae C Wright, Anna Devere Smith."
She is a two-time MacDowell Colony Fellow and a NYFA Fellow in Computer Arts, a two-time recipient of Joyce Mertz-Gilmore Foundation Commission Grants for new works developed at Dixon Place, “She’s Just Away” and “Animal Instincts, Tales of Flesh & Tales of Blood”- both of which toured extensively and received NY productions. "The Moon in Vain", a five-character full length performance/play inspired by Chekhov's "The Seagull" was produced at Dixon Place @ The Vineyard.
She shares a Jane Chambers Playwrighting Award for "The Breaks" written and performed together with Deb Margolin – a work which received three NYC productions, most recently at The Culture Project. She’s also received a Franklin Furnace – Future of the Present Grant, a NYSCA Performance Art Grant, and two commissions from The Culture and Animals Foundation.
Rae C Wright spent 12 years as the leading actress for the internationally acclaimed, New York Street Theatre Caravan under the artistic direction of Marketa Kimbrell. This multi-racial ensemble created and brought professional theatre to disenfranchised audiences performing nationally in inner cities, Appalachian coal mining communities, Indian reservations, prisons, migrant camps, and labor union halls - while they earned their living in the theatres of Europe, headlining festivals alongside Pina Bausch and Peter Brook. Their performance at the ’72 Olympics in Munich, Germany launched twelve years of invitations to major festivals in 17 countries, including France, Germany, Holland, Italy, Austria, Switzerland, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Canada, Mexico, Bulgaria, Hungary, East Germany, and Nicaragua - where they played at the State Theatre in Managua and then throughout the country -- three years after the revolution -- at the invitation of the Cultural Minister, Ernesto Cardinal, and photojournalist Susan Meiselas.
Ms Wright shares an OBIE for Sustained Excellence in the Theatre for her work in the Caravan’s "The Grapes of Wrath", and "Sacco & Vanzetti; The Passion of a Poor Fishpeddler & a Good Shoemaker", which received a NYFA Fellowship for Playwriting. She played a coalminer's widow, in "The Hard Time Blues" which won Best Play of the International Theatre Festival in Munich, Germany.
She was a principal teacher of classes and workshops on acting, performance, and developing material for actions while touring with the New York Street Theatre Caravan. She's worked in prisons in New York City, and taught various community and professional groups, including work with the Appleshop in West Virginia and in a coalmining community in Nancy, France. She's taught workshops in comedy in Vienna, Austria, and in a campisino village in Nicaragua. In addition to her 15 years in UGFTV at Tisch, she has taught Voice in Tisch’s ETW program, and Performative Arts at Fairfield University in CT.
Most recently, she can be seen in "Countertransference"; playing the sadistic shopkeeper in this 2009 Sundance Festival/ITunes chosen short film comedy directed by Madeline Olnek.
