Who is Marian Rich?
I am a multi-faceted artist, social therapeutic group coach, and performance activist.
I bring a unique set of skills to help diverse groups navigate life’s complexities.
In 1984, I co-founded the Castillo Theatre in New York City, where I performed many roles both onstage and off, including devised and scripted plays, improvisation, and occasional stand-up comedy. As a lifelong community organizer, I played a key role in building the nonprofit All Stars Project. I helped launch the All Stars Talent Show Network in New York City in the 1980s and began teaching improvisation to teenagers through the Youth Onstage program in 2004. Later, I taught improvisation to adults from underserved communities at UX, All Stars' free university-style school. Currently, I co-lead Creating Our Mental Health workshops in Harlem and other underserved communities.
In 2016, I traveled to Costa Rica with Patch Adams and the Gesundheit Institute for humanitarian clowning, where I experienced the power of play. In 2017, I co-led a workshop at San José University called Building Community Through Play and Performance with my colleague Luke Perone.
In recent years, I developed a collage-making practice that explores the therapeutic potential of transforming difficult emotions into art. I occasionally offer Collage Play sessions to introduce people to the benefits of spending time in a non-cognitive creative process. I am also a member of Creative Strength Training.
As a faculty member at the East Side Institute, my International Class sessions have influenced activists, educators, and scholars worldwide. I co-authored a chapter with Carrie Lobman, Ph.D., called Playing Around with Changing the World in The Applied Improvisation Mindset: Tools for Transforming Organizations and Communities (2021).
From the start of the Covid pandemic and in the years that followed, I led diverse groups in improvisational play across borders and cultures. Creating Community and Building Connection Through Play: An Improvisational Response to the Coronavirus Pandemic (co-authored with Lobman) appeared in the International Journal of Play (2022). My article on performance activism, A Year of Creating Heart in a Havenless World, was featured in POIESIS: A Journal of the Arts and Communication (2021). I am a founding member of the Global Play Brigade.
I have presented at conferences including The Association for the Study of Play, the Applied Improvisation Network, Global Improv Initiative, Performing the World, and Play, Perform, Learn, Grow.
Alongside my Womanity Play colleague and creative collaborator, Aurelie Harp, I co-lead a weekly in-person social therapeutic group in NYC and a monthly Creative Playground online. In 2021, we created a short film called Nippy Bottoms Is Not Going Back to Normal in response to the Covid pandemic.
Previously, I ran Career Play, an executive search and coaching consultancy, where I recruited for Fortune 500 companies, coached executives, and led applied improvisational workshops to strengthen teams and develop leadership.
I am a graduate of Sarah Lawrence College, where I studied theater with the late Wilford Leach.
Proud to work alongside
