Today we’d like to introduce you to Rachel Wansker.
Hi Rachel, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
I am an actor, puppeteer, and clown. For the past ten years, I have had the privilege to perform with fifteen professional theatre companies in four different countries. I also work in film and television. As a puppeteer, I have been really lucky to be contracted by Netflix and have even traveled as far as Amsterdam to film an entire Dutch television series puppeteering the lead character. Most of my work is based in activism, children’s theatre and healing after trauma. I started my career as an actor dabbling in clown work. I grew up here in Atlanta as a person and as a performer. However, It wasn’t until I started to travel the world that I really found my voice as an artist. I discovered that knowing what audience I want to serve is just as important as the art I create. So a lot of my work has the intention of spreading and defending joy for children who have faced major trauma.
I have worked with refugee girls at the Global Village Project teaching English to ease their transition into the American education system. I have the honor of working with refugee girls and girls from group homes to empower their voices through theatre, music, and dance at Synchronicity Theatre’s Playmaking for Girls Program. I traveled to Haiti, where I volunteered for The Bright Initiative and provided Theatre and Puppetry workshops and services for Haitian schools and students. This past summer, I spent three weeks traveling all over Ecuador performing with the amazing Ecuadorian clown company Humor Y Vida in collaboration with Clowns without borders. I also taught workshops focusing on puppetry, English learning and human rights.
As far as training, I went to Kennesaw State University, The Accademia Dell’Arte in Arezzo, Italy and Dell’ Arte International in Humboldt, California. I learned a lot about the craft. However, I think I found my true magic every time I performed honest work that made an impact and spread the most joy. I think how lucky I am to have so much fancy training though, and the thing I like best is when the little rascals stand on each other’s shoulders with a mustache and a trench coat and pretend to be businessmen. I love a pie in the face and a good rubber chicken. Some good ole fashioned non-sense. I also love to watch a puppet breathe and look at an audience. It is simply heartbreaking.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
My road as an artist as absolutely not been smooth, however I do believe I have had it easier than most. I am so lucky and privileged for the opportunities that I come across. I think my biggest struggles have always been with myself. Not unlike the audiences we care for, I have experienced trauma. My own fear and self-esteem are my biggest enemies. I still fight against myself every day to turn in that audition and to plunge forward even when I experience rejection. I have had my fair share of imposter syndrome as well. At the end of the day (acting, clowning, puppets) this is all I know how to do, and it’s all I want to do. It sounds so dramatic, but I think I would die if I didn’t get to do this. So I have to keep trying. I am so lucky to have a wonderful puppet community and theatre friends that will lift me up in the face of my biggest bully, me. I also have an outrageously supportive husband, who is so good at reminding me that I belong.
As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about what you do?
I wear a lot of hats. I am an actor, a clown, a puppeteer, and a teaching artist. But really, I only have one job. I am a warrior of joy. Joy truly is a magical property.
In the classroom, joy can give a refugee girl the confidence to read out loud in English. Puppets can help a child feel brave and speak their truth through a joyful fuzzy friend. The red nose of a clown is a joy megaphone, proclaiming its truth through the medium of laughter.
I am first and foremost a performer, however the work I am most proud of, are the projects that I created myself. These stories scared me and required the most from my soul.
I once created a puppet show about grief. It is called “Miriam Unearthed” and it was originally performed for The experimental puppetry theatre festival at The Center for Puppetry Arts. I wrote it after my grandmother, my soulmate really, passed away. It was about a girl who loses her family in a war and is left with nothing but the facade of her house. She plants her feet and swears to protect it. She stands there so long, she sinks into the earth until a circus comes into town and turns her into a sideshow. She eventually has to empower herself to break free.
I held on to that story for two years until I built the puppet show and I spent what felt like hundreds of hours painting, building and rehearsing. I had so much help from so many artists, but essentially, the show is my grief on stage at its most vulnerable. It went on to open for the National Puppetry Slam and I can’t wait to keep shaping it. It truly felt like me, and I think that’s why I feel so proud of it.
What matters most to you? Why?
Joy is a human right and my work is how I defend it. That’s what matters most and I just hope that I can keep on doing it!
Contact Info:
- Instagram: @WanskerMonster
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@rachelwansker9986/featured
Image Credits
Gaby Bueno of “Bueno Shots” Xavier Mandez Leon of “Documencia”
