Rachel Stamler-Jonas

About Rachel

(updated 2/2019) Rachel “SJ” Stamler-Jonas grew up in Metro Detroit where exposure to community-based art projects inspired her to use art as a mechanism for collective action. As a director, writer, and facilitator, SJ uses theatrical forms of devising, creative drama, and civic practice, along with puppetry, writing and music, to meet community needs. She received a B.A. in Theatre from Northwestern University in June 2018. As one of eleven “Alumnae of Northwestern University Undergraduate Research Scholars,” Rachel researched and wrote a nonbinary H. C. Andersen adaptation, The Little Merperson. She directed the play with an entirely transgender cast as her Honors Thesis. The School of Communication awarded her the Performing Arts Grant for co-authoring and directing Ignition: a New Blues-Rock Musical. SJ served on the LGBTQ Student Advisory Board and as Marketing Director for Lipstick Theatre, Northwestern’s feminist theatre board. As a three-time selected Peer Adviser, she provided yearlong mentorship and dialogue facilitation for dozens of new students each year. Rachel writes poetry and songs, including “SJ Maude,” an original album available on iTunes and Spotify. She enjoys sculpting, photography, painting, acting, and performing drag. In Thailand as a 2018-2019 Luce Scholar, she works with B-Floor Theatre in Bangkok and Makhampom Art Space in Chiang Dao. At Makhampom, SJ acts as a facilitator and workshop leader, using applied arts for community development in Chiang Dao and Pang Daeng Village. In addition to associated festival work (BTF, BIPAM, Exodus: Butoh), she stage-manages and designs/manipulates puppets with B-Floor. SJ is currently co-directing and puppeteering workshops for a potential independent production about modern interaction with the legend of Doi Nang Non.