Short bio
Michele Rabkin is an actor, solo performer and writer with a background in both traditional theater and experimental performance art. Berkeley-born and raised, she attended the theater training program at Carnegie-Mellon and apprenticed with the Berkeley Shakespeare Festival (later called Cal Shakes) before receiving a BA in Interdisciplinary Creative Arts from San Francisco State and an MFA in Visual Arts with a performance emphasis from UC San Diego. She lives in Oakland with her spouse, young adult daughter, and aging pit pull.
Long bio (the real story)
Growing up in Berkeley, I was not a quiet, shy, bookish child—I was a loud, shy, bookish child. After seven years of hushed ballet classes, I was so grateful to discover theater, where my over-active imagination and hyper-verbal too-muchness could be put to good use. Theater gave me a community, and an audience. I threw myself into every aspect of high school drama. I set my sights on the most selective college theater programs, and got accepted at Carnegie-Mellon. Three semesters later I was sent home, deemed not worthy of a career on Broadway. It was many years before I could recognize the cruelty and limitations of that approach to educating young artists.
Back in the Bay Area, I licked my wounds, landed an apprenticeship with the Berkeley Shakespeare Festival, then made my professional debut at the Julian Theater in San Francisco. I resumed my theater studies at San Francisco State, where I discovered the Center for Experimental & Interdisciplinary Art—a new source of community. While studying theater, dance, and art history, I started making movement-based performances both in theater spaces and in galleries. I graduated with a double major in theater and interdisciplinary creative arts.
I spent two years in Chicago (pursuing an ill-fated relationship), where I continued performing in galleries, dance centers, and alternative theater spaces, and began a freelance writing and editing practice that continues to this day. I applied to graduate schools in the nascent field of performance studies, and ended up getting an MFA in Visual Arts from UC San Diego. My master’s thesis was a one-woman show about the singer Connie Francis, and myself, and the desire to perform.
After grad school, life led me away from performing. I tried my hand at producing an independent feature film; I took up fiction-writing; I found my life partner and became a parent. The administrative job I took to pay the bills led to a 32-year career at UC Berkeley. I was able to draw on my checkered background in the arts during the 14 years I served as Associate Director of the Consortium for the Arts and Arts Research Center. While at Cal, I got trained as a DEI workshop facilitator and became involved in anti-racist organizing.
Now I’ve found my way back to the stage. Returning to performance after a decades-long hiatus has been a journey of discovery and delight. I am reconnecting with the sense of community, the creative process, and the relationship with an audience that always brought me joy—and feel like I now bring to the work a deeper respect for the craft and a more mature understanding of the human experience.
I can’t wait to find out what happens next.