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Photo taken at the yearly combined Artist Advisory and Board of directors meeting.

Back row from left to right: Rachel F. Hirsch, Ezekiel Baskin, Talya Kingston, Richie Wills, Julie Thomson, Louise Heller

Front row from left to right: Bob Boulrice, Nikki Beck, Gabriel CiFuentes, and Olivia Clement Finch.

Not pictured: Hia Gosh, Rebecca Greenberg, Avi Klipfel, and Iohann Rashi Vega.

PIC is led by Co-Directors, Rachel F. Hirsch and Sarah Marcus 

Co-Director

Sarah Marcus

Co-Director

The PIC team also includes:

 

PIC Artistic Advisors- theater practitioners who have shown a commitment to PIC and together serve as a collective artistic director, helping to plan and shape PIC programming 

Our current advisors are:

Ezekiel Baskin, Nikki Beck, Gabriel CiFuentesOlivia Clement Finch, Avi Klipfel, Talya Kingston, and Richie Wills.

 

Past Advisors: Deveir Cockett, Patrick Gabridge

 

PIC Program Coordinators, theater artists who serve as stage managers/company managers/casting & communications liaisons for PIC PIPS and Development Workshops

 

Nikki Beck, Madison VanDeurzen


 

PIC Board of Directors- community members who are responsible for overseeing the governance and finances of PIC and serving as PIC advocates and ambassadors

Current Board of Directors include:

Bob Boulrice- President

Julie Thomson- Secretary

Rebecca Greenberg- Immediate Past President

Louise Heller- Member At-Large

Iohann Rashi Vega- Member At-Large

Hia Gosh- Member At-Large

Talya Kingston- Artistic Advisory Board Liaison

 

Past Board Members: Nicole M Young-Martin, Didi DeAlmeida

 

PIC Literary Team- theater artists who help review submissions for PIC PIPS and Development Workshops

Literary Coordinator: Madison VanDeurzen

Literary Committee: Ezekiel Baskin, Talya Kingston, Richie Wills

Some of our 90+ Submissions Reviewer volunteers: Nina Dabek, Avi Klipfel, Weaver, Adriana Piantedosi, Steve Eldredge, Emily Fuller, Wynn MacKenzie, Stephanie Carlson, Emma Kristjanson-Gural, Emily Bloch, Mary Beth Brooker, Jo-Ann Hart, Samuel Edwards, Judith Fine, Lousie Heller, Milo Bezark, Jackie Martin, Kristin Palpini, Richie Wills, Darcy Parker Bruce, Nikki Beck, Sarah Zureik-Brown, Melissa King, Stephanie Carlson, Marcus Neverson, Josh Perlstein, Melanie Slabaugh, Richie Wills, Jean Devereux Koester, Pamela Parker, Lila Oren-Dahan, Vanessa Adel

Our Team

Rachel F. Hirsch (she/her) is a multi-hyphenate performing artist, theater maker, and award-winning voice actor. She has toured nationally as a stage actor and musician, building artistic homes in New York City, New England, and her home town of Birmingham, Alabama.  Career highlights include headlining with composer/lyricist David Friedman, the Alabama Symphony Orchestra, and performing in productions with the Washington National Opera and the National Yiddish Theater Folksbiene. For almost twenty years, Rachel has devoted her career to developing new plays and musicals, driven by a passion for storytelling that inspires empathy and helps us better understand the world around us. Prior to her work as Co-Founder and Co-Director of Play Incubation Collective, Rachel spent many years collaborating with emerging writers through the BMI Musical Theatre Workshop, NYU’s Graduate Musical Theatre Writing Program, and industry workshops with NY Theatre Barn, Eggtooth Productions, and Holson Productions. As an actor, you may have seen her perform locally with WAM Theater, Silverthorne and Chester Theatres, Northampton’s 24-Hour Play Festival, Greenfield’s Double Take Fringe Festival, or PIC. In addition to her stage work, Rachel is a prolific voiceover artist with clients such as the National Museum of American Jewish History, AT&T, and the award-winning Have I Got a Story For You podcast. She is also an Earphones Award winning narrator and Audie Finalist of nearly 300 audiobooks. She is a member of AEA, Sag-Aftra, and PANA.

Sarah is a Northampton-based theater artist, educator, producer, and mother. She is the proud recipient of a 2021 Assets for Artists/ValleyCreates Working Capital Grant, and since then has been working as an artist organizer/facilitator for Assets for Artists. In addition to co-directing PIC she is the co-director and co-founder of the Youth Performance Festival, now in its 7th year, a free opportunity for youth artists to create original performance pieces under the guidance of mentor artists. As a theater educator for over 20 years, she has taught drama to children of all ages across the boroughs of New York City and, more recently, in workshops, classes and camps throughout Western Massachusetts. She is a graduate of Tufts University, where she was a member of the children’s theater troupe Traveling Treasure Trunk, and she received her M.F.A. in Acting from The Theatre School at DePaul University. Sarah has appeared as a performer locally through PIC, Northampton's 24-hour play festival and Greenfield's Double Take Fringe Festival. Outside of Western Mass, she has created and performed work at the Emerging Artists Theatre NYC, Cleveland Public Theatre, NY International Fringe Festival, and HERE Arts Center, among others.

CONTACT US

Play Incubation Collective

13 Old South Street - Unit 2A - Northampton, MA 01060

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© 2025 by Play Incubation Collective

This work is made possible with support from The Community Foundation of Western Massachusetts,the Northampton Arts Council, and individual community donors, and the Workroom Cooperative- a pilot program of A.P.E. We are so grateful for their support.

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